“Red River” (1948) directed by Howard Hawks, starring John Wayne & Montgomery Clift / Z-View

Red River (1948)

Director: Howard Hawks

Screenplay: Borden Chase, Charles Schnee based on The Chisholm Trail from The Saturday Evening Post (1946) by Borden Chase

Stars: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan, Coleen Gray, Harry Carey, John Ireland, Noah Beery Jr., Paul Fix, Hank Worden and Mickey Kuhn.

Tagline:  In 25 Years, Only Three! “The Covered Wagon”, “Cimarron” and now Howard Hawks’ “Red River”

The Plot…

Thomas Dunson (Wayne) wants to start a big cattle ranch in Texas.  He plans is to travel there with his friend, Nadine Groot (Brennan).  Once Dunson has the ranch up and running he will send for his fiancée, Fen (Gray).  Although Fen wants to ride with Dunson to Texas, he tells her she should stay with the slower but safer wagon train.  

That night Dunson and Groot are attacked by Indians.  They fend off the attack and on one of the dead Indians Dunson finds a bracelet he had given to Fen.  Dunson and Groot discover that the wagon train was wiped out.  The sole survivor being a young boy named Matthew.  Dunson adopts the boy and they head to Texas.

Fourteen years pass, Although the ranch has been successful, unless Dunson can sell his herd, he will lose everything.  He decides on a massive cattle drive that will cover hundreds of miles through badlands.  As the group makes their way things go wrong.  They face stampedes, gunfights, thievery and more.  With each setback, Dunson becomes more tyrannical. When Dunson threatens to kill any man that attempts to quit the drive, Matthew has had enough.  If Matthew challenges Dunson’s authority, one of both may die.  But enough is enough.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)

Most people don’t realize that Red River was the feature film debut of Montgomery Clift.  Red River was filmed before, but released after The Search.

Red River is Howard Hawks first western!

This is the only movie to have both Harry Carey and his son in the cast.  Sadly, they had no scenes together.  This was Harry Carey’s final film.  He died before Red River was released.

John Wayne and Montgomery Clift did not care for each other off screen.  Their politics were diametrically opposed.  Wayne thought Clift wasn’t manly enough.  Clift that both Wayne and director Howard Hawks worked too hard at being macho.  Still, the team created a classic western by putting those thoughts aside and doing the work.

Some folks nitpick that Clift wouldn’t last long in a fight with John Wayne, but they often forget Wayne’s character had been shot prior to the fight.  If I were to pick a nit, I might say that the film’s resolution comes too easily.  But Red River is too good a ride to complain.

Red River (1948) rates 5 of 5 stars.