I have always considered this to be a Jimmy Stewart movie more than a John Wayne movie. No one could have played Ransom like he did, but I do think other actors could have carried Tom. John Wayne was great in this movie, but what about Audie Murphy or William Holden for Tom. Both kind of brooding, deep.
shareBecause of his small stature you would need an equally diminutive actor to play Murphy's counterpart. A small man who can break a much larger and taller man in two is sort of a rarity; and on the other hand, a man who towers over a short "tenderfoot" comes off looking like a complete bully and coward who won't pick on someone his own size.
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Guys like that might be rare, but Audie Murphy really was one of them. On one occasion he beat the tar out of 6'2" 190lb carjacker who tried to steal his car. There's a photo from from The Dallas Morning News article that shows a photo of Murphy, a responding police officer, and the bloody, battered would-be carjacker.
I wish I could find the article, but I read an interview with a man who knew Murphy from his Hollywood days, and he said that on a few occasions, tough guys, looking to enhance their reputations at the expense of the famous war hero, would have a go at Murphy, figuring a guy his size couldn't be all that much of a threat, and Murphy would invariably give them a sound drubbing. So he may not have been a big guy, but he was a tough, capable fighter.
He didn't always have to use his fists either. Lawrence Tierney, who is probably best remembered today as the crime boss in Reservoir Dogs, had a well-earned reputation as a dangerous guy when he got a little booze in him, got out of line at a party attended by Murphy, and Murphy intimidated him into leaving with just a few choice words and an icy glare.
As others have noted, this was always meant to be a Wayne-Stewart picture, but if they had cast Murphy, I don't think audiences would have had hard time believing that Murphy could intimidate a bigger man like Lee Marvin; everyone knew who Murphy was: America's most decorated war hero, and probably the only man in Hollywood who played heroes who weren't as tough as he was in real life.
Yes, what about Audie Murphy? Growing up in the fifties and sixties all the guys in my neighborhood dug Audie the best for westerns. It was later when my buddies and I were older did we learn of his war record. He really did in real life what that phony draft dodger Wayne did on a damn Hollywood backlot! My father and other ww2 veterans hated is ass! We bomers alsoi dug Audie because he looked like us and was kicking the bad guys rumps. Though I am black I was still a kid and Audie Murphy looked like all kids no matter what their color. RIP IN PEACE AUDIE MURPHY>
shareWithout Wayne as the star the movie would never have been made.
shareJohn Ford intended this specifically as a Stewart-Wayne vehicle...contrasting their personalities and making the point that time and experience will eventually destroy the ideals of a Stewart character and that you want a Wayne character to settle a frontier...but he can't function in a stable, tamed society.
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