Towards the tail end of his career, John Wayne started to think that Hollywood was passing him by. He was right to a certain extent, with his persona becoming increasingly dated as the industry pivoted in a new direction defined by daring, dangerous, and boundary-pushing storytelling.
For ‘The Duke’, it wasn’t where he wanted the business to go. He’d maintained an ironclad set of onscreen principles for decades, and even when he knew change was afoot, he continued to lean into the tropes that had helped enshrine him as one of cinema’s most iconic stars.
As the 1960s gave way to the 1970s and the ‘New Hollywood’ movement entered full swing, there was another pressing concern for Wayne: a guy called Clint Eastwood. The success of the Dollars trilogy, Dirty Harry, Hang ‘Em High, and High Plains Drifter saw him anointed as the pretender to the throne who represented a new era for heroic stoicism and threatened to become the new face of the western genre.
Needless to say, ‘The Duke’ wasn’t best pleased about it, and there was simmering tension between the two superstars. Looking at Eastwood from afar, Wayne decided that if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, which saw him agree to star in 1974’s action thriller McQ for the sole purpose of trying to play – and defeat – the upstart at their own game.
That might scan as an exaggeration, but it isn’t. Wayne literally said the only reason he signed on was because, “I thought I could be Dirty Duke,” seeking to not only prove he could do what Eastwood was doing but also atone for the sin of turning down Dirty Harry. Hollywood is often a place of swings and roundabouts, and there’s a cruel irony to ‘The Duke’ headlining McQ.
In Paul Nelson’s book, Conversations with Clint, the author referred to Wayne’s ripoff as “an imitation Dirty Harry that was just embarrassing,” which led to Eastwood dropping a massive bombshell. “I know,” he agreed. “In fact, one of them was originally written for me: McQ. I passed on it.”
It really is a small world after all. Wayne had turned down the opportunity to play Harry Callahan, and after Eastwood stepped in, turned the character into an icon, and became cinema’s coolest leading man, he was wracked with jealousy and sent scrambling to find another similar project.
That led him to McQ, which had initially been offered to Eastwood, who realised that it didn’t have the makings of a very good picture. He passed, ‘The Duke’ accepted, and John Sturges’ feature was summarily dismissed by critics and audiences, who all said the same thing: why is John Wayne so blatantly trying to knock off Clint Eastwood? Ego, mostly, not that it went according to plan.