McQ(1974): The Duke as 70's

[Deej]

John Wayne turned down the role of Dirty Harry because of the profanity and brief nudity in the script. A few years later, he tried to capture some of the Dirty Harry cash with his own "Tough-Guy Cop" flick.

In McQ, JW plays a Seattle police detective who takes on dirty cops and the mob to solve the murder of his partner. He tools around in a sweet green Trans-Am,  goes cyclic with a MAC-10, and has an illicit affair with a junky/whore(and he brings the coke!!). Not the typical John Wayne film.

There are some good chases, shootouts, and fistfights in this one, though what they do to the car is a SIN! Wayne comes off a bit like Jack Webb in Dragnet when he starts using the Hipster 70's Jive.(he refers to cocaine as "Lousy, damned, Junk!"). Still, this is first grade, 70's sleaze. JW gives a good performance, overall, and his scenes with the Junky/Whore are so good, they belong in a much better movie.

I think this was intended as a franchise, and if Wayne had lived longer, who knows? He did follow it up a year later with Brannigan(1975), another atypical, rogue cop flick, set in Chicago and London.

This film is a definite improvement over most of his 70's westerns. And I think it took some stones for a guy who refused the lead in High Noon and Dirty Harry (because the respective heroes toss away their badges) to star in a movie about police corruption.



Post Edited (02-14-04 20:46)

[The Burgomaster]

Surprisingly, this run-of-the-mill cop movie was directed by John Sturges, who had directed some great films (including THE GREAT ESCAPE) earlier in his career.  It looks like both Sturges and the Duke were both running out of gas at that point in their careers.

[Deej]

They were definitely both running out of gas, though they both had one good flick left in them. Sturges did The Eagle Has Landed and Wayne did The Shootist, both in '76 and,respectively, the last films for both.

Though McQ doesn't offer anything new, I think it seems tired and hackneyed today because, 30 years later, the "Rogue Cop" genre is played out. At the time, the concept was still fairly new, Bullitt had been out for 6 years, The French Connection and Dirty Harry had been out for 3. McQ doesn't really deviate from the type and it certainly doesn't improve on it, but, it has it's merits.

Chiefly, McQ is interesting as a change of pace for John Wayne. He'd been HUGE box office for over 35 years at this point, and hadn't really done anything new since The Searchers in '56.

I think McQ is especially interesting for those who are only familiar with Wayne's westerns, namely  his cookie-cutter westerns of the late 60's-70's. High Art? Nope. But enjoyable action/sleaze/exploitation. John Wayne takes a definite left-turn at the traffic light and starts using automatic weapons, driving a cool car, and supplying illicit narcotics to his junky-girlfriend!!! CRAPTASTIC!!!

Oh YEAH!!! The guy who plays TC in Magnum PI, appears as a PIMP!!! YES!

[Scott]

Haven't seen McQ yet, but last week Encore Channel played DIRTY HARRY: THE ORIGINAL documentary about the Dirty Harry character and they showed all the best lines and scenes from those films. Good documentary.

BARBARIAN AND THE GEISHA (1958) just played on cable today. It is just an average film. John Waynes worst film may be the one that killed him THE CONQUERER (1956) as he play Genghis Khan. They shot the film near atomic/nuclear test site. Also today they had NORTH TO ALASKA (1960) on cable. Only seen parts of it and it looks like a fun film.

The only Western of John Waynes that I haven't seen yet besides those b-movie 30's films is THE TRAIN ROBBERS (1973) and the ones that I haven't seen in a long time and would like to see again are RIO GRANDE (1950), FORT APACHE (1948) and THE WAR WAGON (1967).

Two summers ago I was on Hollywood Blvd and put my fist where he put his fist imprint and his feet imprints were of course boot imprints. John Wayne is one of the greatest. I have a picture at home, maybe I'll put it online.

[Deej]

I've never been able to sit through The Conqueror or Barbarian and the Geisha. I've seen bits of both, but my head starts to hurt 15 minutes in. Check out some of his 30's B-westerns, they're all typical programmers, but, Wayne still does a good job.

 Also, if you haven't, check out The Big Trail(1930). Supposed to be Wayne's breakthrough film, it flopped horribly and doomed  him to another decade of low-budget, quickie-westerns. It's quite good and he does a fine job, don't know why it tanked.

[Scott]

Hey Deej how you doing? I saw one of his early ones were he is going down a hill on a shovel to catch up to a bad guy. Don't know the name of it.

[Deej]

I'm good Scott, thanks! I haven't seen the shovel flick. Going to have to keep a look out for it though. What I really like about the 30's b-westerns is the high cheese content. They're the best thing to watch late at night or in the early morning hours.

My favorite part is whenever they have a Wanted poster with the chief badguy on it, the picture always looks like a studio portrait. There is usually a headshot of the villain(looking villainous) and then a whole friggin' landscape in the background. Like there was some travelling photographer in the 1800's who just always got a good face shot of badguys right after they did a dirty deed!

[Scott]

Thats funny about those posters and yes I hope to hit that Western era someday. Also all those Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hoppalong Cassidy, and Tom Mix stuff.

Also would like to catch up on those later TV series like GUN SMOKE, THE RIFLEMAN, and the rest from the 60's. I use to watch BONANZA and HIGH CHAPARRAL alot and of course F-TROOP.

Sci-Fi serials also like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.

And that WWII series COMBAT.

Trying to stay with movies and when I run out I hope to hit this other stuff.

I had alot of time over the past two days to watch TV as I had a bad stomach/intestinal virus. Feeling a bit better now.

[trekgeezer]

Stagecoach is considered Wayne's break through role.  By  the 60's he had become pretty much a carirature of himself.  But I have to say , True Grit is my favorite movie of his. I  love the  way the characters talk in it .  I also believe The Shootist was one of his best pictures.  I remember someone telling me to go see it , but that it would make me sad because you got the feeling you would never see him again .  

I also remember not long before he died they had congressional hearings about  age discrimination and  the retirement age.  Wayne commented while  testifying " I'd like to see you try to put me out to pasture. "

He was really a tough guy.  While making The Sons of  Katie Elder and performing a lot of his own stunts, like jumping into a freezing mountain stream, he had to take breaks between takes to take oxygen.  He had just had one of his lungs removed four months before starting the movie.  He was one a kind and they haven't made anyone like since.

He did make several good movies during his  last two decades, but sadly a lot of them were retreads.  McQ I remember  (I saw it at the theater) mainly for the fact it was the first time I ever saw an  Uzi in action.

[Scott]

When I was a kid I would mainly only watch the Calvary Westerns (Calvary vs Indians) and never the other types so over the past couple years I went on a Western marathon and saw all the Wayne film and they are all classics to me.

[Deej]

Scott wrote:
>
> I had alot of time over the past two days to watch TV as I had
> a bad stomach/intestinal virus. Feeling a bit better now.
>

See, how many people can find the brightside of an intestinal virus!? Glad you're feeling better Scott. I also like the old serials. I recently picked up The Secret Service in Darkest Africa, a WWII era serial, parts of which appear in J-Men Forever. Also got Daredevils of the Red Circle(1939), which I haven't seen yet. It's supposed to be outstanding. I'm trying to track down an old John Wayne serial called Shadow of the Eagle, but so far, no luck.

[Scott]

Never heard of those old time serials Deej and I thought I had them all on my list.

Deej these are not serials, but a WWII documentary series called WORLD AT WAR. During the 70's I watched these over and over again along with a show called BIOGRAPHY they were the closes thing to a History channel that we had.  The background music is what make these familiar images more ominious, but not in an over stated way. If you can get your hands on WORLD AT WAR series you might find it interesting.

[trekgeezer]

Scott if you get the Hallmark Channel, every  Saturday  they show westerns all day. The Virginian  (which is a 1.5  hour show),  The Rifleman,  two episodes of  Rawhide, and The Big Valley. I think they also run Bonanza.

I like watching these old shows to see who shows up as guest stars. Saw Robert  Redford on  The Virginian.  I grew up during the 60's and saw most of these shows, but  I was kid and had no idea who the actors were other than the main characters. It is interesting to see people who would go on to become well known stars later.  

TV when I was growing up was mainly westerns.

[Deej]

Stagecoach was John Wayne's breakthrough role, but The Big Trail was supposed to be the film that made him a star, instead it tanked and so did his career until John Ford cast him as Ringo almost a decade later.

I'm really not sure why The Big Trail bombed. It was directed by a big name(Raoul Walsh), it has a good story,it's beautifully filmed, and young John Wayne was a hell of alot more interesting than young Gary Cooper(who hit it big a year earlier with The Virginian).

[Scott]

Oh yea. RAWHIDE and BIG VALLEY are ones that I have never saw. Wonder if Encore Western Channel ever show those series.

I think I saw THE BIG TRAIL on the shelve along with SANTA FE somewhere. I'll have to double check store shelves next time I'm out.

I also like seeing those future stars show up on TV Series including Twilight Zone and sometimes Star Trek. I know that Clint Eastwood was on one of those early Western series before making it big.