Post #588884 by TikiTomD on Thu, May 12, 2011 9:17 AM

Ron,

Really enjoyed the column and hope, like others here, to see it continue and even expanded...

Second only to The Quiet Man, Donovan's Reef is my favorite John Wayne movie, one I have in my personal DVD library. It was the last time that Wayne and John Ford made a picture together.

Regarding Bigbrotiki's note on Ford's yacht appearing in the film, according to Luis Reyes' book, Made in Paradise - Hollywood's Films of Hawaii and the South Seas, it was the screen debut of Ford's 110-foot Araner: "The Araner, portraying Wayne's trading ship in the picture, was made available by Ford to the Navy during World War II and served as the U.S.S. Araner from January 1942 to July 1944."

The two teenage daughters of Mike Mazurki were on the movie set with him. One of them, Michelle Mazurki, recalls in Herb Fagen's book, Duke, We're Glad We Knew You that "One day we were all standing around doing whatever, and they needed a stand-in for John Wayne. John Ford was there with that patch over his eye and with his hat on, and he's looking around. He's yelling for John Wayne's stand-in. Everyone is looking bewildered and kind of nodding at each other. Somehow they managed to forget to arrange a stand-in for John Wayne. Ford looks around and he decides that because I was the tallest person, I would stand in for Duke. All of the extras were dark-haired natives who were five feet or under. My sister and I were both over six feet tall and we were blonde. John Ford was running up and down the set and took one look at us and goes 'Put hats on those two.'... He points to me and goes, 'You, you'll be John Wayne's stand-in!' So I became the only woman who ever stood in for John Wayne in a movie."

-Tom