One Year After Stagecoach, John Wayne & John Ford Made A 100% RT Best Picture Nominee

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Only a year after making Stagecoach, John Ford and John Wayne worked together again on a lesser-known but highly-rated film, The Long Voyage Home – it currently has a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. In total, Ford and Wayne made 14 films together, starting with the 1939 classic Stagecoach, which launched Wayne’s career and helped define the Western genre.

They worked together sporadically over several years, but their partnership truly flourished in 1948 when they filmed two classic Westerns, Fort Apache and 3 Godfathers. This success launched a series of outstanding collaborations between Ford and Wayne that continued throughout the 1950s and even after.

Most people focus on a few key films from this time in their careers – especially Stagecoach – and that means one important part of their work often gets overlooked.

Long Voyage Home Was A Box Office Failure, But A Solid Outing From John Wayne & John Ford

A year later, John Ford directed The Long Voyage Home, a drama set on a British ship at the start of World War II. The film explores the challenges and emotional difficulties faced by the passengers and crew as they waited to return home.

John Wayne starred as Ole, a young Swede traveling on the ship in the film. While Wayne receives prominent credit, Thomas Mitchell as Driscoll is the central character. Driscoll saves Ole in the movie’s exciting finale when sailors from another ship attempt to take him prisoner.

While The Long Voyage Home didn’t deliver as much action as fans might have expected from Ford and Wayne’s Stagecoach, it compensated with strong character development. Wayne gave a particularly good performance, playing a charming and kind-hearted character, complete with a pet parrot.

Despite not being a box office success, The Long Voyage Home was well-received by critics and earned several Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. This critical acclaim still holds today, as the film currently has a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Long Voyage Home Was An Early Acting Challenge For John Wayne

In Scott Eyman’s biography, John Wayne: The Life and the Legend, the role of Ole in The Long Voyage Home proved difficult for Wayne. Because Ole was a Swedish character, Wayne had to work with a dialect coach to learn the accent.

Wayne’s worries about playing Ole weren’t just about the character being Swedish. According to Eyman, Wayne was deliberately creating a public image of not considering himself a serious actor. This made sense because the cowboy roles he played in the 1930s weren’t known for being complex or deeply developed characters.

As Eyman points out, the character of Ole was quite sensitive, requiring Wayne to deliver a more emotionally nuanced performance. The Long Voyage Home challenged Wayne to step outside his usual roles, and ultimately became one of the films that showcased a different side of “the Duke.”

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2026-01-12 04:58