Big Jake

1909. Jacob McCandles, long estranged from his family, is called back when his grandson is kidnapped. The ransom is a million dollars. He agrees to carry it, but brings two sons, an Apache tracker and his dog. All along the way people tell him they had heard he was dead. George Sherman directed, his last film, and John Wayne is said to have shot parts of it uncredited. Wayne plays Jake, Richard Boone the head kidnapper, Maureen O'Hara his wife. The cast is a family gathering. Wayne's real son Patrick plays one of the sons and his young son Ethan plays the kidnapped grandson. Christopher Mitchum is the other son. O'Hara and Wayne appeared together here for the fifth and final time. The period is chosen deliberately: cars and motorcycles exist now, but the job still comes down to horses and guns. It belongs to the years when the western was narrating its own ending. Who it is for: fans of late-period Wayne westerns. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the violence softened; the film is rough for its time.