John Wayne plays US Cavalry Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke, in charge of an outpost on the Rio Grande and dealing with an increasing Indian threat. He's also in charge of training a batch of new recruits and is surprised to find one of them is his son (Claude Jarman, Jr.) he hasn't seen in fifteen years. He's even more surprised when his estranged wife (Maureen O'Hara) shows up intending to take their son home.
Amiable, tender, sentimental western. The third of director John Ford's cavalry trilogy with John Wayne. This is the least of the three but still quite good. Duke is great, as usual. This one's also notable as being the first movie where John Wayne is paired with Maureen O'Hara. The two had terrific chemistry and would justifiably be considered one of the silver screen's great duos. Victor McLaglen is lots of fun in this. Ben Johnson is pretty good, too. Lanky Tennessee-born Claude Jarman, Jr. might seem like an unlikely choice for the son of the Duke, but he's perfect. This is one of the three big roles Jarman had in his short career. The other two being The Yearling and Intruder in the Dust. He's excellent in all three. The rest of the supporting cast is good, as they were in most Ford films.
The Sons of the Pioneers sing a lot of songs in the movie, which seems to be a sticking point for some. I like their songs and felt it fit the gentle tone of the picture. One of the Pioneers is Ken Curtis, the actor who would go on to play Festus in Gunsmoke. Before that, though, he would play in a number of John Ford movies. This is the first. One funny note is that this movie supposedly has a UFO in a scene about an hour and thirteen minutes in. Duke and Maureen are talking and if you look to the left of him you see a little light zig-zagging about in the distance. It doesn't look like anything unexplainable to me, but it's become something of an urban legend.
Amiable, tender, sentimental western. The third of director John Ford's cavalry trilogy with John Wayne. This is the least of the three but still quite good. Duke is great, as usual. This one's also notable as being the first movie where John Wayne is paired with Maureen O'Hara. The two had terrific chemistry and would justifiably be considered one of the silver screen's great duos. Victor McLaglen is lots of fun in this. Ben Johnson is pretty good, too. Lanky Tennessee-born Claude Jarman, Jr. might seem like an unlikely choice for the son of the Duke, but he's perfect. This is one of the three big roles Jarman had in his short career. The other two being The Yearling and Intruder in the Dust. He's excellent in all three. The rest of the supporting cast is good, as they were in most Ford films.
The Sons of the Pioneers sing a lot of songs in the movie, which seems to be a sticking point for some. I like their songs and felt it fit the gentle tone of the picture. One of the Pioneers is Ken Curtis, the actor who would go on to play Festus in Gunsmoke. Before that, though, he would play in a number of John Ford movies. This is the first. One funny note is that this movie supposedly has a UFO in a scene about an hour and thirteen minutes in. Duke and Maureen are talking and if you look to the left of him you see a little light zig-zagging about in the distance. It doesn't look like anything unexplainable to me, but it's become something of an urban legend.