John Wayne's Movies - Part I Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Searchers (1956)

Ward Bond and Wayne met while playing football at USC. They remained life-long friends. Wayne-Bond collaborations include "Rio Bravo", "The Quiet Man", "Tall in the Saddle", "The Searchers", "Fort Apache" and "The Big Trail" (uncredited bit part). "The Big Trail" (1930) was Wayne's first starring role but he did not become a star until he made "Stagecoach" in 1939. "The Searchers" is the story of Ethan Edwards' five year search for his niece, Debbie, captured by the Comanches on a murder raid. Edwards is driven by his hatred for the Comanches and, by association, his niece.

He plans to kill her when he finds her, as he believes she has become a "Comanch"; however, when he finally finds her, he takes her home to her family. His change of heart upon actually finding Debbie makes an interesting plot twist.

Answer: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

John Wayne dies in a total of eight or 10 movies, depending on how you look at it, including "The Sands of Iwo Jima", "Central Airport", "The Shootist", "The Alamo", "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", "The Fighting Seabees", "The Cowboys", "The Barbarian and the Geisha", "The Wake of the Red Witch" and "The Sea Chase".

In "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", co-starring Jimmy Stewart and Lee Marvin, John Wayne plays Tom Doniphan. In their younger years, Doniphan and Rance Stoddard (Stewart) vie for the love of Hallie (Vera Miles) and Stewart wins.

Many years later, when Stewart is a United States Senator, he and his wife return to the town of Shinbone for Doniphan's funeral and the Senator tells reporters the real story about who shot Liberty Valance.

Answer: The Fighting Kentuckian (1949)

Wayne and Hardy are great together in this very funny black and white film, which co-stars Vera Ralston. It is a pre-Civil War saga of the Second Kentucky Regiment, marching 800 miles from Louisiana back home to Kentucky and their adventures along the way. Wayne, of course, gets the girl.

Answer: The Spoilers (1942)

Dietrich made four films with Wayne. The best is "The Spoilers", in which she plays Cherry Malotte, the saloon owner/entertainer who starts out to swindle Wayne. However, she falls in love with him along the way and they end up living happily ever after, after ruining the plans of the bad guy, played by Randolph Scott, to steal Wayne's gold mine.

Answer: El Dorado (1966)

"Rio Bravo" (1959) co-stars Dean Martin as the drunk deputy (called in the movie "borachon" or "drunk" by the Mexicans), Ward Bond, Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan as the side-kick deputy. This is Angie Dickinson's first major movie role as the gambler who falls in love with Wayne. Robert Mitchum plays the Martin role in "El Dorado" with James Caan in the Nelson role as Alan Bedillion Treherne a/k/a "Mississippi". Arthur Hunnicutt plays the bugle-blowing side-kick deputy, Bull. Charlene Holt plays the Duke's love interest in the remake.

This is one of the few movies in which the remake is as good as the original.

Answer: Both

These are both terrible movies, by the Duke's own standards. He was getting long in the tooth, was in poor health (later diagnosed as cancer), and died four years after making "Brannigan". In "Brannigan", LA police officer Jim Brannigan (Wayne) is sent to London to bring home an American mobster. Along the way, he must deal with Scotland Yard, a stuffy English policeman and a crooked lawyer.

In "McQ", Lon McQ (Wayne) seeks the murderer of his best friend and partner and must deal as well with corrupt police officials dealing in drugs.

Answer: The Horse Soldiers (1959)

"The Horse Soldiers" is one of Wayne's best movies. He plays a Union officer who is forced to take along a Southern Belle, Miss Hannah Hunter of Greenbriar, played by Constsance Towers, on a march through the South and of course he falls in love with her -- a Yankee and a Southern Belle! William Holden is terrific as the Regimental Doctor; he and Wayne dislike each other intensely (to find out why, see the movie).

The doctor hates war and Wayne hates the doctor.

Answer: The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)

One of Wayne's best! Sgt. John Stryker is a very troubled man and his personal problems are brought to light through his difficult relationship with Pfc. Peter Conway, played by John Agar. The movie focuses on Stryker's leadership of his men, leading up to the attack on Mt. Suribachi. Excellent character development as well as a good telling of the story of the Marines at Iwo Jima.

This is one of the few movies in which Wayne has no love interest. Wayne was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal but lost to Broderick Crawford for "All the King's Men".

Answer: Big Jim McLain (1952)

This movie was panned by the critics and was not a box office hit either. Wayne's character, Jim McLain, attempts to break up a communist ring in Hawaii. The movie has a tear-jerker ending with Marines boarding a ship for roll call with the Marine Corps Hymn, "The Halls of Montezuma", playing in the background.

Answer: Donovan's Reef (1963)

Great movie! Lee Marvin shines as the "plucky comic relief" (remember "Galaxy Quest"?). Wayne's only movie with Elizabeth Allen, who co-stars as the stiff Boston matron, Amelia Dedham, wooed and won by Wayne. Allen's filmography is almost exclusively in television, including appearances in soap operas.

She is quite good in this role, however, and plays the stuffy old maid from Boston with elan and humor. Cesar Romero is a stitch as the pompous Marquis Andre de Lage, the British attache; Dorothy Lamour is the saloon singer in love with Lee Marvin's character, Thomas Aloysius "Boats" Gilhooley.

This is one of only a few comedic efforts by Wayne; others include "The Quiet Man" and "McLintock", both co-starring Maureen O'Hara. There are multiple sub-plots in the movie, including Gilhooley's relationship with Miss Lafleur (Lamour), the Marquis' amorous flirtations, Dr. Dedham's (Jack Warden) reunion with his grown daughter Amelia (Allen), as well as the main plot line, Donovan's reluctant and combative courtship with Amelia.

As with all romantic comedies, all's well that ends well.