John Wayne starred in some of the best Western movies of all time, but there was one masterpiece that he refused to appear in, calling it a "piece of you-know-what." Wayne got his break in John Ford and John Wayne made nine movies together.

Interestingly, one of John Wayne's best Western movies was directed by Howard Hawks. That movie was Rio Bravo, which tells the story of a group of men trapped in an isolated location fighting off a horde of bad guys trying to get in. This movie was so beloved that it ended up being remade two times, with Wayne and Hawks involved in each version of the story. While this first film has become one of Wayne's masterpieces, he interestingly made it in response to a previous film role he rejected because he felt it was "Communist" in nature, High Noon.

John Wayne Made Rio Bravo In Response To High Noon

John Wayne Rejected A Role In High Noon Because Of Its Themes

John Wayne was initially sought after to star in the 1952 Western film High Noon. Director Fred Zimmerman wanted to cast Wayne as Marshal Will Kane, a lawman who wants to retire, but learns that an outlaw he previously arrested was returning to his town. Will looks to the townspeople he has always protected to help him, but everyone turns their back on him for their own safety and well-being. He is forced to prepare for this battle alone.

Will was disillusioned with the town and his role as a lawman, seeing how the people he swore to protect only look out for themselves. In the end, he disgustingly throws his badge down and leaves. This caused John Wayne to reject the idea outright. He felt it was a comment on Hollywood turning its back on blacklisted artists during the Red Scare. The fact that blacklisted screenwriter Carl Foreman wrote the script wasn't lost on Wayne. He called the film a "piece of you-know-what" (via Roger Ebert):

"What a piece of you-know-what that was. I think it was popular because of the music. Think about it this way. Here’s a town full of people who have ridden in covered wagons all the way across the plains, fightin’ off Indians and drought and wild animals in order to settle down and make themselves a homestead.

And then when three no-good bad guys walk into town and the marshal asks for a little help, everybody in town gets shy. If I’d been the marshal, I would have been so go**amned disgusted with those chicken-livered yellow sons of bi*ches that I would have just taken my wife and saddled up and rode out of there."

What resulted was Gary Cooper starring in the movie instead of Wayne and winning an Academy Award for the performance. On the other hand, seven years later, Wayne decided to make a movie that he felt told a better American story. That film was Rio Bravo. In his movie, Wayne is a sheriff who is holding a powerful rancher's brother for murder. When the rancher sends endless thugs to break him out, Wayne gets help from other people to defend the jail and fight by his side. It was his idea of what real Americans should do.

Despite Their Differences, High Noon & Rio Bravo Are Both Western Classics

Both High Noon & Rio Bravo Are In The National Film Registry

While John Wayne felt that the music was the only reason people liked High Noon, he was mistaken. The movie picked up seven Academy Award nominations and won four of them. This included the music score by Dimitri Tiomkin and Best Song for "The Ballad of High Noon." It was also nominated for Best Motion Picture, Best Director, and even Best Screenplay for Carl Foreman. The Library of Congress also added it to the National Film Registry as one of the first films for preservation in 1989.

However, Rio Bravo was also highly ed, even though it told a different story from High Noon. While Wayne and Hawks wanted to give Americans their look at the idealized Wild West, it wasn't as successful when released and received no Oscar consideration. However, it received two loose remakes: El Dorado and Rio Lobo, also directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne. In 2014, the Library of Congress finally added it to the National Film Registry for preservation.

The two Western films remain beloved classics and are highly ed. High Noon is known as a movie that changed the perception of Westerns from being a male-centric tale of good and evil to something more morally conscious, with real people making real decisions. As for Rio Bravo, even though it received little to no awards acclaim, it has been the inspiration for many films, including John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 and even Quentin Tarantino, who called it his favorite "date movie."

Sources: Roger Ebert