Is it simply my imagination or was the newspaper editor in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence based upon Doc Boone?
Also, Doc Boone misquotes Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, Boone says: "Is this the face that burned a thousand ships and topled the towerless tops of Illium" the line is actually "Is this the face that launched a thousand ships and topled the topless towers of Illium" however it shows us that he is not only well read but quite drunk.
Oh, yeah! I'd say Edmond O'Brien was definitely doing his Thomas Mitchell bit. Wonder if it was his idea or Ford's?
shareThomas Mitchell had quite a run in 1939: STAGECOACH, GONE WITH THE WIND, ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. Not many others have been able to appear in multiple powerhouses in the same calendar year. I can think of the following:
Sidney Poitier, 1967: GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and TO SIR, WITH LOVE.
Bette Davis, 1939: JUAREZ, THE OLD MAID, PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH & ESSEX and DARK VICTORY.
James Cagney, 1955: LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME, THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS and MISTER ROBERTS.
John Wayne, 1948: RED RIVER, 3 GODFATHERS and FORT APACHE.
Mitchell plays virtually the same character in Ford's THE HURRICANE. When I wrote my first screenplay I wrote Boone into the story. Never mind that the story based on THE WAGES OF FEAR is a modern-day one. Boone a a fabulous guy, and he's a lot of fun to write for.
shareThe flamboyant drunk was one of John Ford's favorite characters - so you have Doc Boone in Stagecoach and Dutton Peabody in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
share"flamboyant drunk": Don't forget Doc's "old pal Billy" (Francis Ford), also in Stagecoach (and his sutter/bartender in Yellow Ribbon) and Alan Mowbrey's ham actor in Wagon Master. Probably some others that I'll think of later.
shareFord is noted for shamelessly retreading characters. Mowbray's Dr. A. Locksley Hall (a not too thinly disguised reference to Robin Hood's rightful family castle) in Wagonmaster is a first cousin of Mowbray's Granville Thorndyke, the Shakespearean windbag, in My Darling Clementine.
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