Before Indiana Jones, John Wayne played in his own treasure hunting adventure film

When Indiana Jones made its debut in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” in 1981 (still the best film in Indiana Jones), it represented something completely new but clearly recognizable. At least, he was recognizable by anyone who had grown in the decades preceding his arrival. The creator of Indy, George Lucas, and the director of the first four films, Steven Spielberg, did not hide the inspirations behind Henry Jones Jr. apart from the adventure series of the 1930s, 40 and 50, the look of the character was influenced by the character of Humphrey Bogart in “Treasure of the Sierra Madre”. But Harry Steele by Charlton Heston in “Secret of the Incas” of 1954 is undoubtedly the most Indian figure of Jones of that time, with his great Fedora and his brown leather jacket offering a plan for the intrepid archaeologist of Harrison Ford. It was not only Bogart and Heston who were part of the Genesis of Indiana Jones, however. Lucas was inspired by so many films that he had seen as a child, and although we mainly neglected the release of adventure of John Wayne might not have been a direct inspiration, he has all the programs of an Indy classic.

Wayne could be best known to embody the Western star and generally represent the American archetypal hero (at least during a period when culture was generally much more conservative), but he also participated in the treasure hunting action. In the mid-1950s, the famous star faced a film that would have provided the perfect adventure for Dr. Jones himself, with lost desert cities, treasures and a female company which is just as courageous as the main man.

In the mid -1950s, John Wayne was a well -established star. Having pierced with John Ford’s “Stagecoach” in 1939, Duke had become a real American icon in the years that followed the status of film star to embody almost jingoisetic American values. This meant that he brought a certain aura to his films that most of the other stars of his time simply could not correspond – even if a large part of this pace was destroyed in the following decades (read the 1971 Playboy interview infermester if you have not already done so). Even the films in which he did not play the most obviously American archetype, Wayne simply had the charisma movie star – although this is not enough to save “Legend of the Lost” from 1957.

The adventure film saw the actor play Joe January, an American from Tombuktu who recruited by Paul Bonnard de Rossano Brazzi to drive him during an expedition. Bonnard is looking for a lost city and a treasure hidden in the Saharan desert, whom he claims that his father discovered years earlier. The pair participated in their trip alongside Dita de Sophia Loren, a former sex worker who initially becomes in love with Bonnard. The crew finally discovers the skeleton of Bonnard’s father alongside two others, suggesting that Bonnard Sr. killed his lover and a guide when he discovered them together in a dark omen of coming. During this time, the indications of January are clues left by Bonnard’s father, finally discovering the treasure only so that Bonnard reveals himself with wealth at night after his rejection by Dita. She and January then went in search of their former treacherous ally.

The film was directed by Henry Hathaway, who worked with Wayne on five other films, including “The Shepherd of the Hills” (1941) and “True Grit” (1969), which contains what Wayne considered his best scene and for which he won his only Oscar. But “Legend of the Lost” has become a little lost itself, at least compared to other collaborations in Hathaway and Wayne. That the young George Lucas saw the film and that he was influenced during the creation of his own tales of adventure archeology is not clear, but it would not be surprising.

George Lucas never mentioned “Legend of the Lost” as a direct inspiration for Indiana Jones, but the parallels are still. The expedition of the desert, the hidden treasure, the romantic interest which is taken in something that it did not expect quite at Willie Scott of the Kate Capshaw in “Indiana Jones and the temple of the Doom”. Although John Wayne’s look in the film is not as surprisingly similar to Harry Steele by Dr. Jones by Charlton Heston, he sports a fedora and represents an equally fearless hero.

Unfortunately, “Legend of the Lost” was not recalled as one of the most beautiful collaborations in Wayne and Henry Hathaway. Joe January was certainly not one of Wayne’s favorite roles and in a 1974 issue of “Take One” magazine, Hathaway himself revealed that even he was not very proud of the film. The director talked about one of his biggest problems with the project: Rossano Brazzi. “The main thing that went wrong with the film – after the script – was the cast of Rossano Brazzi,” he said. “He had no interior quality; everything was a surface. He is one of those actors who wants to be desperately loved and accordingly, he cannot play evil.” However, as with so many licensed films made during Hollywood’s golden age, there is an undeniable charm in the film, and even if it did not influence Indy, it represents so much of what has made the icon that it is today.