Quotes

[on King of the Bullwhip (1950) with Lash La Rue] I did it for the money . . . it wasn't much of a picture, certainly far below the quality I had experienced earlier.

[on working with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942)] They were so fresh and delightful and funny. They weren't burned out and they LOVED doing what they were doing. Every time somebody laughed, they were in ecstasy . . . Even when I saw them in other pictures, they were delightful.

[about Sin Town (1942)] Marlene Dietrich was supposed to be in it but when she read the script she turned it down. She and Brod Crawford [Broderick Crawford] were having a fling at this time. She wanted to work with him but the character she played lost Brod to me until the final reel when he goes back to her and I land Patric Knowles. So, unfortunately, she didn't appear in it. Then Mae West was offered the role and she turned it down for the same reason. Constance Bennett, who was getting a little long in the tooth, didn't have any qualms and played it to the hilt.

[on Frontier Badmen (1943) and working with Noah Beery Jr.] Pidge, as his friends call him, is such a nice guy. The studio had originally planned for us to be a screen team. We'd already done two other films but this turned out to be our last one together. I did get him at the end of the film, while [Robert Paige] rode off into the sunset with Diana Barrymore, who in real life he couldn't stand. Diana was always drunk through this picture and the other one we did together, Ladies Courageous (1944).

[on director Ray Enright] . . . another of the good ole boys. He had just finished The Spoilers (1942) with John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich and we hoped this one [Sin Town (1942)] would do as well. Although it didn't, I thought it was a very good film and certainly one of my best.

[on Robert Paige] . . . bless him, [he] was always a dear friend of mine. We remained friends for the rest of his life. He was masculine, handsome, but . . . funny-looking in that big ten-gallon hat they gave him to wear [on Frontier Badmen (1943)]! What's more, he was afraid of horses! Unfortunately for Bob, Lon Chaney Jr. (one of my least favorite leading men) found out about it and the practical jokes really started. Lon could be quite cruel when it came to joking around. If he had real ammunition, he used it! Lon and Bob almost came to blows over Lon's picking.