poeme / secret garden
The Sons of Katie Elder / Part 3
Henry Hathaway / Director
“To be a good director you’ve got to be a bastard.
I’m a bastard and I know it.”
– Henry Hathaway
Thought I’d do a little profile on Henry Hathaway, the Director of Sons of Katie Elder. Initially John Sturges ( Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963) ) was supposed to Direct and Alan Ladd was to Star. Ladd bought out his contract with Paramount and left. Film rights were picked up by Producer Hal Wallis and it was announced Dean Martin would Star. But somewhere along the line John Wayne and Hathaway stepped in.
Hathaway directed about 24 Westerns in his career – 67 movies in total between 1929 to 1974 – including John Wayne’s: North to Alaska (1960) and True Grit (1969) – for which John Wayne (1969) won an Oscar. Quite a career. Yet Hathaway’s Directing style seems to have been purely business like – straight forward, bread and butter, and no frills – and he received little recognition and no awards for his work. Not that he seemed to care.
“There’s lots of nice guys walking around Hollywood but they’re not eating.”
– Henry Hathaway
According to one source, Hathaway was an assistant Director under a guy called Victor Fleming on a movie called The Wolf Song (1929). Fleming went on to Direct The Wizard of OZ (1939)and Gone with the Wind (1939) – among several other classics. If your going to understudy with somebody, it might as well be a Master.
Wolf Song has a number of rather wonderful and incredible images.
My first impression when I looked at these images was that
popular modern cinema has lost something.
And I’d say that something is Art.
Lupe Velez and a camera got along pretty good.
Next: The Sons of Katie Elder / Part 4
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This was another great post on Dean Martins Westerns. I really like all the black and white pictures they did . I’m hoping to get another post up on my page in a few days to.
Thanks
Some photographers specialize in monochrome images. Some movie Directors like John Ford were Masters of B&W composition.
Those are the first photos I have seen of Hathaway.
He was an ‘in charge’ guy. But he and Wayne seemed to get along. There aren’t many pics of him that’s for sure.