Trivia / The Alamo (1960)

• Banned in China: The film was banned in Mexico.
• Billing Displacement: Richard Boone is listed as a main actor on the DVD cover and as a "guest star" in the opening credits of the actual movie. Boone, starring as General Sam Houston, has less than ten minutes of screentime: a monologue at the beginning where he entrusts Colonel William Travis to lead the defenders of the Alamo, and a brief bit near the end where he is informed by Smitty, one of the Alamo's messengers, that no help is coming.
• Box Office Bomb: This was one of the most expensive films ever made at the time, so much so that John Wayne actually had to use his own money to supplement it. This meant that even though the film was one of the top ten grossing films of 1960, it only made back $7.2 million of its $12 million budget. Things however were even worse for Wayne who lost so much money that even after re-mortgaging his home and production company he was still in the red and was forced to sell his share of the film to United Artists and accept Money, Dear Boy parts such as in The Longest Day.
• Cast the Runner-Up: John Wayne originally intended that Richard Widmark should play Davy Crockett, while Wayne himself would have taken the small role of Sam Houston so he could focus his energy on directing the picture. However, Wayne was only able to get financial backing if he played one of the main parts, so he decided to play Crockett and cast Widmark as Jim Bowie.
• Copiously Credited Creator: Directed by, produced by and starring John Wayne.
• Fake American: The English Laurence Harvey as Col. William Travis.
• Hostility on the Set: John Wayne and Richard Widmark famously did not get along during filming. Since Widmark was a liberal Democrat who opposed blacklisting and supported the civil-rights movement and gun control — positions diametrically opposed to Wayne's — it was long rumored that politics had been the cause of the problem. However, Widmark later cited Wayne's lack of directing skills as the reason for the feud. This was something Ken Curtis agreed with, since he remarked that Wayne had no ability to motivate an actor for a scene.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The only way one can be able to view the original version is through the out-of-print VHS and Laserdisc releases from the early-90s and screenings on Turner Classic Movies. DVD and Blu-Ray releases contain the commonly-seen shorter version, which was edited by a half-hour by the film's producer (Wayne's son Michael) only a few weeks after initial release to correspond with city bus schedules. In the meantime, the uncut version has fallen into disrepair and MGM, which owns the negatives, has gone through so many debt issues that there are more important things to do than financing a restoration project. In March 2021, Koch announced that the uncut version will be released as a special feature (in standard-definition) on their upcoming German Blu-Ray release.
• On-Set Injury: Laurence Harvey was injured when a cannon recoiled while firing, with one of the wheels rolling over his foot, fracturing it. He did not reveal his injury until filming of the scene was completed.
• Playing Against Type: Richard Widmark, mostly typed as villains and psychos, here plays heroic, tough as nails all American hero Jim Bowie.
• Real-Life Relative: John Wayne's son Patrick is Capt. James Butler Bonham and his daughter Aissa is Lisa Dickinson.
• Saved from Development Hell: John Wayne spent over a decade trying to get the movie made, going through various projected casts over time. He broke his contract with Republic Pictures over disagreements with the project, and had to have its script rewritten as Republic owned the working one at the time of his exit. In a protracted case of Dueling Movies, Republic had their script rewritten to focus on Col. Jim Bowie instead of Crockett and the final film was released in 1955 as The Last Command, starring Sterling Hayden as Bowie, five years before Wayne's own film. Since the two projects originally had the same writer, it's probably no coincidence that Crockett dies in a similar way in both.
• Throw It In!: Lieutenant Finn's fall from his horse was unscripted and unintentional.
• Wag the Director: An unusual case: John Ford, John Wayne's longtime collaborator, started visiting the set uninvited and offered Wayne advice and criticism on directing the movie. As it was Wayne's first directorial effort, Ford presumably thought Wayne needed some assistance, but it escalated to the point that Ford was overruling Wayne in front of his cast and crew, and threatening to take over the film himself. Wayne eventually grew annoyed by Ford's interference, and sent the director to shoot some second unit footage. Little if any of Ford's footage made it into the finished film, but just the fact that Ford was involved at all caused many critics to assume he directed most of it, to Wayne's chagrin.
• What Could Have Been:
  • John Wayne tried to cast Charlton Heston as Jim Bowie, but Heston wasn't keen on being directed by Wayne and turned down the role.
  • Clark Gable was offered the role of Davy Crockett but turned it down. Though Gable was a Republican who shared Wayne's strident anti-Communist views, he did not want to commit to an expensive project with a first-time director.
  • John Gavin was in the running for Capt. Almaron Dickinson.
  • Sammy Davis Jr. lobbied for the role of Jethro, but Wayne declined to cast him, apparently because some of the film's private investors objected to his relationship with actress May Britt.
  • Wayne wanted Rock Hudson for Colonel Travis. Frank Sinatra was interested, but was unable to fit this into his schedule.
  • William Holden was the original choice for Sam Houston.

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