The Hollywood basic John Wayne condemned as ‘Marxist propaganda’

Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus could not have been extra controversial upon its launch in 1960.

Title star Kirk Douglas took an enormous threat in permitting blacklisted communist screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, one of many Hollywood Ten, to pen the Oscar-winning Roman epic with out having to make use of a buddy’s identify rather than his personal.

The scribe had beforehand taken a clandestine method to his work following his ostracisation from the movie business years earlier.

Nevertheless, Trumbo nonetheless managed to win two Academy Awards beneath different names for Roman Holiday and The Brave One.

As a consequence, John Wayne and the right-wing National Legion of Decency condemned the film as “Marxist propaganda” and picketed the blockbuster upon its launch.

It was solely when John F Kennedy went to see Spartacus and known as it “good” did this blacklisting actually finish. Despite this political loss, Wayne ended up working with Douglas on Cast a Giant Shadow and In Harm’s Way, earlier than making 1967’s The War Wagon.

During the latter’s manufacturing, Douglas was late to set as he had been capturing a business to endorse Edmund G Brown, a Democrat, as Governor of California. This enraged Wayne, a life-long conservative, who was late himself the following day as he’d been filming an advert to endorse the Republican candidate, fellow actor and future US President Ronald Reagan.

Although the 2 Hollywood stars had their political variations they did ultimately change into buddies and had a mutual respect for one another. Douglas later stated in a 1971 interview: “We get alongside effectively, we by no means talk about politics. But he’s the primary man on the set, the toughest employee I’ve ever labored with, and I feel he’s fairly a personality.”