The Only Western John Wayne Regretted Making

It was supposed to be a tough but tender father-son story, with Wayne playing a stoic lawman trying—and mostly failing—to connect with his two rebellious boys.

Instead, it flopped. Hard.

"It just wasn't a well-done picture," Wayne said bluntly in a 1975 interview. "It needed better writing, it needed a little better care in making."

The idea had promise. The script followed a veteran U.S. Marshal so committed to justice that he fails his own family—and ends up hunting his own sons after they're implicated in a bank robbery. But what was meant to be layered and emotional just felt heavy-handed and flat.

Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen—who had worked with Wayne on more than half a dozen previous films—Cahill marked the end of their collaboration. McLaglen defended the film as "a very deep, personal story," but Wayne never worked with him again.

"This is not the usual John Wayne movie. It's a very deep, personal story about children neglected by a father who is just trying to do his job."

– Director Andrew V. McLaglen

Critics didn't buy it either. The Los Angeles Times called it "a joyless slog." Others slammed it as a tone-deaf attempt to reach a younger audience that had already moved on from the traditional Western. One review said it looked like "Wayne chasing his own legend with a tired horse and a scolding finger."

At the box office, it barely earned back its $4 million budget—a disappointment for Wayne, who was used to pulling steady numbers even as the genre faded.

Behind the scenes, things were just as grim. Wayne was 65, visibly weakened from cancer surgery that left him with one lung. He had emphysema. He had to use a stepladder to mount his horse. His stunt double had to be used more often than usual—not for big falls, but just to keep up with simple action scenes.

To make matters worse, Cahill came out right between two much better-received Wayne films: The Cowboys (1972) and Rooster Cogburn (1975). Compared to those, it looked even more dated and awkward.

In the end, Wayne chalked it up as a misfire. He never disowned it, but he never stopped criticizing it either. Coming from a man who survived The Conqueror and kept a straight face through Jet Pilot, that says something.