Classics alert

[trekgeezer]

On TCM Saturday at 11:00am central It's a Mad, Mad, MadWorld. Johnathan Winters single handedly destroying a brand new gas station  is one of the funniest sequences ever made.

At  7:00pm central The Quiet Man and at 9:15 it's The War Wagon.

[Scott]

Ah, THE WAR WAGON . Thats one that has been on my list to see again for a while now. I remember seeing the movie at about 10 years old. Only remember the wagon, machine gun, John Wayne, and Kirk Douglas.

Thanks for the Classic Alert trek-geezer. Always liked MAD MAD WORLD and the QUIET MAN is a very good John Wayne film. Maybe I'll watch both the Wayne films again. If not I'll at least tape THE WAR WAGON.

[trekgeezer]

I knew someone had mentioned wanting to see the War Wagon.  The only part I remember being kinda silly is Bruce Cabot playing the Indian. John Wayne always had a stable of actors that appeared with him.

Probably like you though, I thought the wagon was cool when I was a kid.

[Yaddo 42]

Since Wayne was part of the John Ford "stock company", he tried to create the same atmosphere in his own films especially after Ford quit making films, using friends and family and members of that stock company quite often in his films in front of and behind the camera. It can be fun to spot so many of them in multiple films.

According to Gary Wills book on John Wayne, the Duke was close friends with Bruce Cabot, who had bad addiction to booze and pills. Wayne turned to Harry Carey's son Dobe, a reformed alcoholic who Wayne had once shunned for giving up drinking since he thought it was unmanly to not drink, to get help for Cabot. Dobe said that Wayne was the only one he would listen to.

Always liked "The War Wagon" as a fun adventure caper western, plus it's fun to see Kirk Douglas hamming it up as the dandified (can't really call him prissy) partner in crime. The whole wearing his rings over his leather gloves thing seems so flashy that I'm surprised some of the current rappers who play on the whole player/pimp/high roller image haven't adopted it.

I'm not Irish but unless it's near St. Patrick's Day I just can't get in the mood to watch "The Quiet Man" too often. Talk about your cliches and stereotypes, it's enjoyable and I see why it's a favorite of so many, but like I said I try not to look at it too often.

IAMMMMW (I hate typing that whole name out) - I like it in bits and pieces (the gas station probably is my favorite), and for just the number and range of cameos and quick gags, but trying to watch it straight through is a chore for me. Some of the subplots irritate me, the Ethel Merman/ Dick Shawn one especially. Plus the film stops dead in it's tracks for me with every scene featuring Spencer Tracy. I've never been a fan of his, which I joke is unAmerican to some people, but I absolutely loathe his character and can't sympathize with him for one second, even though with his approaching retirement and his awful family and homelife, the audience is supposed to.

[peter johnson]

I dunno, I guess it plays to your tolerance for Vaudeville --
My Mom hated Mad World, but then she didn't like most vaudevillian humour -- I on the other hand, grew up loving Schtick in all its forms -- she took me to see Mad World when I was about 9 or so in New York City on one of the few -- at that time -- Cinerama screens.  This was like the Imax stuff of today, but side to side rather than just tall.
Well, I fell in love with the whole thing.  When I was a teenager in college, I found myself in Palos Verdes where they filmed the "Big W" palm tree sequence -- which is a naturally occuring growth by the way/not set up for the film.  As far as I know, those coconut palms are still there in the guy's yard, still in the W shape.
Winters is terrific, but then so is Phil Silvers & Mermann & all the supporting cast.
As far as Spencer Tracy goes, check him out in Jekyll and Hyde and Inherit the Wind and Fritz Lang's Fury (outstanding!) or Captain's Courageous . . . .
Tracy did a bunch of very impressive things before becoming Mr. Katherine Hepburn & someone "safe".  He was surprisingly naturalistic as an actor in the dozen or so pictures he did in the 1930's, and always believable.  Too many of us have only ever seen his later stuff when he was content to coast . . .
peter johnson/denny crane

[BoyScoutKevin]

Actually, it is Howard Keel who plays the Indian in this one. Bruce Cabot plays the villain. Bruce Cabot played the Indian in John Wayne's "Big Jake."

[trekgeezer]

Thanks for pointing out my goof Kevin. Both these guys are about as right for playing an Indian as John Wayne was for playing Ghengis Khan in The Conquerer.