John Wayne Said He Was Miscast in This John Ford Flop
John Wayne rarely second-guessed himself on screen. Swagger and certainty were his whole brand. But there was one film where even Wayne admitted something didn't sit right — and it came from a director he both revered and feared: John Ford.
The movie in question is Donovan's Reef (1963), a broad island-set comedy that stuck out like a sore thumb in the long Ford-Wayne partnership. Despite working together on 14 films — including The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance — this one never quite landed. And even Wayne knew why.
"I felt awkward romancing a young girl at my age," he later admitted. "The script really called for a younger guy."
Wayne was 55 during filming, and the film paired him with actress Elizabeth Allen, who was 22 years younger — and looked even more so, thanks to Wayne's hard-lived features. Before filming began, he'd lobbied hard for Maureen O'Hara, his go-to co-star and Ford favorite, to take the role instead. At 13 years his junior, she'd already matched him in The Quiet Man and Rio Grande without the same visual gap. Ford refused.
His response? Classic Ford cruelty:
"Are you going to be the one who tells her she's perfect because she's old?"
Wayne backed down. Allen kept the part. But the discomfort stuck — and it showed.
Meanwhile, the production itself wasn't exactly smooth sailing. Ford's health was deteriorating, and the shoot — set in French Polynesia — quickly turned chaotic.
Here's what went wrong:
- Wayne and co-star Lee Marvin drank heavily throughout the shoot
- Scheduling fell apart due to constant late-night benders
- Ford, struggling physically, was unable to keep his usual tight grip
- The film leaned into broad comedy — a genre that didn't play to Wayne's strengths
The premise had promise: three aging WWII buddies living the good life on a South Pacific island until one's grown daughter arrives to stir things up. But between the tonal mismatch, Ford's fading control, and the awkward romantic subplot, Donovan's Reef flopped — critically and artistically.
While the film technically made back its budget, it's gone down as one of the least-loved entries in the Ford-Wayne canon. And unlike some of Wayne's later missteps (The Conqueror says hello), this one came with the added sting of self-awareness.
Looking back, Wayne took the rare step of admitting fault — not with the script or the director, but with himself.
"I didn't dig it," he said bluntly. "And I hated doing it throughout the whole trip."
Coming from a guy who rarely blinked, that's saying something.