Red River

US (1948): Western/Action/Adventure

Any short list of the all-time greatest Westerns is bound to include this 1948 Howard Hawks classic about an epic cattle drive. Red River features one of John Wayne's greatest performances. Like his Ethan Edwards in John Ford's 1956 masterpiece The Searchers, the Duke plays an isolated and unsympathetic man who is possessed by bitterness. Wayne is Texas rancher Tom Dunson, who adopts a young boy orphaned in an Indian massacre. That boy, Matthew Garth (played as an adult by Montgomery Clift), becomes Dunson's assistant and heir apparent -- until Dunson's temper gets out of control during a long cattle drive and Matt intervenes to stop him. From that moment on, Dunson swears he will kill Matt. Red River has everything a great Western ought to have: a sweeping sense of history, spectacular landscapes, stampedes, gunfights, Indian attacks, and, of course, Walter Brennan as Dunson's crusty old cook and comic sidekick, Nadine Groot. As a special bonus, the film also features the legendary Harry Carey (upon whom Wayne would base some of his gestures in The Searchers) and his son Harry Carey Jr., who became a fixture in Ford and Hawks Westerns. (Amazon.com)

Pay special attention to Coleen Gray's work early in the film as the woman who wants to go with Wayne and Brennan as they leave the wagon train to make their own way to Texas. She takes a scene that could just be there to advance the plot and makes it truly memorable. Borden Chase's dialogue pushes the boundries of overt sexuality; and Gray's straightforward statement of why Wayne will need her on the frontier sticks out as one of the great short, almost 'cameo', appearances of the year. Having graduated from bit parts in Kiss of Death the previous year, Gray would go on to an extensive career, first in features then mainly in television. She continued to perform on camera until 1986.

Filmed in 1946 but held for release for two years, in part due to legal problems with Howard Hughes, who claimed it was similar to his The Outlaw (1943), it was Clift's screen debut, although The Search was released six months before Red River. This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1990. (Charles K. Feldman Group, Monterey Prod./UA)

 Use this link to view the trailer for the theatrical re-issue of Red River on TCM.com.

2 nominations