Wayne’s Video World

John Wayne’s “Hondo” has a special 3-D airing this week on KTLA (see related story).

If seeing the 1953 cowboys-and-Indians picture whets your appetite for more of Wayne in the Wild West, check out these classics, all available on home video:

That tall, young man with the wildly curly hair in 1930’s The Big Trail (Key Video) is none other than the Duke in his first starring role. Though unsteady as an actor, the then-23-year-old Wayne makes up for his acting limitations with loads of natural charm. His star quality manages to shine through this rather creaky Western epic, directed by Raoul Walsh, about a wagon-train journey.

After “The Big Trail,” Wayne spent most of the ‘30s in low-budget Westerns and serials. Many of these “B” films are available on tape, including 1933’s Sagebrush Trail (Republic Pictures Home Video). Wayne plays a young cowboy, falsely accused of murder, who escapes from prison to find the real culprit.

Wayne became an “overnight” star thanks to director John Ford’s landmark 1939 Western Stagecoach (Warner Home Video). Wayne gives one of his best performances as Ringo Kid, the outlaw with a heart. Shot in Utah’s Monument Valley (Ford shot nine films there), “Stagecoach” has action to spare and a terrific cast which, besides Wayne, includes Thomas Mitchell (who received an Oscar), Claire Trevor, Andy Devine, Donald Meek and John Carradine.

The Duke and newcomer Montgomery Clift star in one of the mightiest Westerns ever filmed, 1948’s Red River (MGM/UA Home). Directed by Howard Hawks (his first Western), “Red River” finds Clift rebelling against his overbearing guardian (Wayne) during a thousand-mile cattle drive. Recently restored to its original length.

In 1948, Wayne and Ford teamed up for a trilogy of excellent sagebrush sagas about the cavalry: Fort Apache (RKO Pictures Home Video); 1949’s She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (RKO Pictures Home Video), and 1950’s Rio Grande (Republic Pictures Home Video).

The 1956 classic The Searchers (Warner Home Video) is considered by some critics and filmmakers as one of the best movies ever made. In this Ford-directed drama, Wayne plays a man obsessed with finding his niece (Natalie Wood), captured years before by Indians. The final scene is a tribute to veteran Ford actor Harry Carey Sr.

Three years later, Wayne starred with Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin and Angie Dickinson in Hawks’ entertaining shoot-’em up Rio Bravo (Warner Home Video), in which the Duke played a sheriff who tries to prevent a killer from escaping from jail.

Wayne and Hawks followed up “Rio Bravo” in 1967 with the underrated El Dorado (Paramount Home Video). This time, the Duke is an aging gunslinger who helps a drunken sheriff (Robert Mitchum) stop a range war.

After 40 years in the business, Wayne finally copped the best actor Oscar for his larger-than-life turn as the colorful, cussing Marshall Rooster Cogburn in 1969’s delightful True Grit (Paramount Home Video). Unfortunately, the 1975 sequel Rooster Cogburn (MCA Home Video), despite co-star Katharine Hepburn, is a disappointment.

The Duke made his final screen appearance in Don Siegel’s The Shootist (Paramount Home Video). Wayne gives a memorable, understated performance in the 1976 drama as a gunfighter, dying of cancer, who wants to live the remainder of his life in peace. His reputation, though, won’t allow him. Wayne died of cancer three years later.