Where’d It Come from:John Wayne’s Screenplays約翰·韋恩的電影劇本從哪兒來

譯/張菊

《山崗上的牧羊人》（導演亨利·哈撒韋，1941年）

因健康原因前往南密蘇里州之前，紐約州羅馬市的哈羅德·貝爾·賴特對歐扎克斯山脈一無所知。他在當地人“老馬特”和“莫莉姨”擁有的鄉村土地上露營，聽他們講民間故事入了迷，外地人從未聽過那些故事。賴特用生動的筆觸快速記下那些富有鄉村特色且亦真亦幻的故事，然后寫成了一部小說——《山崗上的牧羊人》（1907）。一些學者堅持認為，這是除《圣經》外第一部銷量超過100萬冊的書。賴特抓住了這個獨特的亞文化的本質，并公之于眾。在該故事的電影版里，韋恩和哈里·凱瑞分別扮演鄉村青年和神秘老者。電影色彩柔和，貼合賴特獨特散文敘事的憂傷調子以及“山崗生活風格”。如今，根據影片改編的華麗露天舞臺劇依然定期在密蘇里州布蘭森的老廠劇院上演。

《荒漠三雄》（導演約翰·福特，1948年）

對于商業小說及其亞體裁西部小說的鐵粉來說，彼得·B.凱恩的第一部小說是重中之重。《荒漠三雄》最初發表于1913年，實際是圣經故事《三智者》的寓言式重述。好萊塢早期西部片偶像哈里·凱瑞扮演1916年第一部電影版的主角。默片時代，年輕的約翰·福特兩次將其搬上銀幕：1919年以《嫌疑犯》之名，1926年以《三個壞蛋》之名。1948年，福特又以彩片的形式翻拍了這個故事，大量加入他愛爾蘭式的幽默和天主教虔誠的救贖思想，引起了一場美國大沙漠的視覺沖擊。“福特老爹”將他的電影獻給了當時剛剛過世的凱瑞。在韋恩之前，凱瑞是他最喜歡的影星。這本書出名的原因是：與這部外粗內秀的硬漢文學之作相比，沒有哪部西部小說被改編為電影這么多次。

《蠻國戰笳聲》（導演約翰·法羅，1953年）

“這是我讀過的最好的西部小說。”“公爵”約翰·韋恩某天如是評價路易斯·拉穆爾的《蠻國戰笳聲》，就在當天，韋恩的電影和拉穆爾的書同時面世。可別以為韋恩是讀了小說后決定拍成電影的。他早先碰巧讀到《科齊斯的禮物》——拉穆爾發表在《科利爾》雜志（1952年第7期）上的一個故事——覺得有可能拍成電影，于是買下了這個故事的版權。韋恩讓他最喜歡的作家詹姆斯·愛德華·格蘭特將其改編成電影劇本。格蘭特幾乎把什么都改了，連主角的名字也從切斯改成了翁多（這個名字他在1947年出版的《天使和壞人》中給一個壞人用過）。拉穆爾保留了重寫格蘭特劇本的權利，并且這么做了。成書的故事極其接近改編的電影劇本，并且在描寫翁多·萊恩時，他實際就以韋恩為原型了。結果，韋恩就是翁多，翁多就是韋恩。這或許是第一個電影“小說化”成書的實例，而非由小說到電影——現在則成了常態。

《赤膽屠龍》（又譯《赤膽忠魂》）（導演霍華德·霍克斯，1959年）

除了韋恩和霍華德·霍克斯，人人都喜歡《正午》（1952）。他倆鄙視這樣自由隨意的情節發展，該片中，典型的美國市鎮居民被表現得沒有一點兒骨氣，一個執法者（加里·庫珀扮演）居然祈求他人幫助。這個角色對他們來說簡直難以置信，被拒絕時居然會哭，最后被一個女人拯救！他們從比爾·麥坎貝爾鮮為人知的故事中取材，決定拍一部電影來“回應”斯坦利·克雷默的這部傳道片。影片團隊與作家朱爾斯·福瑟曼一起，將故事拓展成了《赤膽屠龍》。影片中，鎮上的居民盡力幫助警長，但韋恩扮演的約翰·T.錢斯卻拒絕了他們的幫助。錢斯寧可獨自面對壞人，但他也確實接受了一些幫助，這些人的幫助都是《正午》中的威爾·凱恩所拒絕的：一個自大的小不點、鎮上的酒鬼和一個老跛子。具有諷刺意味的是，幾十年后，比爾·巴克利的右傾雜志《國家評論》卻選了《正午》而非《赤膽屠龍》作為史上最偉大的“保守派西部片”。

《邊城英烈傳》（又譯《錦繡山河烈士血》）（導演約翰·韋恩，1960年）

從1946年開始，韋恩就想在共和電影公司拍一部阿拉莫題材的電影。他本應在《記住阿拉莫》中扮演山姆·休斯敦，但那個項目被擱置了。隨后，韋恩提議讓吉姆·鮑伊來拍西·巴特利特和沃倫·達夫的劇本。公司老總赫伯特·J.耶茨因300萬美元的巨額預算拒絕了韋恩的提案。韋恩離開了公司卻未能帶走劇本。共和電影公司轉而與斯特林·海登合作，匆匆拍成了《最后的命令》（1955）。韋恩與詹姆斯·愛德華·格蘭特合作編寫了新的劇本，拍攝了《邊城英烈傳》，韋恩扮演戴維·克羅克特。該片被誤認為票房災難，但其實它上映后是美國第三受歡迎的電影。跟耶茨相比，后來者大約翰笑到了最后。《最后的命令》花費了100萬美元，但虧損嚴重，公司最終倒閉收場。 □

Sometimes the stories from behind the scenes are as interesting as the movies themselves.幕后故事有時跟電影一樣有趣。

SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS (Henry Hathaway, dir.; 1941)

Harold Bell Wright of Rome, N.Y.1美國紐約州羅馬市，美國紐約州中部城市，位于紐約州奧奈達郡的中心。,knew nothing about the Ozarks until he headed to southern Missouri for health reasons. Camping out in a rural area owned by locals “Old Matt” and “Aunt Mollie,” he listened spellbound while they spun folk yarns no outsider had ever before heard. Wright jotted down vivid descriptions of the phantasmagoria2phan-tasmagoria （真實或幻覺形象的）變換情景，幻覺效應。and the rustic, local geography then penned a novel, Shepherd of the Hills(1907). Some literati insist it was the first book—other than the Bible—to sell more than a million copies. Wright captured the essence of this unique subculture and shared it with the world. In the movie version, Wayne and Harry Carey played the young swain and older mystery man respectively. The film was shot in subdued colors that caught the melancholy ring of Wright’s quaint prose and the unique “hill lifestyle.” A lavish outdoor stage production is still regularly performed at the Old Mill Theatre in Branson, Mo.

3 GODFATHERS (John Ford, dir.;1948)

For diehard fans of pulp fiction3pulp fiction 粗制濫造的小說，庸俗小說，商業小說，低級趣味小說。and its Western sub-genre, Peter B. Kyne’s first novel is the end all be all4end all beall 最重要的. Originally published in 1913, 3 Godfathers is an allegorical retelling of the Biblical tale of the Three Wise Men. Hollywood’s early Western icon Harry Carey played the lead in the initial film version(1916). Young John Ford brought it to the screen twice during the silent era, in 1919 as Marked Men and 1926 in Three Bad Men. Ford eventually retold the tale in 1948 as a full-color epic, adding large dollops of his sentimental Irish humor and soulful Catholic redemption, creating an ocular essay on the great American desert. “Pappy”55約翰·福特比約翰·韋恩大15歲，二人形同父子，韋恩稱福dedicated his film to the recently deceased Carey, who had ranked as his favorite star previous to Wayne. The book’s claim to fame: No other piece of Western fiction has been adapted more often to the screen than this hardboiled literary diamond-in-therough6diamond in the rough 有潛力（潛在價值）的人（物），外粗內秀的人（物）。.

HONDO (John Farrow, dir.; 1953)

“The best Western novel I’ve ever read,” the Duke said of Hondo by Louis L’Amour on the day when both Wayne’s film and L’Amour’s book were released. Don’t think, however, that Wayne had read the novel then decided to film it. He’d come across “The Gift of Cochise,” a L’Amour story in Collier’s magazine (7/1952), saw some possibilities, and optioned7option購買（或出售）……的選擇權。the piece.Duke assigned his favorite writer, James Edward Grant, to fashion a screenplay.Grant changed most everything, including the hero’s first name, from Ches to Hondo (a name he had also employed for a villain in Angel and the Badman,1947). L’Amour had retained the rights to rewrite Grant’s script into book form and did so, honing close to the altered version and actually describing Wayne when it came time to introduce Hondo Lane. Now, Wayne was Hondo and Hondo, Wayne. This may have been the first ever case of “novelization” from film to book instead of the opposite,which remains the norm.

RIO BRAVO (Howard Hawks, dir.;1959)

Everyone fell in love with High Noon(1952)—everyone except Wayne and Howard Hawks. They despised what they considered to be a liberal agenda,with typical American townsfolk portrayed as spineless and a lawman (Gary Cooper) begging for help. It was inconceivable to them that such a character would cry for being spurned then be rescued by a... woman! They agreed to make a film to “answer” Stanley Kramer’s message movie, drawing from an obscure story by Bill McCampbell.Working with writer Jules Furthman,the team expanded it into Rio Bravo,in which the townsfolk try to help the sheriff, but Wayne’s John T. Chance turns them down. Chance prefers to face the badmen alone, yet does accept some aid from the only types that Will Kane in High Noon had rejected: a cocky kid, the town drunk, and an old cripple.Ironically, decades later, Bill Buckley’s right-leaning National Review chose High Noon over Rio Bravo as the greatest “conservative Western” of all time.

THE ALAMO (John Wayne, dir.; 1960)

Wayne had wanted to make an Alamo movie at Republic since 1946.He would have played Sam Houston in Remember the Alamo, but when that project was shelved, Wayne enlisted Jim Bowie to work with a Sy Bartlett/Warren Duff script. But studio head Herbert J. Yates rejected Wayne’s proposal due to the then outrageous $3 million budget. Wayne walked but wasn’t able to take the script with him. Republic turned around and rushed it into production as the Last Command (1955) with Sterling Hayden. The Duke went to work on a new scenario with James Edward Grant and released The Alamo, in which Wayne plays Davy Crockett. The movie is incorrectly recalled as a box of fice disaster; in fact, it was the country’s third most popular film during its release. As for Yates, Big John had the last laugh. The Last Command cost $1 million to make but lost so much money that Republic was forced to shut down as a production company. ■