HOWARD HAWKS, ARTHUR ROSSEN

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BBBB.5. 

USA, 1948.  Monterey Productions.  Story by Borden Chase, Screenplay by Borden Chase, Charles Schnee.  Cinematography by Russell Harlan. Produced by Howard Hawks.  Music by Dimitri Tiomkin.  Production Design by John Datu.  Costume Design by Jack E. Miller.  Film Editing by Christian Nyby.  

Up there with The Searchers and Rio Bravo as the best westerns that John Wayne ever made. He gives a great performance as a hard-bitten cattle rancher who, against his better judgement, makes a near-impossible cattle drive from Texas to Missouri.  Montgomery Clift is fantastic as his adopted son, who gets tired of his father’s near-insane methods and decides to splinter off from the main group and start his own cattle drive. Power play between these two, once Wayne decides to get revenge, is fantastic. There’s a hilarious double entendre scene where Clift and John Ireland compare guns.

The Criterion Collection:  #709

Academy Award Nominations:  Best Motion Picture Story; Best Film Editing