"Say it with awe!" The Apocryphal John Wayne

Twelve years ago (Say it with awe; Say it with awe update), I blogged about the legendary John Wayne story, in which the Duke, playing the role of the centurion at the cross in The Greatest Story Ever Told, delivers the line "Truly, this was the Son of God," only to be told by director George Stevens, "Say it with awe, John!" He responds, "Awww, truly this was the son of God!".

 Here's the clip in context. Wayne comes on at the 2:30 mark:

I noted at the time that the story certainly appears to be apocryphal, and I have been meaning to take a little more time to look into it ever since. I am currently teaching my Jesus in Film course at Duke, and this week we all watched The Greatest Story Ever Told, and it prompted me to revisit the story.

It is always difficult to chase down the authenticity of stories like this. Demonstrating that something did not happen is tough. But after a little searching, I found a lovely confirmation that in fact it never happened, in an interview that fills in some background and context in Greatest Story.

The source is Michael Munn, John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth (New York: New American Library, 2003): 248-9. Munn begins by retelling the famous story:

There is a famous but untrue story concerning Wayne’s only line of dialogue in the Crucifixion scene, and this is the time to put the record straight. According to legend, Wayne said his line “Truly this was the Son of God” three times, none of them to Stevens’s satisfaction. So Stevens said, “Can you give it a little more awe, Duke?” and Duke said, “Aw, this was truly the Son of God.” Very funny. But not true.

He goes on with an account of a 1977 interview he conducted with Roddy McDowall, who played Matthew in the film:

When I interviewed Roddy McDowall on the set of The Thief of Baghdad at Shepperton Studios in 1977, he talked about his work on The Greatest Story Ever Told, in which he played the disciple Matthew, and about John Wayne’s brief appearance as the centurion. Said McDowall, “We shot the Crucifixion on a soundstage in the studio. It was a marvelous set. There was hardly any dialogue except between the actors playing the two thieves and Max as Jesus. I promise you, John Wayne as the centurion did not say a word. If you watch the film closely, when you hear his voice saying, ‘Truly this was the Son of God,’ you don’t see his lips move, and that’s because George Stevens had decided he wasn’t going to let the audience hear Wayne. In fact, he shot the scenes of Jesus carrying his cross and the Crucifixion in such a way that you hardly knew it was John Wayne. George was embarrassed that he’d been made to bring in so many stars as extras. After filming, George decided he needed the centurion to say the line after all, and he got Wayne into a sound studio, and he wasn’t in costume and he just had a microphone, and George asked him to deliver the line. Wayne told him, ‘I can’t do this.’ George said, ‘You’re an actor, aren’t you? That’s what you’ve been trying to prove all these years.’ And Wayne said, ‘I’ve got nothing to react to, so if I screw this up, don’t blame me.’ And he was right. He couldn’t give the line what it needed. You can’t blame Wayne, you can’t blame George; you can only blame the assholes who made the decision to use Wayne—and all the other actors who were in that scene just so the names would bring in the crowds—which they didn’t.”

Munn's account ends with this enjoyable comment:

Playing John the Baptist was Charlton Heston, Hollywood’s most prolific star of epics. He said, “There are actors who can do period parts and there are actors who can’t. God knows Duke Wayne couldn’t play a first-century Roman.”

McDowall, as reported by Munn, is right -- Wayne's lips are not moving in the scene.

Although it never happened, it is, of course, a lovely story, and like all good myths, it tells the hearer something important about its subject matter. In this case, it names the director of the film, it tells you that Hollywood bigwigs played key cameos, and it tells you that the film erred by casting famous Hollywood stars at the expense of realism. And, of course, it makes you chuckle.

Say it with awe update

My quest to discover if the "Say it with awe" anecdote is apocryphal or not has not made a lot of progress, but I am grateful to Evy Nelson for mentioning this blurb on the film in Turner Classic Movies, which notes:

This anecdote probably never happened, but when John Wayne heard the story he even admitted to friends and associates that it made a great tale.

It's an interesting addition to the end of the anecdote and it appears elsewhere on the net, though never -- as far as I can find -- with any original attribution. It's also interesting because it is typical of the development of apocryphal stories and urban legends that they can add a statement of comment on the traditional story, a statement that distances the teller from the story so as to inoculate the teller against charges of naiveté and provide a clear indication that the teller is smiling too. It has the effect of underlining what a great story it is that the teller has told, with self-conscious recognition of its legendary origin.

Incidentally, I have added a link to the above blurb on my Greatest Story Ever Told page. I have also updated that page with links to the DVD release. I don't own that yet, but only the VHS, so I'll get hold of it, not least because it apparently has "New documentary including on camera interviews with the director and cast" and "Original "Making Of" documentary". You can buy it second hand for a snip too. It looks like that 2 DVD set is only available in the US (Region 1) and not yet in the UK, where we just have the ordinary DVD.

Say it with awe

I enjoyed Jim Davila's post Apocrypha Now! on Paleojudaica concerning an urban legend on Ben Hur, with the link to the article here:

Apocrypha Now! Urban Legends of the Silver Screen
David Emery

Let me add something that I suspect of being an urband legend. In The Greatest Story Ever Told, there is a famous cameo for John Wayne. Here's a typical version of the story, from an interview with the late Brandon Lee:

Lee: Nope, no John Wayne. Did you ever hear the story about John Wayne when he was in Greatest Story Ever Told?

MAL: No.

Lee: Well, there he is at the bottom of the cross, Christ is dying, and I believe his line was, "Truly he was the son of God." So he said the line and the director came over to him and said, "You think could you do that with a little more awe?"

He said, "Sure," and so they roll the cameras for a second take and he said, (Brandon assumes a Texas twang) "Aweeee, truly he is the son of God." [laughter] It's suppose to be a true story, I don't know. [Source: Brandon Lee's Last Interview]

Well, I suspect it's just a great urban legend. I wonder if there is any way of finding out whether it is for certain though. Some internet sites hint that they think that it is (e.g. here). George Stevens and John Wayne have both been dead for a generation, so no one can now ask them. I wonder if anyone else has ever made an informed comment?