John Wayne Day on TCM is Sat. 8/22/2026

The Wayne film I keep hoping will show up some day is "Girls Demand Excitement" (1931). Supposedly it still exists, but is stashed away deep inside the 20th Century Fox vaults. Maybe the only surviving print is rough and splicy, and perhaps even missing bits. That might explain why it's never trotted out. That's the case with a number of early Fox films (most of their good elements went up in flames in a fire in 1937).

Yet the wild thing is that one of Wayne's cheapo 'Lone Star' westerns from producer Paul Malvern, "The Lucky Texan" (1934) has apparently been recently restored from the original camera negative, and due to be screened next month. It will probably look stunning. Never would have imagined original elements to something like that still existing.