John Wayne branded ‘idiot’ Gone with the Wind star ‘too stupid to do anything except act’ – My Blog
The scene of Gardner being pushed into a mud pool by a baby elephant was only captured because Ford ignored the actress’ cries for help as he encouraged the crew to keep shooting.According to Turner Classic Movies: “Gable and Ford had known each other for years, but their personalities clashed when working together. Ford lost patience with what he thought were Gable’s needless requests for retakes and by the end of the shooting Ford and Gable were not even speaking to each other. And they never worked together again.”Wayne’s daughter has shared specifically why this grated on her father.In her book John Wayne: My Father, Aissa wrote: “During the filming of Mogambo, Ford and Gable had clashed again and again and the subsequent feud had simmered for years. In my father’s way of thinking, disloyalty to allies, support in any fashion for their enemies, was expressly forbidden. If Clark Gable took on John Ford, my father’s code demanded that John Wayne stand by his old pal.”As a result of his loyalty to Ford, Duke made some extremely rude comments about Gable: “[He’s] extremely handsome in person. That’s one guy that doesn’t need Hollywood to make him look good. But Gable’s an idiot. You know why Gable’s an actor? It’s the only thing he’s smart enough to do.”His daughter also shared why her father thought the Gone with the Wind star wouldn’t be able to have another career outside of acting.Wayne saw himself as more of a star than an actor, which was in contrast to Gable’s view of being a thespian.Duke said: “I don’t act at all, I react. In a bad picture, you see them acting all over the place. In a good picture, they react in a logical way to a situation they’re in, so the audience can identify with them. All I do is sell sincerity, and I’ve been selling the hell out of that since I started. I was never one of the little theatre boys. That arty crowd has only surface brilliance anyway. Real art is basic emotion. If a scene is handled with simplicity – and I don’t mean simple – it’ll be good and the public will know it.”
