It’s just come to my notice that veteran film and TV director Andrew V McLaglen has passed at the age of 94. The son of Oscar winner and John Ford favorite Victor McLaglen, his long career in showbusiness makes for impressive reading and some highly entertaining viewing. On TV he directed over a hundred episodes of Have Gun – Will Travel and wasn’t far off that total for Gunsmoke. On the big screen he helmed a number of late-era John Wayne movies and a trio of enjoyable adventures I remember seeing in the cinema back in the day – North Sea Hijack, The Sea Wolves and The Wild Geese.
Sad to hear. He had a number of my favorites and will be sorely missed.
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His was a long career and he got to work with some of the best both in front of and behind the camera.
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A fascinating career, no? The critical assessment seems almost beside the point when you realize he worked with the likes of Kirk Douglas, James Stewart, Mitchum, Burton, Widmark, Wayne, Peck, Niven, Roger Moore, and on and on. An astonishingly long run, which ought to count for something!
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I agree. McLaglen never was a favorite of the critics yet he was always busy and many of his films and shows gave pleasure to plenty of people.
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There was always a certain comfort seeing his name on a credits list. You knew he grew up with the John Ford stock company and by extension John Wayne’s company as well.
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Yes, it’s another link back to the Ford/Wayne crowd broken.
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A director doesn’t have to be the most inspired or individual to be very capable and make some good movies along the way. I’ve enjoyed a fair number of McLaglen’s and at least a few are outstanding, especially the Civil War drama SHENANDOAH (1965), a beautiful film I’d consider his best and it was made in that challenging mid-60s transitional period too. I’d also recommend his very early Western GUN THE MAN DOWN (1956), an early script by Burt Kennedy, with whom McLaglen ran a kind of parallel path through the years, especially after Kennedy too became a director.
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Had the audacity to wipe out Dean Martin and James Stewart. In the same film! Not bad, not bad at all.
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Yes, there is a tendency among critics to speak of the great, visionary directors and, to a greater or lesser extent, dismiss most everybody else. McLaglen made enough good and enjoyable films to deserve a bit more respect. I haven’t watched Shenandoah for many years now but it’s certainly a classy production. Gun the Man Down is a good sparse little movie that is rarely mentioned.
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I hadn’t heard but that is a darn good innings – for some reason I think Sea Wolves is the film of his I have seen the most often
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Last message got sent a bit prematurely – here is part 2: I would add that my personal favourites would be SHENANDOAH, a fine family epic and the sadly underrated FOOL’S PARADE, both starring the great James Stewart.
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You know, I’ve never seen Fool’s Parade – something I need to put right.
Aside from his work on features, both the quantity and quality of his TV output is quite remarkable.
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I had not realised just how extensive his 50s and 60s TV credits were in fact.
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I know what you mean – you don’t expect someone with a pretty extensive cinema catalog to his name to have such a significant number of TV credits as well.
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I have never watched HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL though i know much of it is available and I used to have a soundtrack LP (big fan of Bernard Herrmann, who wrote the original theme and score) – how would you rate it (I’m guessing you are maybe more familiar with it than I am)
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I’d rate it very highly indeed, Sergio. Richard Boone is marvelous in the lead and I think it’s very watchable, even for those wouldn’t regard themselves as major western fans.
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Cheers mate – I shall keep that in mind …
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I’d send you a few sample episodes but I’m kind of between homes just now. Most of them can be found (illegally) on YT of course.
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No need chum, thanks, I did see that there were a few available through the usual YT channels (ahem)
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I really enjoy the noirish Man in the Vault, especially for its climax at a bowling alley, and its location photography which seems to be a staple of those noir-like films from the end of the cycle.
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That’s one of those movies I only caught up with when it came out on DVD a few years ago and I found it a tight and suspenseful thriller.
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I’ve been watching new to me Have Gun Will Travels on Youtube-some kind soul has put up every episode. It strikes me every time, what a well-done tv show it was, with interesting, well-written characters peppering it. Good to know McLaglen had his hand in directing many episodes of this excellent show.
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Sorry I hadn’t a chance to get back to you sooner. It is a great show and it’s nice to know it keeps finding new fans.
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Must admit I haven’t seen much of his work, but, looking at his credits at the imdb, he had an amazing career. I’ve got a James Stewart Westerns box set with a couple of McLaglen’s films that I haven’t watched yet, so will definitely be watching Shenandoah soon after seeing the comments on it here. I was interested to see that he was William Wellman’s assistant director on several films, including the brilliant ‘Track of the Cat’.
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Yes, he had a wealth of experience and worked with a lot of big names in one capacity or another over the years.
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94 years is a good, long run, and he certainly had a long and busy career. Aside from some of the work you cited, I also have a real appreciation for ffolkes (perhaps Roger Moore’s finest hour), CHISUM and THE UNDEFEATED. Not a lot meaningful actually happens in THE UNDEFEATED, which suffers from a lack of a villain, but it’s just such a fun, freewheeling and charming piece of entertainment that I find it endlessly rewatchable. He also worked as assistant director or other crew position on some heavyweight films, including an early gig on THE QUIET MAN. Nice tribute, Colin!
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Yes, even those films which were just so-so always remained highly watchable.
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Watchable is a good word for his work. It’s good to see so many bringing up Gun The Man Down. It’s a really solid little movie.
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That’s a movie I badly need to watch again.
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