cult film freak: DON SIEGEL DIRECTS JOHN WAYNE'S FINAL FILM 'THE SHOOTIST'

Title: THE SHOOTIST Stars: John Wayne, Hugh O'Brien Year: 1976 Rating: ***1/2

Don Siegel's THE SHOOTIST seems perfectly suited as John Wayne's final movie since it's about the final week of an infamous gunslinger dying of cancer (given the news by a doctor played by James Stewart); yet there was a string of slightly younger actors considered before a surprisingly healthy-looking Wayne took the now legendary role...

Where his acting is solid, true, even mellow despite the fact he's about to die while almost getting killed at the same time, contrasting with a horribly-miscast Ron Howard as the whiny son of Lauren Bacall, running a bed-and-breakfast where Wayne's holed-up, getting sporadic THIS IS YOUR LIFE drop-ins from various character-actors...

John Wayne in THE SHOOTIST

And where Harry Morgan as a banal sheriff is more embarrassingly over-the-top than Ron Howard, as is a journalist seeking to write Wayne as J.B. Books' contrived autobiography followed by a gold-digging, melodramatic Sheree North: these visits annoying both Wayne and the audience...

Desperately needing more screen-time for villains Hugh O'Brien and Richard Boone, who The Duke has a saloon six-shooter battle with in a picture that Wayne accused Siegel of not filming in a wider scope, liken to John Ford Westerns, and he's not entirely wrong: THE SHOOTIST is solid entertainment but seems like a solidly entertaining TV-movie.