An underappreciated gem from John Wayne
First off, I have to say that I've never really been a John Wayne fan, but I was always a fan of old movies and Hollywood. Eventually I decided to start watching his films, and I was not disappointed one bit. Whether he was playing a gunslinger or a Civil War general or even a retired boxer returning to his ancestral home in Ireland to live out a quiet life, his performances were all great. Then I came across Tycoon, a 1947 film about an American railroad engineer (John Wayne) who is tasked with building a railroad through a dangerous mountain in a South American town but who ends up falling in love with the rich builder's daughter (Laraine Day). It being a Duke film, I ended up watching it. As with John Wayne's other films, Tycoon 1947 was actually great. It was a lot better than what the review scores paint.
John Wayne turned in a solid performance as Johnny Munroe, a down-to-earth man who is just trying to do the job that he was hired to do yet gets dragged into an impossible battle with an unrelenting rich figure that wants him to fail at all costs. Laraine Day turned in a solid performance as Maura Alexander, the daughter Munroe ends up falling in love with. She was nothing like the typical rich woman you may think of, and like the duke, her character was also likable and down-to-earth. I also have to commemorate Cedric Hardwicke's performance as Alexander, the rich father of Maura, whom I hated dearly in the film. I guess it shows how good the actor was at playing a character that is so unlikable yet is still one of the best in the film. There were other good performances from the more secondary characters in the film, but it was Wayne, Day, and Hardwicke who turned in the most notable ones for me. But it's not just the cast that makes Tycoon such a good movie; the sets and scenery were quite beautiful, and the pacing was good. In all, I recommend anyone to give this severely underrated Duke film a watch if they have not seen it already.