As someone who looks back on my father’s presence in my own life with a kind of wry affection, I know that this little movie captured something real between the two characters. I hope that someday your daughter can see Trouble Along the Way and appreciate that aspect of the story as well.

Thanks for taking the time to share your observations.

Moira

I often wish that John Wayne had made fewer, better written movies, (especially in the last years of his career). Despite this quibble, from the time he first appeared in Raoul Walsh’s failure, The Big Trail, in the great Ford films, the Wellman movies of the early ’50s and several, but by no means all, of the Howard Hawks and Henry Hathaway movies, each of these gave the actor a showcase for his particular gifts, blending an almost feminine athletic grace with a raw earnestness that remains quite moving.

Roberta, I haven’t seen Father Was a Fullback in some time, but remember it was pretty amusing. Perhaps it should be part of a football-inspired festival that could be composed of movies like this one, the MacMurray feature and other films devoted to the gridiron come September?

Jacqueline, I’d also like to see one just devoted to the films of Dabbs Greer and Tom Tully too!

Thanks for taking time to add your comments here.

And yes, I too still hear constantly that Wayne only “played himself”. Usually from people who have seen only a handful of his films, and quite a long time ago. When you start to watch more of his work with an open mind, you come to quite a different conclusion.

Hi Al and RHS:
I must hasten to add my admiration for Marie Windsor, (especially in Narrow Margin), to the accolades both you and RHS are tossing this good actress’s way. Many film noir lovers share your interest in the lady.

At the website “Modern Times” you can read an interview with Marie Windsor touching on everything from Kubrick, Force of Evil, Abraham Polonsky to how you work with short guys like Raft and Garfield when you’re 5’9″ tall. It is found here.

Al asked “Did TCM ever interview her?”

In 1999, TCM devoted an entire Summer of Darkness to Film Noir. One of the features of that period was an extended filmed interview conducted by Scott Glenn with four of the ladies who threw that genre its darkest curves: Marie Windsor, Audrey Totter, Colleen Gray, and Jane Greer.

If you would like to read a transcript of that interview, please click here. I think that you might enjoy it enormously.

I would also recommend some great books: “Killer Tomatoes: Fifteen Tough Film Dames” by Ray Hagen and Laura Wagner as well as “Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir” by Eddie Muller as great reads with some first hand info about Marie Windsor and other hardworking actresses.

I hope our pal, author Alan K. Rode of the Film Noir Foundation may stumble on this mention of Marie and put some of his well-informed two cents in here too!

Maybe we could figure out a way to do a profile of Ms. Windsor on the Morlocks someday soon. She always sounded like a great dame and played the role of John Wayne‘s ex-wife with great brio. I also suspect that she may have tried to approach the role with some sympathy toward her limited character’s lack of choices in life. The mother seemed to be a rather desperate woman grasping at straws, and one of those “straws” just happened to be her daughter. Too bad it was the fifties, and Marie wound up being a bit of a sketchier character than necessary.

Btw, Al, I’ve run across many, many people who still dismiss Wayne‘s acting and when they do give him some credit, it is usually given in a left-handed way by ascribing his characterizations to the gifted director John Ford rather than anything he might have brought to a part. Some of that is political, of course, just as it colors the opinions one still runs across of Jane Fonda.