THE LAST WORD:Tribute to ‘The Duke’ will be worth seeing

You mention the name John Wayne round these parts, pardner, and yer gonna hear an earful.

We reckon you’ll hear yarns about his times at the Balboa Bay Club and the Arches and tooling around the harbor on his beloved boat, Wild Goose.

He was bigger than life, pilgrim, and folks in Newport Beach loved their Duke.

So it’s only fitting that the Newport Beach Film Festival will commemorate the 100th birthday of Newport’s favorite movie star with a weeklong showing of some of his greatest movies from April 21 to 28.

“True Grit,” “Sands of Iwo Jima,” and “Stagecoach” will come back to the big screen, most likely to inspire new generations of Duke fans.

So mosey on down to the film fest, and wish a happy birthday to a man who remains one of Hollywood’s greatest icons. Because as John Wayne once said, “I’m the stuff men are made of.”