A Little-Known Film Is a John Wayne Gem

Every Western fan has a favorite John Wayne film. Some titles immediately come to the fore: Red River, where Wayne first revealed his versatility as an actor; John Ford’s Cavalry Trilogy; and most obviously The Searchers, often regarded as the greatest Western ever made. I would also add his last film, The Shootist, which was worthy of an Academy Award in my opinion as Wayne (who himself was dying) played one the West’s last great lawman dying of cancer.

As a long time John Wayne fan, I hold these films in high regard, but I have a soft spot for one that is often passed over in discussions of Wayne’s films: The Angel and the Badman, made in 1947 just as his career would enter its greatest phase. 

The film was the first occasion that Wayne served as producer and was the work of one of Wayne’s best friends, James Edward Grant, who would write many of Wayne’s films, including Hondo, Island in the Sky, The Alamo, and one of Wayne’s personal favorites, The Sands of Iwo Jima. Grant was a hard drinking, former newspaperman who had a way of writing dialogue that Wayne felt suited his image. He is listed as the director of Angel and the Badman, though Bruce Cabot, one of the many of Wayne’s Hollywood buddies who played the villain, claims that Wayne directed much of the film. 

The story is a simple one. Wayne is a wounded gunman named Quirt Evans, who arrives unconscious at the farm of a Quaker family, is taken in, and nursed back to health by the family. In the process, he falls in love with the daughter, played by Gail Russell in one of her best roles. The scenes between Wayne and Russell hold the film together. Russell’s performance mixes a quiet beauty and a sense of humor as she schools an unbelieving Wayne in her faith in non-violence. The theme of salvation runs through the film as Wayne in the end rejects violence for her.

Wayne had a soft spot for Russell, who would struggle with alcoholism her whole life. His wife would claim that they had an affair, but that was just divorce talk. In reality, Wayne felt sorry for her and believed that she was shy and all she needed was for “someone to show her kindness.” She had cost Wayne and Republic Pictures $125,000 for her services, and Wayne threw in some extra money for her. Unfortunately, no one could help her drinking, and she died of alcoholism in 1961 at just 36 years of age.

There are a couple of scenes in the film that are worthy of the best John Ford-John Wayne work. Wayne becomes domesticated, even helping in the kitchen and around the farm. As Wayne recovers, he discovers that a nearby miserly farmer controls the water needed for the farmers in the valley.

He rides to confront the farmer, played with wonderful grouchiness by character actor Paul Hurst. The farmer is belligerent, until Quirt Evans reveals his name to the farmer. A frightened Hurst immediately opens the sluices. He meets Russell’s family and is softened by their kindness to him. The farmer’s wife cures a boil on his neck and gives him fresh baked goods. Like Wayne, the hardened Hurst is won over by the family’s Quaker kindness.

In one of the key scenes in the film, the men who wounded Wayne, led by Cabot, arrive at the farm to confront him. The still weak Wayne takes out his gun only to discover the family had removed all the bullets. He sits in a chair, holding the empty gun, and bluffs Cabot and his gang. 

Angel and the Badman is also notable for the legendary Western actor Harry Carey making one of his last appearances in a film. Carey was one of the few Hollywood types who Wayne himself hero-worshipped (John Ford was the other).

Wayne copied Carey’s Western dress as well as his laconic low-keyed acting style. The sick Carey — he would die shortly after the film premiered — plays a marshal who is after Wayne. In one scene, he warns Russell that Wayne is no good and is beyond redemption, but she says her love will save him. (READ MORE: The Star Trek Election III: Men vs. Women)

In the climactic final scene in the film, Carey kills Cabot and his cohorts, saving Wayne from doing so and going back on his oath to Russell that he wouldn’t resort to violence again. Wayne and Russell ride off together, with Carey smiling and waving his hat. 

Wayne would pay homage to Carey in many of his Westerns, particularly the last scene of The Searchers, where, framed against on open door, he looks back on Olive Carey, Harry’s real-life wife, who plays a key role in the film, and holds his arms in the unique way that her husband did in many of his films. When they shot that scene, Olive Carey said she just cried.

Not a lot happens in the plot line of Angel and the Badman other than the developing relationship between Wayne and Russell. The domestic scenes with the Quaker family, where a quizzical Wayne watches and comes to enjoy their peaceful lifestyle, are charming.

At a picnic, Wayne is given a new Bible by the Quakers in thanks for securing the water for their farms. One of his friends rides up and tells him about an opportunity to rustle a herd of cattle. Wayne is tempted, but seeing Russell being wooed by a young Quaker lad, he turns his back on the scheme. He has been redeemed. (READ MORE: We’ll Never Have Paris)

Angel and the Badman was one of Republic Pictures’ big successes in 1947. It made $4 million at the box office, the equivalent of $50 million today. It is one of the rare films where Wayne, a well know Hollywood conservative, played something like a peace convert, eschewing violence. He accepted the Quaker way of life. But in the end, it is The Duke at his best.

John P. Rossi is Professor Emeritus of History at LaSalle University in Philadelphia.

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