Mary Ford was so VERY tolerant of her husband's self-indulgent shenanigans that she just naturally offered the same tolerance to Wayne and Bond while Pappy was away "directing World War II." I think the two pals helped fill a void for Mary, and Bond spend a lot of time with Ford's children...

By the time Wayne worked on STAGECOACH, he had become very frustrated with the formulaic B Westerns that he'd been making since the commercial failure of THE BIG TRAIL. The only time a "reconciliation" occurred between Ford and Wayne was at Pappy's discretion. Ford didn't offer an explanat...

It's great to be here again today! I, too, find HITLER: DEAD OR ALIVE very entertaining, especially Bond's rip-roaring speech at the end. Ward seems not to have turned down roles, and was never afraid to take on any kind of part. HITLER is the only feature film in which he receives top billing, so I...

Thank you for your kind comments. It's been a true pleasure responding to so many excellent questions from so many learned film folk. I look forward to doing it again all day Sunday, so bring it on! I'll still be here!

Thanks for the great comments about ON DANGEROUS GROUND, one of my all-time favorite films. I always cringe a little when I see Bond struggling to run in the snow, as his bad leg injury had to be hurting terribly. His character is quite well developed in the film. I also like Nicholas Ray, and Rober...

Thanks for your comments, Dwayne. I wish I could have interviewed the mighty Woody Strode! What an incredible human being.

First of all, Ford didn't care for widescreen because he said something like, "Now there's more space that I have to fill up!" Ford's compositions in the standard 1:33 ratio are often like a shot in the widescreen format: by using depth as well as width, he often fills the frame with a lar...

Hello, Dwayne. Lee Marvin: a truly great subject for a book. I hope it's doing well for you! As to Ford's appreciation of 60s directors, he didn't really talk about the subject much. I know that he really didn't like some of the technical innovations, such as widescreen. He preferred shooting in the...

Yes, I think Bond was a bit progressive regarding race relations. I believe he considered people as individuals, pure and simple. As to his interest in music, he loved to play the piano and sing, especially when with friends and at parties, where he could perform his impressions, but I doubt if he c...

Yes, DeMille's views bordered on paranoid, and he actually wanted to push the issue to a truly un-Constitutional level. I have not heard (or heard of) an actual recording of Ford's response, but it would be wonderful if such an artifact exists. I could find no actual responses made by Wayne or Bond ...

Like Ford and Bond, Wayne had a problem with alcohol, which often made him difficult to get along with, sometimes with friends and sometimes with his wives. He could get quite violent at times, as do so many people who tend to abuse alcohol. Most of the time, though, Wayne was a good friend and comp...

Thanks very much, Sue. I appreciate your comments about Shirley Temple, since I am an admirer of her early films, which are wonderful to watch and so important in the culture of the Great Depression. Yes, Darryl Zanuck thought he would punish Ford by forcing him to direct a Temple film, but she ulti...

You've asked some difficult questions, and hopefully I've answered them satisfactorily in my book! The quips about Bond are quite superficial. Yes, he could be a blowhard, but this was just one outward aspect of a very complex man. His politics were conservative but he was quite liberal in terms of ...

There really was no outward "competition" between Wayne and Bond, and Ward always seemed to enjoy being a working actor. Bond proved far more versatile than Wayne, and he played a staggering array of character parts for nearly every great Hollywood director. Duke and Ward always maintained...

Thanks for your question! Yes, that is good ol' Hank Fonda crouching down there. This was taken on one of Ford's legendary fishing and carousing excursions with his favorite pals. The photo at one time belonged to Fonda. I'll certainly appreciate it if my book winds up on your bookshelf!