Richard Boone was great. Very great. If "unsung."
He made his fame and his fortune on TV as a good guy in " Have Gun, Will Travel." But as that show closed down in the early sixties, Boone took movie roles in which he was usually the villain. It was interesting: he brought charisma and charm to both types of roles; his heroes were menacing(Rio Conchos, Goodnight My Love), his bad guys had a certain charm(Hombre, Big Jake, The Shootist -- and a modern-day Cold War spy thriller called The Kremlin Letter, where he's a very bad Good Guy.)
According to the late Boone's wife, John Wayne, having used Boone for a cameo as General Sam Houston in The Alamo(1960), offered Boone the bad guy role in all manner of 60's Westerns, but Boone either didn't have the time or was waiting for a GOOD villain role to play. I'm guessing that the villains in The Sons of Katie Elder, El Dorado, The War Wagon, True Grit, and Chisum simply weren't big enough parts, or good enough parts, to interest Boone.
But John Fain in Big Jake was developed on a certain large scale with a certain amount of depth and -- courtesy of the co-writers of Dirty Harry the same year -- some great lines (like the "your fault, my fault, nobody's fault" speech.)
So Boone took the part, for $80,000 (versus Wayne's one million), and with only four scenes on screen -- the latter two, wonderfully versus John Wayne himself.
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ecarle (14979)
6 years ago
Boone and Wayne get one scene about mid-picture, where neither man reveals exactly who he is to the other. Boone doesn't know that Wayne is his kidnap victim's grandfather; Wayne doesn't know that Boone is the leader of the kidnap gang("I'm just an Indian," says Boone, "not the chief.") Wayne lays down his position: "I'm to deliver the boy alive or you and your men dead, each and every one of you. Getting the boy back is easier, but truth be told, it doesn't matter to me." Cold words but "final" : live boy or dead gang. Nothing in between.
For his part Boone speaks with weird sympathy about other bad guys after the money, but then gets ice cold and pragmatic: "If you (lose the money to other bad guys) we won't be understanding and we won't give you another chance. We'll just send that boy back to you in a bag.")
"Big Jake" reflects the new tough and bloody Western exemplified by the Eastwood spaghetti Westerns and the ultra-violent Wild Bunch. Wayne's movie doesn't go THAT far, but what is clear is that Wayne and Boone are playing professionals who won't back down from killing each other and who are ruthless. Its refreshing.
And then they get their finale confrontation, in which identities are revealed and both men get to delvier the "your fault, my fault, nobody's fault" speech (which sounds a lot like Dirty Harry's twice-delivered "Did he fire six shots or only five" speech.)
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ecarle (14979)
6 years ago
For my money, Richard Boone delivered the goods -- great line readings, great body language(he was a great finger pointer) and huge charisma these times after Have Gun Will Travel:
Rio Conchos(a movie where Boone gets top billing for once, and plays a "bad good guy" on a mission)
Hombre (A great villain pitted against Paul Newman's laconic, stoic hero)
Cimarron Strip(a TV episode with Rio Conchos co-star Stuart Whitman as the series star and Boone as guest)
The Kremlin Letter(a John Huston spy movie; Boone with white hair and no moustache is delightful and evil)
Big Jake(up against the Duke and his equal in size, voice and presence)
Goodnight, My Love(Boone is pure deadpan montone as the big partner with dwarf Michael Dunn as private eyes)
The Shootist(a smaller "cameo villain" in the last John Wayne movie)
Those movies (and TV appearances) give you maxium Entertainment Boone.
But he did other things as well.
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