John Wayne’s 5 Worst Westerns, Ranked From Bad to Worst

John Wayne certainly made films outside the Western genre, but it is hard to separate the actor from the frontier. With the possible exception of Clint Eastwood, few stars are so closely tied to cowboy hats, dusty trails, and six-shooters. Many of the greatest John Wayne movies lean heavily into that image, which is why the first picture that comes to mind for many fans is Wayne striding across the screen with his unmistakable Western swagger.

Still, Wayne’s career was enormous, and not every title in his filmography is a buried treasure. According to IMDb, he amassed 185 acting credits, a number large enough to guarantee a few misfires along the way. For viewers working through his catalog today, picking an unfamiliar John Wayne movie can be more of a gamble than expected.

You might discover an overlooked classic that somehow slipped past you. Then again, you could just as easily land on one of the weakest John Wayne Westerns ever made. To help separate the essentials from the disappointments, it is worth looking at the actor’s lowest-rated Westerns by Rotten Tomatoes score before planning your next movie night.

Released in 1963, “McLintock!” offers a clear example of how awkward Wayne’s screen persona could become when pushed into broad comedy. Wayne stars as George Washington McLintock, a wealthy rancher whose life is thrown into chaos by people scheming for access to his land and fortune. His troubles only multiply when his estranged wife, Kate, played by Maureen O’Hara, returns and demands custody of their daughter, portrayed by Stefanie Powers.

The film holds a 50% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, and its reputation reflects a comedy that has not aged especially gracefully. Inspired by William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew,” “McLintock!” mixes slapstick, family conflict, shifting loyalties, and familiar Western trappings. For some viewers, that combination may have nostalgic appeal, but its frantic antics and finale can feel jarring by modern standards.

John Wayne’s movies are rarely paragons of gender equality, and that’s expected, for better or worse. Still, from a contemporary viewpoint, “McLintock!” often comes across as particularly sexist, including the infamous finale moment where McLintock spanks Kate — an act that was deemed so hilarious that it even made it to the posters. As Looper’s sister site /Film has pointed out, Wayne also legitimately pushed O’Hara down a muddy hill for one scene, so even if you decide to give “McLintock!” a go, don’t go in expecting a particularly progressive comedy experience.

The 1964 film “Circus World” isn’t a comedy, despite its name. However, it is another one of John Wayne’s comparatively late-game works that misses its mark by some margin. Henry Hathaway’s movie casts Wayne as Matt Masters, a Wild West circus man who decides to take his show on a tour in Europe. Matt hits the old continent with the ulterior motive of potentially reuniting with his lost love, Lili (Rita Hayworth), who has become something of an obsession over the years.

With his sizable circus troupe and Lili’s daughter Toni (Claudia Cardinale) in tow, Matt heads to Europe. However, tragedy soon strikes. Matt has to rebuild his circus virtually from scratch, with little more than grit and local hires at his disposal — but he soon finds that some of the people he hires are actually far more familiar with him than he expected.

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“Circus World” is a strange movie in Wayne’s Western catalog. It focuses entirely on the circus aspect of the old West, and it largely takes place in Europe. However, Wayne plays his character as his usual Western archetype, which makes it very difficult to slot the movie into any other category. It’s understandable that, at this stage of his career, Wayne was willing to try something different. Unfortunately, the end result doesn’t quite cut it, and the movie only has a 50% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That being said, “Circus World” does contain some pretty intriguing scenes and set pieces, so if you’re interested to see how Wayne fares in this kind of setting and aren’t too hung up on the movie’s quality, it might be worth a watch.

1969’s “True Grit” is easily one of the best John Wayne Western movies out there. The role of grumpy old marshal Rooster Cogburn won Wayne his only Academy award, and for good reason: Few others could have infused the character with his signature combination of bitterness and lingering heroism.

In an ideal world, “True Grit” would stand on its own as a testament to what Wayne could bring to the table as an actor. Unfortunately, the Oscar virtually guaranteed that Hollywood would pounce at the chance to find more Rooster Cogburn-themed success. The end result was the very obviously named “Rooster Cogburn” (1975), which honestly isn’t half the movie “True Grit” is.

“Rooster Cogburn” tries to replicate the success of “True Grit” by cynically rehashing its themes with minor remixes. This time, Rooster is trying to earn back his badge by hunting down a bunch of villains. As luck would have it, he once again ends up with a younger woman who’s out for revenge — Miss Eula Goodnight, played by Katharine Hepburn.

In all fairness, both Wayne and Hepburn are very entertaining in their roles and their chemistry is far from awful. Still, the fact remains that they are stuck in a movie that’s a weak rehash of a true, gritty Western classic. For this reason, “Rooster Cogburn” has completely failed to go down in history as a good movie, and its 50% Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer rating means that it’s easily one of Wayne’s worst showings as a Western hero.

By now, you’re probably noticing that much of this list is comprised of John Wayne’s late-game efforts from the final decade or so of his on-screen career. “The Undefeated” is no different. The 1969 Andrew V. McLaglen movie combines the talents of Wayne and Rock Hudson In a story that focuses on Union Colonel John Henry Thomas (Wayne), whose adventures take him to Mexico after he learns that the Civil War has ended. There, he and his men soon becomes entangled in local disputes. On the way, they encounter a Confederate troop led by Colonel James Langdon (Hudson), and end up joining forces against hostile Mexican and French soldiers.

“The Undefeated” features Wayne in the straight-laced heroic mode that was the norm for him for much of his career. However, the movie came out the same year as “True Grit,” which gave us a far rougher Wayne and was, by far, the superior movie. With “The Undefeated” suffering from aimlessness and a meager 44% Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score, its fate was to be steamrolled by “True Grit” in the grander John Wayne narrative.

With a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score of just 40%, Burt Kennedy’s “The Train Robbers” is officially John Wayne’s worst Western film ever. The 1973 movie features Wayne as a man called Lane, who’s tasked by Mrs. Lowe (Ann-Margret) to retrieve her late train robber husband’s haul. As it happens, though, Lane’s crew isn’t the only one after the gold. A mysterious Pinkerton agent (Ricardo Montalbán) and the robber’s original crew are also trying to get to the treasure.

It’s a fun premise and the film even features some interesting twists that may make it worth watching for the true John Wayne enthusiast who wants to see everything the actor has put out there. Judging by its merits as a movie, though, its Rotten Tomatoes score is indicative of its quality. “The Train Robbers” is far from the worst movie in the world, and you could even politely call it mediocre. The fact that it’s Wayne’s worst Western is a testament to the overall quality of his work in the genre over the years. Even so, its comedic leanings and low stakes feel-good atmosphere don’t gel together, giving “The Train Robbers” the dubious honor of being the worst John Wayne Western — at least, by our criteria.