Red River (1948)

Directors:

Howard Hawks
Arthur Rosson (co-director)

Writers:

Borden Chase (screenplay) and
Charles Schnee (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

26 August 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Western | Action | Adventure

Tagline:

Greatest Spectacle Ever!

Plot:

Dunson is driving his cattle to Red River when his adopted son, Matthew, turns against him.

Plot Keywords:

Cattle | Kansas | Cattle Drive | Texas | Deserter

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

John Wayne	...	Thomas Dunson
Montgomery Clift	...	Matt Garth
Joanne Dru	...	Tess Millay
Walter Brennan	...	'Groot' Nadine
Coleen Gray	...	Fen (also as Colleen Gray)
Harry Carey	...	Mr. Melville (as Harry Carey Sr.)
John Ireland	...	Cherry Valance
Noah Beery Jr.	...	Buster McGee
Harry Carey Jr.	...	Dan Latimer
Chief Yowlachie	...	Quo
Paul Fix	...	Teeler Yacey
Hank Worden	...	Simms Reeves (as Hank Warden)
Mickey Kuhn	...	Matt, as a boy
Ray Hyke	...	Walt Jergens
Hal Taliaferro	...	Old Leather

Also Known As:

The River Is Red (USA) (working title)
La rivière rouge (Belgium: French title) (France) [fr]
Panik am roten Fluß (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
Red River (Austria) (Germany) [de]
De rode rivier (Belgium: Flemish title) [un]
Fiume rosso (Italy) [it]
Ha-Nahar Ha-Adom (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]
Kanli nehir (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
O Rio Vermelho (Portugal) [pt]
Punainen virta (Finland) [fi]
Río rojo (Spain) [es]
Red River (Denmark) [da]
Rio Vermelho (Brazil) [pt]
Rzeka czerwona (Poland) [pl]

Runtime:

133 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Australia:G (original rating) | Australia:PG (TV rating) | West Germany:12 (nf) | Sweden:15 (cut) | Finland:K-12 | Germany:12 | Norway:16 | USA:Unrated | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Elgin, Arizona, USA

Company:

Charles K. Feldman Group

Trivia:

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).

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: An equipment shadow tracks across the wagon as the camera pans from Groot to Dunson during their first night on guard at Red River.

Quotes:

Nadine Groot: He didn't know about money, Matt. He never had none. He didn't know what to do.
Matt Garth: You mean he just doesn't know who to fight.
Nadine Groot: Yeah.
Matt Garth: Well that's all right.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)

Soundtrack:

Settle Down

The last picture show

Some people think this is the greatest western ever made and they aren't far off the mark. It is certainly among the most expansive. Borden Chase adapted his own Saturday Evening Post story "The Chisholm Trail" but it was Howard Hawks who fleshed it out. There are some who see the relationship between Tom Dunson, (John Wayne), and his surrogate son Matthew Garth, (Montgomery Clift), as mirroring that of Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian and again that isn't too far off the mark either. Then there is the teasingly suggestive homo-erotic by-play that exists between Clift and gunslinger John Ireland, with a lot of emphasis on the affection each shares for the other's gun. But pat psychology aside the film is chiefly enjoyable for its sheer physicality. Indian attacks, gunfights, cattle stampedes and a great climatic confrontation between Wayne and Clift, it has them all.

Clift, a relative newcomer when the film came out, (it was only his second picture), is excellent. The camera loves him and he knows it. This is Clift at his most likable and laconic. But it is Wayne's tyrannical Tom Dunson who dominates every scene. It's a great piece of acting, the equal of his work in "The Quiet Man" and "The Searchers", maybe better. Those who say he was the same in every picture were surely blinkered. Given a great part like Dunson or Ethan Edwards he clearly understood the psychology of the role and what made the character tick. And for once, Dimitri Tiomkin's great score adds to, rather than detracts from, the film. Trivia time; in Peter Bogdanovitch's "The Last Picture Show" it was Hawk's "Red River" that was the last picture show.