Rare John Wayne Films on AMC This Weekend

The Florida Masochist reports that:

AMC (American Movie Classics) is airing two John Wayne movies this weekend that haven’t been seen in many years. First tonight at 8 p.m. it will be Island in the Sky (1953).

But more notably the Granddaddy of all disaster movies, The High and the Mighty (1954) will be aired tomorrow night at 8 p.m. Both these films were kept out of general circulation for many years.

Many of the lesser known John Wayne films are bloody awful. Indeed, with the very notable exception of “The Quiet Man (1952),” I can’t offhand think of a Wayne film where he wasn’t playing a cowboy or a soldier that I much liked.

Still, the Duke was an American original and one wouldn’t want to miss an opportunity to see all of his films at least once.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Yup–The Quiet Man was quite good, and you are right about the non-cowboy/soldier problem.

  2. Dave Schuler says:

    How about The Spoilers? War of the Wildcats? Hellfighters? Hatari!? Or, a personal favorite, The Shepherd of the Hills? He doesn’t play a cowboy or a soldier in any of them. No, none of them are The Searchers or The Quiet Man but, then, not too many pictures of any kind are, are they?

  3. Dave Schuler says:

    I disagree! Some of his non-cowboy, non-soldier, non-Quiet Man roles are great. There’s a flagged post sitting in your moderation queue that lists some of them. 🙁