In days of old, there were precious few opportunities to see documentaries about the making of specific films. In 1960, John Wayne hosted "The Spirit of the Alamo", a one-hour publicity special for his epic film. In 1965, the James Bond film "Thunderball" was promoted with a one hour prime time TV special, a strategy that was repeated in 1967 for "You Only Live Twice". However, these were the exceptions. In most cases, "making of" documentaries were short featurettes lasting between five and ten minutes on average. Movie fans would only encounter them by accident. American viewers might catch one of them if a network needed something to fill some time gap, such as a rain delay in a live baseball game. The only way die-hard movie buffs could watch such films on demand required access to a 16mm film projector and the ability to know where to purchase them on the collector's circuit. Things were more liberal in the UK, where a thriving 8mm collector's market made it possible for fans to purchase full length feature films and occasionally production shorts. Today, of course, even the most inconsequential feature films generally have "making of" featurettes included on DVD and Blu-ray releases. If you're a John Wayne fan, you might like to know that buried in the thousands of unpromoted indie titles available for streaming on Amazon Prime is "John Wayne: Behind the Scenes", a mishmash compilation of featurettes pertaining to the Duke's films between 1967 and 1975.The quality ranges from awful to barely acceptable, but that doesn't diminish the pleasure of indulging in the short films.
The compilation isn't a documentary, per se. It's simply a group of individual promotional featurettes strung together without any narration. The shorts included pertain to the following films:
"The War Wagon" (1967): this rather lengthy featurette covers the making of the fun-filled Western that paired Wayne with Kirk Douglas. It remains one of the Duke's most popular films among fans. The featurette is primarily geared to showing the logistics involved in staging the film's centerpiece fight scene, a big barroom brawl and shows Wayne, Douglas and co-star Howard Keel working with the stunt crew to stage the elaborate scene. The narration is hokey but it does give a good idea of how much work and precise timing goes into filming a major action set piece.
"The Green Berets" (!968): Wayne's propaganda film in support of the Vietnam War was predictably quite controversial in its day but still grossed a sizable sum. Wayne, who starred and directed, is shown overseeing the staging of a major battle scene along with co-stars David Janssen and a young and unidentified George Takei.
"The Undefeated" (!969): is a relatively short featurette in which the movie's plot about a major drive of horse herds to Mexico is narrated by a horse! (Actually, the voice of Chill Wills, who had provided the voice of Francis the Talking Mule in the feature film series.) The movie shows glimpses of Wayne and co-star Rock Hudson, but most of the footage is dedicated to the challenge of working with hundreds of horses. (Stunt legend and future director Hal Needham can be seen in some scenes.)
"Chisum" (!970): John Wayne's first feature film following his Oscar win for "True Grit" is commemorated by a mere TV spot. It isn't a featurette at all, but does open with footage of Wayne at the Academy Awards showing off the Oscar to adoring crowds.
"The Cowboys" (972): One of Wayne's very best films. The featurette is excellent, too, as it shows director Mark Rydell working with trained young actors who didn't know how to ride horses and, conversely, boys who could ride horses but couldn't act!
"Cahill: U.S. Marshall" (1973): One of Wayne's few late career duds, "Cahill" is not generally fondly remembered by his fans. The featurette is unremarkable, as well.
"McQ" (1974): Wayne made a surprisingly good detective film with this title. Unfortunately, the "Behind the Scenes" relegates coverage of the movie to the theatrical trailer. A pity, since a featurette was made that showed how the film's spectacular car chase on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state was filmed. As a public service, we are presenting the featurette here.
"Brannigan" (1975): Wayne was back in detective mode, co-starring with Richard Attenborough in this fun romp set in London. The lengthy featurette shows Wayne enjoying the sights and sounds of the city and charming the locals. It also interviews Attenborough, who was not an action star, about his trepidation in squaring off against the Duke in a major pub brawl.
Considering how many other featurettes were available but left off this compilation is a bit frustrating but beggars can't be choosers and Wayne fans will enjoy this trek down Memory Lane.