Definitive John Wayne List
 

Is there a definitive John Wayne list of titles on DVD? Western, war, whatever. Any and all would be great. The first question I would like answered in looking over such a list would be if the 20 Move Pack from Mill Creek available for $5 at Wal-Mart is worth buying. I have it but will return it if a lot of these will be released remastered at some point or are available in other packs. I know nothing about John Wayne but would like to get into it and if I do I'll go all out. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I have the pack you are referencing and have watched all the films contained within. These are old "B" westerns from around 1935 - 1938. The quality is questionable, especially on a large screen. I watched them all because I had already become a big John Wayne fan watching many of his later/better films and wanted to see what he was like in his youth. You might want to keep it for the price but these aren't classics by any means. However, as a result they probably will never get cleaned up either so this is the best they will get.

I would search IMDB.com under John Wayne and look at the ratings to get an idea of some of his better films. It really all starts with "Stagecoach" and goes from there. Watch the 20 film set after you have an appreciation for Wayne because you need to already be a fan to be willing to sit through the bad quality and formula driven westerns that these are.

I already like cheesy movies and Westerns so I don't think I need to be a fan of a certain actor to like something like that. Do you know if all the movies on this cheap release are also available in other Mill Creek packs (250, 100, etc.) I want the most out of my money and I like all Westerns so if they are ALL on another bigger release I'll want that one.

I have found out that there was also a release of these 20 movies along with 3 serials (Ultimate John Wayne Collection) but they are really bad quality. I'll skip that on though.

These one's are pretty questionable quality. It is hard to say whether they are better or worse then the other collection you saw. These are all public domain movies that are not remastered so it all depends on the print they got a hold of. However, most likely other sets by Mill Creek will have the same prints as these.

The set you have is representative of the quality you can expect from these public domain offerings. It's not going to get a whole lot better. Beyond that, you'll have to spend some real money to get into his quality catalog. Some decent collections are:

John Wayne - John Ford Film Collection
The John Wayne Century Collection
John Wayne Screen Legend Collection

The above 3 sets comprise a significant chunk of his better catalog and are probably the easiest way to move forward.