This week marks the 78th anniversary of the discharge of 1945’s They Were Expendable, a movie set throughout the Battle of the Philippines which happened simply a few years prior.

The movie’s cinematic debut was pushed again to late December 1945 because the Japanese had surrendered earlier that 12 months.

Yet regardless of good opinions, there was a low turnout on the field workplace with John Wayne later noting: “People had seen eight million war stories by the time the picture came out, and they were tired of them.”

It’s well-known that Duke didn’t handle to serve in World War II and so was continuously insulted by director John Ford on set.

The filmmaker had commanded a naval photographic unit as a Captain and regarded his star a coward for staying house.

Months glided by with Ford vocally abusing Wayne, who put up with it because the director had made him a star in 1939’s Stagecoach. Yet this all stopped when Duke’s co-star Robert Montgomery obtained concerned and approached the filmmaker.

The actor, who had additionally served as a naval officer within the struggle, advised Ford that if he was insulting Wayne for his profit then he should stop instantly. The notoriously exhausting director was diminished to tears by this and stopped berating Duke from then on.

In an Instagram put up marking They Were Expendable’s 78th anniversary, Wayne’s property defended his lack of World War II service.

The put up learn: “Though many had questioned John Wayne’s getting an exemption from military service during World War II, it was not entirely his fault. Duke was exempted from service due to his age (34 at the time of Pearl Harbor) and family status, classified as 3-A (family deferment). He repeatedly wrote to John Ford, asking to be placed in Ford’s military unit, but Ford consistently postponed it until after he had finished one more film.

“John Wayne did not attempt to prevent his reclassification as 1-A (draft eligible), but Republic Pictures was emphatically resistant to losing him; Herbert J. Yates, President of Republic, threatened Duke with a lawsuit if he walked away from his contract and Republic intervened in the Selective Service process, requesting his further deferment.”