Red River (1948)

Directors:

Howard Hawks
Arthur Rosson (co-director)

Writers:

Borden Chase (Saturday Evening Post story)
Borden Chase (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

30 September 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:

Beautiful Woman | Native American Attack | Stepfather Stepson Relationship | Cattle | Cowboy

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

John Wayne	...	Thomas Dunson
Montgomery Clift	...	Matthew '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 (as Chief Yowlatchie)
Paul Fix	...	Teeler Yacey
Hank Worden	...	Simms Reeves
Mickey Kuhn	...	Matt, as a boy
Ray Hyke	...	Walt Jergens
Hal Taliaferro	...	Old Leather (as Hal Talliaferro)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Paul Fierro	...	Fernandez (as Paul Fiero)
Ivan Parry	...	Bunk Kenneally
William Self	...	Wounded Wrangler (as Billie Self)
Lane Chandler	...	Colonel (uncredited)
Davison Clark	...	Mr. Meeker (uncredited)
Harry Cording	...	Gambler (uncredited)
Richard Farnsworth	...	Dunston Rider (uncredited)
George Lloyd	...	Rider with Mr. Melville (uncredited)
Pierce Lyden	...	Colonel's Trail Boss (uncredited)
John Merton	...	Settler (uncredited)
Lee Phelps	...	Gambler (uncredited)
Glenn Strange	...	Naylor (uncredited)
Tom Tyler	...	The Quitter (uncredited)
Dan White	...	Laredo (uncredited)
Shelley Winters	...	Dance Hall Girl in Wagon Train (uncredited)

Directed by
Howard Hawks
Arthur Rosson		(co-director)

Writing credits
Borden Chase		(Saturday Evening Post story)
Borden Chase		(screenplay) &
Charles Schnee		(screenplay)

Produced by
Howard Hawks	....	producer
Charles K. Feldman	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Dimitri Tiomkin

Cinematography by
Russell Harlan		(photographed by)

Film Editing by
Christian Nyby

Art Direction by
John Datu		(as John Datu Arensma)

Makeup Department
Lee Greenway	....	makeup artist
Dotha Hippe	....	hair stylist (uncredited)

Production Management
Norman A. Cook	....	production manager (as Norman Cook)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
William McGarry	....	assistant director
Arthur Siteman	....	assistant director: second unit (uncredited)

Sound Department
Richard DeWeese	....	sound
Larry Gannon	....	sound (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Donald Steward	....	special effects
Allen Q. Thompson	....	special photographic effects (as Allan Thompson)

Stunts
Richard Farnsworth	....	stunts (uncredited)
Ben Johnson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Fred Kennedy	....	stunts (uncredited)
Danny Sands	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jack Williams	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Thomas Thompson	....	grip (uncredited)

Music Department
Dimitri Tiomkin	....	musical director
Vinton Vernon	....	music recordist
Jester Hairston	....	choral director (uncredited)

Other crew
Howard Hawks	....	presenter
Sid Davis	....	stand-in: John Wayne (uncredited)
Bobbie Sierks	....	script clerk (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Charles K. Feldman Group (uncredited)
• Monterey Productions

Distributors

• United Artists (1948) (USA) (theatrical)
• United Artists Corporation (1948) (UK) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1948) (France) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1948) (Canada) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1948) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1948) (Brazil) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1951) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1952) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1999) (USA) (VHS)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1999) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (Germany) (VHS)
• Warner Home Vídeo (2004) (Brazil) (VHS)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

The River Is Red (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

133 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

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

Filming Locations:

Elgin, Arizona, USA

Company:

Charles K. Feldman Group

Trivia:

Ranked #5 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Western" in June 2008.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The film gives 14 August 1865 as the completion of the first cattle drive on the Chisholm Trail. However, the first cattle drive on the Chisholm Trail started and finished in 1867, two years later.

Quotes:

Matt, as a boy: How did you know when he was gonna draw?
Thomas Dunson: By watching his eyes. Remember that.
Matt, as a boy: I will.
Thomas Dunson: Get a shovel and my Bible. I'll read over him.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A Decade Under the Influence (2003)

Soundtrack:

Settle Down

"Let's Take 'Em to Missouri."

In the pantheon of great performances by John Wayne, Red River ranks as one of the great ones, probably in the top five of his films. It's what the publicity folks mean when they talk about epic westerns.

John Wayne is a driven man, he's got to get that gigantic herd of cattle to market in Missouri or face ruin. He's not going to be selling them in Texas at carpetbagger prices so he's putting together the biggest, longest cattle drive on record to get to the railroad terminus in Missouri. He does it with the able assistance of his stepson Montgomery Clift newly returned from the Civil War.

A prologue to the main film shows what happened to Wayne years before. He left a wagon train going to California with good friend Walter Brennan and later that train is massacred with Wayne's fiancé Coleen Gray along with it. On the way to Texas, Wayne and Brennan pick up Mickey Kuhn who is playing a younger version of Monty Clift. They settle in Texas and Wayne puts together the biggest cattle ranch in the state which is where the main film starts.

Wayne and Clift play beautifully off against each other. Father and surrogate son, first working together and then having a big difference of opinion on the cattle drive. Clift started a film career in Red River playing sensitive people who you can only trod on just so long before they take action. You can see the inner workings of such later Clift roles as Robert E. Lee Prewitt and Noah Ackerman. Monty made a grand screen debut. And it was his debut, Red River was filmed first, but held up in release and Clift's The Search was released first to the public.

John Wayne had one of the best faces for movie closeups ever. In his best performances, top directors like John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Bill Wellman realized this. He has a few in this film and they tell the audience more about what's going on inside this man than ten pages of dialog.

With Joanne Dru, Howard Hawks tries to repeat the magic he had with Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not. Joanne is no Bacall, but she's good and had a pretty good career on her own. Her scenes with both Wayne and Clift have some of the same bite that Bacall's do with Bogey.

Dimitri Tiomkin's score deserves star billing right up there with the human cast. It is one of the great movie scores of all time period. let alone in the western genre. For me I've always noticed the similarity with the cattle drive beginning with the great use of Tiomkin's music and what Cecil B. DeMille did in the sound version of Ten Commandments as Charlton Heston tells the Hebrew children, he's takin' 'em to Canaan with Elmer Bernstein's score in the background as DeMille's cast of thousands moves out. I've often wondered whether DeMille copied Hawks, or Hawks was influenced by DeMille's silent Ten Commandments.

Red River is a must, for John Wayne fans, for Monty Clift fans, for fans of both and of great movie music like I am.