This is another unimaginative use of Wayne’s talent by Hollywood bigwigs. Thankfully Red River was finally released the following year (it’s was held up for two years by Howard Hughes) and Wayne fans finally got to see him act. If not for that film and John Ford calling on him again for Fort Apache, he might have been consigned to this kind of thing for the remainder of his career.
Big Jim McLain (1952)
Wayne and James Arness head to Hawaii to sniff out communists as federal agents for the House Committee on Un-American Activities and while there, Duke falls in love with Nancy Olson.
This is a snapshot of a reprehensible time is US history and a shameful period for Hollywood in particular. It’s also a truly awful film with no redeeming features.
Badly written and ineptly directed, this ranks alongside The Conqueror and Jet Pilot as the worst films of Wayne’s career. The film is trying for a Dragnet-style documentary feel but with at least three people doing voiceovers, it takes it too far; it almost feels like a parody of that type of story.
If you’re going to call a character Big Jim McLain, you’d expect him to be the biggest guy in the film, but Arness was a good two inches taller than Duke. This obviously gave the scriptwriter cause for concern, so we repeatedly have characters asking how tall Wayne is (6’ 4”) to avoid any misconception that he may be a midget.
Wayne looks like he’s having a good time and with much of the film shot on location in Hawaii, it’s no wonder. From an acting point of view he seems uninterested, but this isn’t a film about character, it's about making a political statement. Big Jim McLain makes Wayne’s The Alamo and The Green Berets seem positively restrained by comparison.
The plot is almost nonexistent and you get the feeling the romance with Nancy Olson is only there to pad out the running time. Its “communism is bad” message is repeated incessantly, with Wayne encountering a couple of people who used to be commies but came to their senses and realised they were being exploited.
This is a curio and essential viewing for anyone interested in the communist witch-hunts of the ‘50s as it gives a real sense of the paranoia of the times. As a piece of entertainment however it’s sadly lacking and ranks as the worst film in this set.
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