Rio Grande (1950)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

John Ford

Writers:

James Kevin McGuinness (screenplay)
James Warner Bellah (Saturday Evening Post story)

Release Date:

15 November 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Romance | Western

Tagline:

THE BREATHTAKING SAGA OF THE UNITED STATES CAVALRY! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

Rio Grande takes place after the Civil War when the Union turned their attention towards the Apaches...

Plot Keywords:

Sequel | Cult Western | Beautiful Woman | Reveille | Cavalry

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

John Wayne	...	Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke
Maureen O'Hara	...	Mrs. Kathleen Yorke
Ben Johnson	...	Trooper Travis Tyree
Claude Jarman Jr.	...	Trooper Jefferson 'Jeff' Yorke
Harry Carey Jr.	...	Trooper Daniel 'Sandy' Boone
Chill Wills	...	Dr. Wilkins (regimental surgeon)
J. Carrol Naish	...	Lt. Gen. Philip Sheridan
Victor McLaglen	...	Sgt. Maj. Timothy Quincannon
Grant Withers	...	U.S. Deputy Marshal
Sons of the Pioneers	...	Regimental Musicians
Peter Ortiz	...	Capt. St. Jacques
Steve Pendleton	...	Capt. Prescott
Karolyn Grimes	...	Margaret Mary
Alberto Morin	...	Lieutenant
Stan Jones	...	Sergeant
Fred Kennedy	...	Trooper Heinze
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ken Curtis	...	Donnelly (regimental singer) (uncredited)
Tommy Doss	...	Regimental singer (uncredited)
Hugh Farr	...	Regimental singer (uncredited)
Karl Farr	...	Regimental singer (uncredited)
Shug Fisher	...	Regimental singer / Bugler (uncredited)
Cliff Lyons	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Lee Morgan	...	(uncredited)
Jack Pennick	...	Sergeant (uncredited)
Lloyd Perryman	...	Regimental singer (uncredited)
Chuck Roberson	...	Officer / Indian who fires arrow into Col. York's chest (uncredited)
Barlow Simpson	...	Indian chief (uncredited)
Patrick Wayne	...	Boy (uncredited)

Directed by
John Ford

Writing credits
James Kevin McGuinness		(screenplay)
James Warner Bellah		(Saturday Evening Post story)

Produced by
Merian C. Cooper	....	producer (uncredited)
John Ford	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Victor Young

Cinematography by
Bert Glennon		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Jack Murray

Art Direction by
Frank Hotaling

Set Decoration by
John McCarthy Jr.
Charles S. Thompson		(as Charles Thompson)

Costume Design by
Adele Palmer

Makeup Department
Peggy Gray	....	hair stylist
Bob Mark	....	makeup supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Wingate Smith	....	assistant director
Cliff Lyons	....	second unit director (uncredited)

Art Department
Dudley Holmes	....	properties (as R. Dudley Holmes)

Sound Department
Earl Crain Sr.	....	sound
Howard Wilson	....	sound

Special Effects by
Howard Lydecker	....	special effects
Theodore Lydecker	....	special effects

Stunts
Jerry Brown	....	stunts (uncredited)
Everett Creach	....	stunts (uncredited)
Chuck Hayward	....	stunts (uncredited)
John Hudkins	....	stunts (uncredited)
Fred Kennedy	....	stunts (uncredited)
Cliff Lyons	....	stunts (uncredited)
Frank McGrath	....	stunts (uncredited)
Chuck Roberson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Rose	....	stunts (uncredited)
Barlow Simpson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Norm Taylor	....	stunt double (uncredited)
Terry Wilson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jack N. Young	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Archie Stout	....	photography: second unit

Editorial Department
Barbara Ford	....	assistant editor (uncredited)

Transportation Department
Norm Taylor	....	driver: cavalry wagon (uncredited)

Other crew
D.R.O. Hatswell	....	uniforms (as D.R. Overall Hatswell)
Philip Kieffer	....	technical advisor (as Major Philip H. Kieffer U.S.A. Ret.)
Herbert J. Yates	....	presenter
Sid Davis	....	stand-in: John Wayne (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Argosy Pictures

Distributors

• Republic Pictures (I) (1950) (USA) (theatrical)
• Republic Pictures (I) (1956) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Republic Pictures Home Video (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• Republic Pictures Home Video (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Republic Pictures Home Video (2000) (USA) (laserdisc)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2000) (Germany) (video)
• Gold Western (2004) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Paramount Filmes do Brasil (2004) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Gloria (1951) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Artisan Home Entertainment (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Maple Pictures (2006) (Canada) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Entertainment (2004) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures (2001) (UK) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Consolidated Film Industries (CFI) (optical effects)

Also Known As:

John Ford and Merian C. Cooper's Rio Grande (UK) (complete title) (USA) (complete title)
Rio Bravo (USA) (working title)
Rio Bravo, Rio Grande Command (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Iceland:L | USA:Approved (PCA #14822) | New Zealand:G | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Australia:G | Finland:K-12 | Norway:16 (1959) | Sweden:15 | UK:U | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Colorado River, Moab, Utah, USA

Company:

Argosy Pictures

Trivia:

John Ford recycled the stampeding of the pony herd sound effect from She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) for the rescue charge.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Quincannon is addressing the recruits about horsemanship, Sandy takes his hand out of his pocket and removes the hay straw from his mouth, when the camera angle changes to behind Sandy, he has his thumb looped through his suspenders, and the straw is back in his mouth. When it changes again to the front view of Sandy, his hand is back in his pocket again.

Quotes:

[Lt. Col. York lectures new recruits]
Lt. Col. Kirby York: I don't want you men to be fooled about what's coming up for you. Torture, at least that. The War Department promised me 180 men. They sent me eighteen. You are the eighteen... so each of you will have to do the work of ten men. If you fail, I'll have you spread-eagled on a wagon wheel. If you desert, you'll be found, tracked down and broken into bits. That is all.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Major Dundee (1965)

Soundtrack:

Aha, San Antone

"Trooper Yorke brought the word, we came as soon as we could."

According to a trailer on my Quiet Man VHS and Maureen O'Hara's memoirs Rio Grande was a negotiating chip that Republic Pictures studio president Herbert J. Yates used in order to get John Ford to work for his studio. John Ford had wanted to make The Quiet Man for years and the major studios turned him down. Republic was the last stop he made. Yates agreed to let him shoot The Quiet Man at Republic, but first he wanted a guaranteed moneymaker.

Fort Apache and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon were both done at RKO and made money. So Yates said give me another cavalry picture with John Wayne and you can shoot The Quiet Man afterwards.

James Warner Bellah who had written the short stories that the other two were based on fortunately had a third one published. And that boys and girls is how Rio Grande came into being.

Good thing too because of studio politics we got ourselves a western classic. And a family classic as well. John Wayne who is once again playing a character named Kirby Yorke has two families, the United States Cavalry to which he's devoted and a wife and son from whom he's been estranged. How he repairs the relationships between wife Maureen O'Hara and son Claude Jarman, Jr. is the key to the whole story.

As Maureen toasts at a dinner scene with J. Carrol Naish as General Philip H. Sheridan, "to my one rival, the United States Cavalry."

Young Jefferson Yorke has flunked out of West Point and has joined the army as an enlisted man. Through none of his own doing he's assigned to the frontier post commanded by his father. Mom then comes west to try and spring him from the army, but young Jeff doesn't want to be sprung.

In fact to his father's surprise the young man proves himself to be an able cavalryman without any assistance from Dad. And when Maureen comes west, old love rekindles between Wayne and O'Hara.

All this is against the background of some Apache hit and run raids across the Rio Grande. Topped off by them attacking a party escorting dependent women and children away from the post. Young Trooper Yorke rides for help there, hence the title quote.

A lot of John Ford's stock company fills out the cast to give it that familiar look of Ford films. Some bits from previous films were used like the training Roman style of the new recruits. They prove a more able bunch than the ones from Fort Apache.

Some traditional melodies were used as they are in John Ford period pieces, but unusual for a Ford film, several new songs were written for the film, done by the Sons of the Pioneers. One of them written by Dale Evans entitled Aha San Antone. She was employed at Republic studios also.

A fine classic western with a nice story about family relationships and responsibilities one incurs in life.