THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 19, 1994 TAG: 9409170024
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines
WHEN JOHN WAYNE swaggered into the parched Mexico desert to begin shooting ``Hondo,'' it was an event.
A three-page magazine spread about the production included 16 stories covering every likely angle, from the soft drinks consumed (623 bottles) in the 126-degree heat, to the protective coating on the foot pads of Pal the dog, to the improved 3-D glasses that would be used when the Western opened.
The Duke, readers learned, was a softie. `` `Danny Boy' will moisten his big blue eyes and `Mother Machree' will send him for a handkerchief.''
Forty-one years later, ``Hondo'' is generating another buzz. Its video debut Tuesday brings the Wayne catalog to 112, leaving just two unreleased titles - ``The High and the Mighty'' and ``Island in the Sky'' - in the estate administered by the late actor's oldest son.
But for many fans born since 1953, the payoff is bigger: It will be the first time they've seen ``Hondo.'' For others, it will seem like it. The movie has been on TV only a handful of times the last three decades.
``I really felt there were so many John Wayne films out there that I would be coming out against a John Wayne film that Warner Bros. was putting out, that Fox was putting out (or) that Paramount was putting out,'' said Michael Wayne. ``So I just held back with these because I felt they truly were classics and until I thought the timing was right.
``Also, until `Dances With Wolves' and then `Unforgiven,' Westerns were not the most exciting storytelling form. Audiences were not into Westerns as much as they are right now.''
``Hondo'' (MPI Home Video, $19.98) is a classic Western.
Set near the end of the Indian wars, it's based on a Louis L'Amour story about a U.S. Cavalry dispatch rider who comes to the aid of a frontier woman and her young son. Hondo Lane is a complex character, a determined loner who was married to an Apache and sympathizes with their plight, yet finds himself fighting them. The sophisticated plot involves conflicts that are large and small - all played out against broad vistas in meticulously restored picture-postcard colors.
Fans won't be disappointed by the fistfights and wagon-train raids, either.
``I'm not going to say it's the greatest film ever made, or the best film my father made,'' Wayne said. ``But it's one of his best. It was a very, very important film because it really set the persona for the films that followed; in other words, this strong, silent, almost lonesome character.
``He was courageous. He was honest, independent, self-sufficient. All of these qualities or attributes or values were present in the Hondo character. They also were present in my father's life, and I think that's why he was able to project them so well. These are the things he looked for in the roles he played.''
There was something else riding on ``Hondo,'' too. John Wayne produced, financed and distributed the film for his own company, Wayne-Fellows. It was a first, a bold move even for the country's No. 1 box-office star, and literally broke the iron grip of the old studio system.
``He didn't like to sign a long-term contract with anybody,'' Michael Wayne said. ``He always felt when somebody had a contract with you, they forget about you. If they don't have a contract, they want you. He just kept himself wanted.''
Michael Wayne was 18 when ``Hondo'' was filming, and recalls visiting the set with his younger brother, Patrick. No special treatment for the Duke's boys, though. A headline in that same three-page magazine spread read, ``John Wayne's Sons Grow Up Rugged.''
``It was hot and it was miserable, but it was also fun working on the film. I was what they used to call a company clerk,'' he said, laughing. ``It was a go-fer, you know.''
Being the son of a big star had its benefits, Wayne added, ``but it also had disadvantages. Privacy and things like that. But the advantages far outweighed the disadvantages. I produced `McLintock!' when I was 27. How would I be producing a film at 27 years old if my father wasn't John Wayne?''
Today, he's in California supervising production of the ``Hondo'' laserdisc. It will be out next year in the standard and 3-D formats, the latter a first for the industry. While the movie was shot in 3-D, the videotape doesn't use it.
``At the time, 3-D was a gimmick to get people away from their television sets and back into the theaters,'' Wayne said. ``It worked for a while, but by the time the film came out, which was in November 1953, the public's interest in 3-D was kind of petering out. It only showed in maybe three or four theaters in 3-D for a short period of time.''
Next year also will see the video release of ``The High and the Mighty,'' with ``Island in the Sky'' due in 1996. Both will likely get the same reception ``McLintock!'' did last year and ``Hondo'' is enjoying now. The Suncoast store at Lynnhaven Mall has taken nearly 100 orders for the Western, putting it on the same level as some Disney titles.
Michael Wayne's favorite John Wayne film?
``It's a tough question because I felt that his best performances were when he was the bad guy, the mean guy,'' he said. `` `Red River.' That was really `Mutiny on the Bounty,' and he played Capt. Bligh.
``Probably the most appealing picture where I thought he was the best, not the best film he was in, was `She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.' He played a guy who was probably 20 years older than he was at the time, and he did it convincingly. He made you laugh. He made you cry. I mean, he gave a terrific performance.
``I like `Wake of the Red Witch' . . . characters when he was about half-mean. Because he could explode on the screen. He had that explosiveness. Most major movie stars have it.''
Maybe that accounts in part for John Wayne's enduring appeal, 15 years after his death at age 72. A 1993 Harris Poll had him at No. 2 - behind Clint Eastwood and ahead of Arnold Schwarzenegger - on a list of America's 10 favorite film stars.
His son has a theory of his own.
``He kind of became larger than his films. It didn't make any difference what the title was, he went beyond being a movie star,'' Wayne said. ``I think because he was outspoken about the things he believed in, like this country and God and things like that, people liked him and felt like they grew up with him.
``He was almost like a member of the family.'' ILLUSTRATION: Micheal Wayne recalls visiting the set of ``Hondo'' when he was
18 years ago.
by CNB