Here’s John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara in Rio Grande (1950). This excellent film, the third part of John Ford’s cavalry trilogy, is known as the movie that let John Ford make his Irish picture, The Quiet Man (1952) — which will no doubt be inserted into many DVD and Blu-ray players today.
Rio Grande, of course, is plenty great in and of itself.
Yes, it’s well-known now that RIO GRANDE is the Western Ford, Wayne and O’Hara gave Herbert Yates as part of the deal for THE QUIET MAN to finally be made at Republic after Ford couldn’t get any of the other studios to do it.
But all I can say is if that’s what Ford turns out when he’s just waiting to make something else then I wish any other director were that great in similar circumstances. It’s surely a masterpiece in its own right and a movie I’ve known most of my life and wouldn’t want to live without.
Just watched both these movies very recently, RIO GRANDE for Ford’s birthday (we were looking for something with Harry Carey, Jr. we hadn’t watched recently so settled on this), and THE QUIET MAN Valentine’s Day.
I don’t wait for filmmaking that great to ever happen again–even the still above gives some idea of the myriad beauties and nuances of Ford’s direction. And after just seeing both these movies close together, I just have to say, was there ever a couple with more on-screen chemistry than Wayne and O’Hara under Ford’s direction? I can’t think of one.
This also extends to the third movie of what I consider a Wayne/O’Hara trilogy, THE WINGS OF EAGLES–as one ends and the other begins with RIO GRANDE, these two trilogies overlap and are both very precious. WINGS is much the saddest of the three Wayne/O’Hara movies but they are all profound on male/female relationships, and so beautifully played by the leads.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, especially to all my fellow Fordians who come around here.
One of the Best Westerns Ever.
The moment when Wayne stands by the river while the Sons of the Pioneers sing “My Gal is Purple” is one of my very favorite movie scenes. Unless it’s Travis and Sandy Roman riding.
Love that movie!
Best wishes,
Laura
Lloyd Fonvielle’s beautiful essay on Rio Grande: http://www.mardecortesbaja.com/2010/03/30/rio-grande/
I read that a while back. Great stuff.
Go read it, folks!
I really enjoyed Lloyd Fonvielle’s excellent piece. Thanks for linking, Paula.