{"id":351875,"date":"2025-11-05T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/es\/?p=401025"},"modified":"2025-11-05T09:15:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T17:15:19","slug":"john-wayne-was-blackmailed-into-taking-the-lead-role-in-one-of-his-most-legendary-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/john-wayne-was-blackmailed-into-taking-the-lead-role-in-one-of-his-most-legendary-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"John Wayne was blackmailed into taking the lead role in one of his most legendary movies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">John Wayne, known primarily for his iconic roles in western films, had a much more diverse career, as demonstrated by the case of Blood Alley, a film that premiered on October 1, 1955. <strong>The film, based on a novel by Albert Sidney Fleischman, tells the story of Tom Wilder, a ship captain who must transport nearly 200 prisoners from a small town to Hong Kong after being released from a prison in China.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A blackmail that worked perfectly<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What many people don&#8217;t know is that Wayne was blackmailed into taking the lead role after director William A. Wellman issued an ultimatum: &#8220;Either Mitchum or me.&#8221; The production initially had Robert Mitchum in the main role and Wayne as a producer through his company Batjac Productions. <strong>The tensions between Wellman and Mitchum, exacerbated by the actor&#8217;s behavioral issues, led to a complicated scenario<\/strong>. Aissa Wayne, John Wayne&#8217;s daughter, recounted in her book John Wayne: My Father how the situation deteriorated, forcing her father to fire Mitchum even while he was on his honeymoon with Pilar Pallete.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cine Cl\u00e1sico: Callej\u00f3n sangriento\" width=\"840\" height=\"630\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IKgH67zSONQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Due to the lack of alternatives, Wayne was forced to star in Bloody Alley, as other actors like Gregory Peck and Humphrey Bogart declined to participate. <strong>The film, which had a budget of 2 million dollars, only managed to gross 2.2 million, which positioned it as a moderate success. In Spain, the movie was not released until ten years later<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the difficulties, Wayne was impressed by Lauren Bacall&#8217;s talent, which led him to want to work with her again in The Last Gunfighter, his last film. However, <strong>their relationship during that production was not the most harmonious<\/strong>. Today, Bloody Alley is available to stream on Filmin, thus offering classic film enthusiasts the opportunity to explore this lesser-known facet of John Wayne.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"sc-card-program\">\r\n  <div class=\"sc-card-program__body\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row clearfix\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-logo\">\r\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__img\" alt=\"Filmin\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sftcdn.net\/images\/t_app-icon-m\/p\/4d52f7b8-f5a9-4cf3-9ab5-a6911bcf82e1\/2867700336\/filmin-logo\" width=\"100px\" height=\"100px\">\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-title\">\r\n        <span class=\"sc-card-program__title\">Filmin<\/span>\r\n        <a class=\"sc-card-program__button sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/filmin.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Download<\/a>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-rating\">\r\n        <svg class=\"rating-score__content\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.1\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 50 50\" enable-background=\"new 0 0 50 50\" xml:space=\"preserve\"><path class=\"rating-score__background rating-score--good\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><path class=\"rating-score__value rating-score__value--0\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-dashoffset=\"0\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><text class=\"rating-score__number\" content=\"\" text-anchor=\"middle\" transform=\"matrix(1 0 0 1 25 31.0837)\" data-auto=\"app-user-score\"><\/text><\/svg>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <span class=\"sc-card-program__description\"><\/span>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__bigpic\" src=\"\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\">\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <a class=\"sc-card-program__link track-link sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/filmin.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Wayne, known primarily for his iconic roles in western films, had a much more diverse career, as demonstrated by the case of Blood Alley, a film that premiered on October 1, 1955. The film, based on a novel by Albert Sidney Fleischman, tells the story of Tom Wilder, a ship captain who must transport nearly 200 prisoners from a small town to Hong Kong after being released from a prison in China. A blackmail that worked perfectly What many people do not know is that Wayne was blackmailed into taking the role [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9318,"featured_media":351876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[14622,17986,17987,17988,14803,17989,12093,4087,4947,17990,17991],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[6869],"class_list":["post-351875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-adaptacion-2","tag-callejon-sangriento","tag-chantaje","tag-gregory-peck","tag-hong-kong","tag-humphrey-bogart","tag-john-wayne","tag-novela","tag-pelicula","tag-robert-mitchum","tag-william-a-wellman","content-category-streaming-videos"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9318"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351875"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351897,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351875\/revisions\/351897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351875"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=351875"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=351875"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=351875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}