First Post

July 4th - Independence Day in the United States of America

Little could the “founding fathers” have fathomed what all-encompassing effect their initial “Declaration” would have, not only on the land destined to become the United States of America, but over the course of the next two hundred and thirty three years, the entire world.

We all know the stories of each of the important individuals: Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, and of course, JOHN HANCOCK! These stories are etched into our psyches as indelibly as our own life’s stories. People pause on this day to remember the untold number of men and women who paid the ultimate price for our freedoms.

Traditions are a large part of the history of this country. On this day in particular, it might take the form of hamburgers and hot dogs, ice cream, fireworks by the lake, or a band concert in the park. It might be all of them rolled into one grand celebration.

Like a lot of things in life, traditions are carried on from generation to generation. One of the greatest traditions in all of civilized history is story telling. Whether it’s sitting around a fire at night sharing the genesis of a great nation, writing on cave walls extolling the heroics of brave hunter/gatherers, or printing stories of brave deeds by courageous conquerors in dime novels, story telling is a BIG part of America’s history.

In the late 19th century, Thomas Edison began experimenting (what else was new?) with a new process called “moving pictures.” From that, the great directors and film makers of the silent era began to create a monumental movement in the history of this country. The era of “Motion Pictures,” (or as we like to call them, “movies,”) had officially, albeit humbly, been ushered into the American Experience.

From its innocent, meager beginnings in New Jersey, the movie business continued the centuries-old tradition of story telling. These films told of great train robberies, little lost lasses, Amorous Arab sheiks and tall, ramrod straight heroes of the western plains, wearing the ever-present white hats.

One of the great traditions that began, well, in the beginning of movies, was the telling of great love stories. In the silent era, one had to depend upon the (very necessary) over-exaggerated facial expressions and gesticulations of the leading male and female characters to “get the gist” of what the story was all about. Dialogue on cards (what the actors were "saying") between screen shots was kept to a minimum, as a great number of people seeing the film either couldn’t read, or couldn’t read in English.

As Hollywood (and America, for that matter) became more sophisticated, the telling of the love story began to develop a life of it’s own in a glorious fashion. Many stories were taken from great works of literature, or the Broadway stage. Stars such as Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, Claudette Colbert and Clark Cable, and Mae West and W.C. Fields (don’t laugh, they made some great movies together) made us long for MORE dynamic pairings on the silver screen.

Some of the greatest couples of Hollywood’s “Golden Age” are legends in their own right, individually, but together, they become greater than the “sum of their parts.” We all have our favorites: William Powell and Myrna Loy, especially the “Thin Man” series. Oh, and who could forget Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Their collaboration in some of film noir’s greatest outings were simply magnificent. It didn’t hurt that they were a couple when the cameras stopped rolling, either. Their connection was nearly beyond description, and they played off each other VERY naturally, as if they’d been doing this for years. Which would have been quite a feat, since Lauren Bacall was only 19 when they made “To Have and to Have Not” in 1942.

Of course, everyone always mentions Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. As the old comedian used to say: “What’s not to LIKE?!” They had a real, honest chemistry, and of course, they too were a couple off the set. Married, though not to each other, their romance, both on and off screen, spanned over 30 years. This was a connection that was obvious to anyone who saw them together.

OK, those are some fine examples of great movie couples. I would like to add a couple more. Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. In the 1930’s and early ‘40s, they made 12 movies together, three more than Tracy & Hepburn. Does that mean they’re a BETTER movie couple than T/H (Tracy & Hepburn)? Not at all. It simply means that they were a HUGE draw for the studio at that time, and that meant (what else?) MONEY!

Now, I have another screen couple that, while given their due with relation to their on-screen chemistry, they’re not always talked about in the same breath as P/L (Powell & Loy) or B - squared (Bogart & Bacall), but the sensuality exhibited by theses two seemed to explode off the screen. That couple is the box office giant John Wayne, and the “Queen of Technicolor,” Maureen O’Hara.

When most people think of these two stars, they generally think of two movies: John Ford‘s “The Quiet Man,” (1952), and “McLintock” (1963), and to be sure, the fireworks created by their incredible chemistry lit up the screen like, well...the Fourth of July!

What a lot of people DON’T realize about this dynamic duo, is that they were first together in a B & W Cavalry epic called: “Rio Grande” in 1950.

MO, who plays JW’s visually stunning, yet estranged, wife, is absolutely smoldering in the role of Kathleen Yorke, who comes to “rescue” their 18 year old son, Jefferson “Jeff“ Yorke. The lad had left West Point, and enlisted as a lowly private in the “regular” Army. He wound up at an outpost in Arizona commanded by his father, Col. Kirby Yorke, played magnificently (and quite convincingly) by JW.

An interesting side note about Claude Jarman Jr (the actor who played Jeff Yorke), was that he had been awarded a special Oscar for his role as “Jody“ in “The Yearling” (1946). After he stopped making movies in the mid-50s, he went on to become a successful businessman .

Rio Grande was made in order to get the funding for TQM, John Ford’s pet project since 1936, when he bought the story for $10! He had a “handshake” agreement with both MO and JW in 1944 clinching them for the parts of Mary Kate Danaher, and Sean Thornton, respectively. No one in town (Hollywood) would touch the film, saying the story was weak, and it would NEVER make money. Does this sound familiar?!

Finally, JW received permission from JF to ask Herbert J. Yates (Wayne’s boss at Republic Pictures) if he would be interested in financing the “quaint, little Irish story,“ (as it came to be known around town). There’s a lot more to that side of the story, and I’ll cover it more in-depth in future posts, but Yates agreed to do it.

BUT - He put forth the proviso that Ford, Wayne, O’Hara, and all the other members and crew of the famous “John Ford Stock Co.” had to make a “good old-fashioned B&W western,” in order for him to be able to cover the loss he was CERTAIN he would incur by giving in to Ford’s dream picture.

Put simply: Yates wanted to MAKE money off of RG, before he SPENT money on TQM

Even in that first pairing, JW and MO showed just what sex appeal between a man and a women should look like. JW loved the fact that MO would look him in the eye, and of course, O’Hara’s temperament was such that she was MORE than an adequate match for JW.

They respected each other, and while not romantically involved with each other at any time, they seemed VERY real to anyone who watched them.

Watch the opening scene in RG, where JW, alongside the great character actor (and Oscar winner for “The informer” in 1935 - another John Ford movie), Victor McLaglen first see MO’s character, Kathleen Yorke. It’s honestly one of the most beautiful scenes in all of movie history. During her running commentary of RO (included in the 2002 special edition release of the movie), MO extolled the virtues of the interplay between Col. Yorke and Kathleen throughout the classic film.

I could go on and on about “RG” for MANY reason, starting with the very understated love story, but as they say, “that’s another story for another day!” Needless to say, the film was a HUGE hit, and subsequently, “TQM” was allowed to go ahead, and IT, of course, made Yates a “bloody fortune” as well! The poignant love story told throughout the film is as almost as much about Ford’s love for Ireland as it is about Sean and Mary Kate.

Consider just a few scenes that illustrate the depth of this on-screen “love.” Right after the opening sequence at the train, comes a sequence that is classic Ford cinematography. That breathtaking shot of Sean Thornton lighting a cigarette and looking over about 20 yards to see Mary Kate “comin’ through the rye” like a vision of Gaelic Goddess Gorgeousness (sorry, I got carried away!).

By ANYONE’S standards, she’s a “ravishing beauty,” and that’s just the FIRST time he sees her.
Continuing in the same shot, while she’s tending the sheep and walking away, Ford keeps the camera frame on her face as she’s walking down a hill. The camera frame doesn’t move, yet she continues to “float along,” as if disappearing from the scene via a set of invisible stairs. Very nice…

As the film goes on, we see him take the holy water from the fount in front of the church into his palm, and offer it to her so she can cross herself. WOW! The look on her face is one of shock, of course, as WHO does that with the holy water, anyway?!?! The look then becomes unmistakable interest and a kind of intrigue regarding this (really) handsome stranger.

When she cleans “White ‘a Morn,’” his ancestral home that he’s just bought (without his knowledge BTW), he finds the chimney smoking as he comes home, sees the evidence of her sweeping the floor, but he doesn’t see her. Knowing someone (he doesn’t yet know who), is STILL in there, he simultaneously yells, and throws a rock through an already broken window.

She, meanwhile is in the one other room in the house (oddly enough, the bedroom), and she’s obviously feeling trapped, as she never meant for him to actually see her, or even know it WAS her. Later in this seqence, she explains that it was just her way of being a Christian.

Once she hears the glass break and hears the yell, she turns suddenly and sees her own reflection in a broken mirror, but as it STILL scares the daylights out of her (listen close, she yells “Banshee!” - a type of demon), she runs out into the great room, and tries to get past him. Of course, he recognizes her at once, and grabs her. Holding her close, he kisses her (she kisses back, BTW!), and she promptly tries to “slap the tar” out of him. She hits his hand, and the exchange of dialogue that follows is just wonderful. There'll be more about the hand slap in later posts.

The courtship scenes are very well done, and the culmination of them, in the graveyard, in the rain, with JW’s silk shirt soaked through to his bare skin, and the two of them giving in to that smoldering kiss…..Uh, moving on...

During the commentary portion of TQM, MO advised that if a scene like that were to be shot in today’s Hollywood, they would show all the gory, naked details, which she advised (and quite a few of us wholeheartedly agree) is not NEARLY as sexy as the way it was done in 1951. Fast forward to the scene after they’ve both been speaking to the clergymen in town: the Priest (her), and the Vicar (him). Before they spoke to the men of faith, she had called him a coward, and left him stranded in town (5 miles away), as they say on the armchair in front of the fire, not one word was spoken, but the body language said volumes. She leaned back, tentatively, waiting for his cue, and he let her keep coming back into him, and he put his arm around her, and she held him with her head bowed behind his, and he held her, not only with his arms, but with both his hands as well. Then, fade to black….

The “morning after” shows JW coming out of the bedroom tying his robe, and then lighting a cigarette. In the commentary, MO says : “Now that’s one SATISFIED man!” This is the scene where he discovers she’s too ashamed of him, so she's gone to the train station.

He goes to get her, and it‘s followed by the “ shame-walk back home,” the big fight scene with Victor McLaglen, and the famous, or shall I say “infamous” scene where Mary Kate whispers something into Sean’s ear. The reason for the scene’s notoriety is the fact that Ford told MO to whisper something (in O’Hara’s words on the commentary) “rude.” She did it ONLY after he and JW promised , along with her, that none of them would EVER reveal what was actually said. The look on JW’s face is real, and completely priceless, and as she beckons him across the creek and into the cottage, we can only imagine what was actually said!

Now, if you run across anyone who claims that they “know” what was said, they’re lying, as no one but the three of them are privy to it, and two of them are gone.

BTW - as with many classic movies, a fair number of people not connected to it claim to “know” the things that seem to be a secret, or unknown to anyone outside the cast and crew. Usually, these claims are completely false, and easily proven as such.

Sadly for movie lovers, this talented team of JW/MO made only three more films together, “Wings of Eagles” (1957), the aforementioned McLintock (1963), and “Big Jake” (1971). Except in Big Jake, where they share just a few minutes of screen time, the magic is just as evident as in RG, and TQM. That isn’t to say that there aren't any sparks in Big Jake, it was a bit more subdued, and quite frankly, not developed like it should have been.

Everyone has their own favorite screen lovers, and I’m no different, but in the coming posts, we’ll look at more movie couples, and their impact on Hollywood then, and now.

For my next entry, I’m going to devote some time to McLintock, as it’s quite interesting in it’s own right, and it deserves more treatment than I can give it here. I’ll also look at the interesting story of “B2, AKA, Bogie and Bacall. Until then:

Goodbye, and good watching!



Trivia question: Each and every exterior shot in the film was shot on location in Ireland. Conversely, Only ONE interior scene in the entire movie was filmed on location in Ireland. Which one was it? Correct answers will be entered into a random drawing for a great prize! We will announce the winner later this week.