February 29 Birthday Wishes

William Wellman [1896 - 1975]

Edward Faulkner [1932 - ]

Ed Faulkner will be one of the celebrity guests at this year's Memphis film festival (along with L/Q. Jones, Clint Walker, Hugh O'Brian, James Drury, Ty Hardin, Will Hutchins, Roberta Shore, and numerous others). When I think of Ed Faulkner the first film that comes to mind is Chisum with John Wayne. Always enjoyed his work. As to William Wellman, he directed some of Hollywood's best pictures, Track ofthe Cat being one of my favoirites. Have a story on how that film came to be that includes John Wayne in the story if anyone is interested. Sean McClory told me the story..

Yes please Tom I'd like to hear the story as I recently wached the film again after many years since I had originally saw it.

Manco, here is how Track of the Cat came to be according to Sean McClory. It all started with a movie Sean was in that John Wayne's company was produicing called Ring of Fear.



“I spent about three or four weeks traveling with the
circus to get used to it before we started shooting,” Sean said. “We first went
to Demming, New
Mexico with the Clyde Beatty
Circus. It was so cold down there you could see the goosebumps because this was
the second Cinemascope picture made and the actor’s face was six feet wide on
the screen. They obviously didn't want that, so we went to Phoenix
and shot the rest of the picture there. James Edward Grant was the writer. Duke
gave him the directing job because they had been pals for years. Jimmy appeared
on the set the first day with the martini's, and said, ‘Okay, let’s sit and let
me hear the lyrics.’ So we do them. He said, ‘Okay, I see that you know them.
Let's shoot it.’ I said, ‘But James, where do we move?’ He said, ‘You’re
actors, you know where to move. Move.’ So after two days of this I was on the
phone to Bob Fellows, and said, ‘We can’t work this way.’ He said, ‘Sean, I
don’t know what to tell you. See if you can help him and suggest to him the
moves and whatnot.’ I said, ‘I don’t think he’s going to take too nicely to
that.’ He said, ‘Well, do the best you can because were in the middle of a
thing here with Duke, trying to get this sealed up. None of us can come down,
so do the best you can.’ Now here is my big chance. I’m starred in this movie
and there’s no help from James. He’s a nice guy, mind you, except you can’t
operate when you’re drunk. Pat O’Brien was saying, ‘Sean, just take the money
and run.’ But it was more than that to me. I wanted this film to make my
impression, and unfortunately it didn’t because we didn’t have the right
direction.


“When
we came back at Christmas time I got a call and was told that we had to go back
and re-shoot seventy-nine pages of the script. I said, ‘Not with Jimmy again.’
They said, ‘No. Bill Wellman is going to do it.’ Wellman had made a deal with
them on that. He said, ‘I won't take any money for this as long as you buy me
the rights to a movie I want to do, produce it, and let me direct it. Then I’ll
do this for you. That’s how Track of the
Cat got made."

Nice story. Thanks for telling it. There must be a million behind the scenes stories like that for alomst every film eve made.

William Wellman....Wow! What a great director! I remember seeing Wings and thought that movie, with the aerial photography, in 1927, was just ahead of it's time! And he made so many great movies: A Star Is Born (1937), The Public Enemy, Beau Geste, The Ox-Bow Incident, Buffalo Bill, Battleground, The High and the Mighty.

Ed Faulkner did 5 films with the Duke: McLintock, The Green Berets, Rio Lobo, Chisum, and Hellfighters.

Howdy Pards!!

Great story, Tom!! I didn't recognize the name Edward Faulker, until I saw the picture. I think the Duke musta liked the fella, cuz he appeared as a supporting actor in several of Wayne's films. Strangely enough, I do recognize the name Sean McClory. This fella played some sort of Irish dandy, rogue, criminal mastermind in every t.v. western you can name. He had a thick Irish brogue and could really roll his R's and I always enjoyed his acting.
As I recall, Track Of The Cat starred Robert Mitchum in one of the few roles that he played a bad guy in. He played the cowardly, loudmouthed, bullying brother to Tab Hunter as I recollect. Good Film!!

Ed