Big Jim McLain

Big Jim McLain
Theatrical poster
Directed byEdward Ludwig
Written byRichard English (story)
James Edward Grant
Eric Taylor
Produced byRobert M. Fellows
John Wayne
StarringJohn Wayne
Nancy Olson
James Arness
Alan Napier
Veda Ann Borg
CinematographyArchie J. Stout
Edited byJack Murray
Music byPaul Dunlap
Arthur Lange
Emil Newman
Color processBlack and white
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • August 30, 1952 (1952-08-30)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$2.6 million (US rentals)[1]

Big Jim McLain is a 1952 American film noir political thriller film starring John Wayne and James Arness as HUAC investigators hunting down communists in the postwar Hawaii organized-labor scene. Edward Ludwig directed.

This was the first film in which Wayne played a contemporary law enforcement officer, instead of an Old West lawman. Near the end of his career, in the mid-1970s, he took on two more such roles, (Brannigan and McQ), each time playing an urban cop.

  1. ^ 'Top Box-Office Hits of 1952', Variety, January 7, 1953