Although he did his share of Clunkers throughout his career, John Wayne played at the beginning of his worst films. Much of this was simply due to the way the films were made in the late 1920s and the beginning of the Duke knowing his so-called “Poverty Row” era, where he faced Western films made for a cheap dizzying rhythm and a dizzying pace. But when Sound in Film began to emerge in the late 1920s, Wayne also found himself leading unique and curious films that were all based on images that were released less than a decade before.
For example, Wayne was thrown into a remake from the beginning of the West for the unusual reason that he looked like the star of the original film. Indeed, Ken Maynard had prepared several characteristics for the first national photos in the 1920s, including “The Unknown Cavalier” of 1926. Once Warner Bros. bought the studio, however, producers Leon Schlesinger and Sid Rogell decided to redo several Maynard’s films as “talkies” (which essentially means that they added sound). But they were not complete remakes. “Ride Him, Cowboy” of 1932 was a reward for “The Unknown Cavalier” in which Wayne played the main role, replacing Maynard in the scenes where you can clearly see his face. But Warners really reused images of the original film for action scenes.
It was not the first time either that the Duke was used as a stand-in in Maynard. Warners had previously enlisted the young actor for a remake of “The Phantom City” of 1928, which the studio removed “Haute Gold”. In addition to representing one of these curious quasi-rameals, the film is remarkable to be the closest wayne ever came to make a horror film.
Hauned Gold was the closest John Wayne never reached complete horror
Between 1932 and 1933, Warner Bros. he produced six remakes from Ken Maynard Westerns with John Wayne in the main role. “Haunted Gold” of 1932 was the first (although it was released third). The film is a western, a mystery and, according to some (including the film database), a horror film. “Spooks! Ghosts! And a golden fortune” are all promised in the trailer of this 1928 silent west remake led by Maynard “The Phantom City”. If Really Qualifies as a horror film is questionable, but it was certainly the closest that the Duke came to the genre.
In the film, directed by Mack V. Wright, Wayne plays John Mason, who receives a mysterious letter urging him to return to a mine to claim his part of gold. Mason goes to the mine on his faithful Steed, Duke, who in fact received the second billing on the film and appeared alongside Wayne in many other photos. Once there, he meets Janet Carter by Sheila Terry, the daughter of a minor who also sent a letter and is there to claim his share of the Treasury. Soon, Outlaw Joe Ryan (Harry Woods) and his gang arrive with plans to take gold for themselves, but the only more threatening thing than them is the terrifying ghost that appears in the Minefhel.
Various reports say that Wayne was paid between $ 825 and $ 850 for her contributions to “Hautd Gold”, a large part of which was shot on site in Sonora, California, near Yosemite National Park. But while Warner Bros. was the real winner here, with inexpensive Western remakes was not a waste of time for Wayne, because they went rather well with the public and the critics.
Hauned Gold is one of the best Western remakes to play John Wayne
It would still take seven years after “haunted gold” before John Ford made John Wayne his big break in the casting in the Western “Stagecoach” of 1939, to the great surprise of the young actor. But these years spent in row of poverty were worth it – not only because they taught the duke everything he needed to know about the creation of films, but also because, from time to time, they were quite well received, demonstrating to the public and the criticism that Wayne had leading chops.
According to Fred Landesman’s book “The John Wayne Filmography”, the film’s retrospective assessments described him as one of the best Wayne films of that time. For example, in their book “The Great Western Pictures”, James Robert Parrish and Michael R. Pitts wrote that the film “greatly helped to establish [Wayne] As the hero of the nicest and most sympathetic sagebrush, “noting that” these westerns proved to be completely acceptable to the public “. In” Hollywood Corral “, the author Don Miller also described the film as” the most entertaining Warner “, highlighting the” Mystery Angle, which does not manage to garnish with everything that has not been positive. “Still in a contemporary revision of the variety in January 193333. Three or four years ago,” read the criticism. “John Wayne shy, Sheila Terry bringing little help. Photography goes from the good to the poor.”
Despite “Haunted Gold” considered a little favorably, he is unfortunately full of racial insults directed against the companion of John Mason Clarence Brown, a character played by Blue Washington (who had also appeared in “The Phantom City”). However, if you can watch beyond it to get an overview of this time of film, “Haunted Gold” is an underestimated film by John Wayne which is worth watching.
