Rio Grande (Collector's Edition)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ben Johnson, Claude Jarman Jr., Harry Carey Jr., John Wayne, Maureen O'HaraDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-10-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Republic Pictures
Movie Reviews of Rio Grande (Collector's Edition)
Movie Review: Yellow Stripes On Britches Blue
Summary: 5 Stars
I am in total agreement with those who don't regard this piece of filmwork as something "lightweight" or "throwaway" when compared to "Fort Apache" or "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon". Nor is it "just" a "sleepwalking" effort by John Ford to gain financing from Herbert Yates at Republic for a Technicolor production of "The Quiet Man" (which it DID succeed in doing).
It is, in fact, a solid and masterful piece of filmmaking that stands successfully (and rightly so) on its own merits and does not need to figuratively hang its head at all in the company of "Apache" or "Ribbon". If it is considered the "least" of the three by some, then such an evaluation speaks volumns for the quality of the two companion pieces, because this film itself is an excellent one.
During the 1940s and into the early 50s the popular western writer James Warner Bellah wrote a series of U.S. Cavalry stories that centered around a fictional army garrison at "Fort Starke" , deep in Arizona's Apache country. These stories appeared frequently in the magazine "The Saturday Evening Post" and featured recurring characters like Kirby Yorke, Flint Cohill, Sgt. Quincannon, Ross Pennell,Travis Tyree, Mickey O'Rourke, Sgt. Major O'Rourke, and others. John Ford enjoyed these J.W. Bellah stories...and the strong "Irishness" that filled them...and used them as the basis of his trilogy.
The first film of the trilogy, "Fort Apache", is a re-vamp of a "Fort Starke" story, with some elements of it changed. Lt. Mickey O'Rourke defends the pack train in the finale of the original story, not Kirby Yorke (John Wayne)and a few other elements here and there vary from one medium to the other.
"Yellow Ribbon" is the Fort Starke "team" again with Wayne
portraying the retiring Nathan Brittles.
"Rio Grande" brings us back around to Kirby Yorke again. Yes, Wayne's character..Lt. Col. Yorke...is the SAME CHARACTER he played in "Fort Apache", aged and promoted and now wearing a mustache. At the end of "Fort Apache", when a cleanshaven Wayne gives up his horse to Col. Thursday (Henry Fonda), Thursday tells him "When you command this regiment...and you probably will...COMMAND it".
Well, Yorke has taken Thursday's admonition to heart, and in "Rio Grande" he does indeed COMMAND the regiment. He is a no-nonsense, hard-nosed, professional military man. But he is also a lonely man.
CAPTAIN Kirby Yorke had no love interest whatsoever in "Fort Apache". Now, in dealing with COLONEL Kirby Yorke in "Rio Grande", we find out why that was. It seems that Yorke has all this while been married, but estranged from his wife. It also seems that he has a son. The problem was not an uncommon one in the middle 1800s; Yorke was a young Army officer who was married to a Virginia belle (Maureen O'Hara), heir to a lovely ante-bellum plantation in the Shenandoah Valley. When the Civil War broke out Yorke remained loyal to the Union, while his wife's sympathies were decidedly pro-Southern. A rift grew between them. The rift grew greater when U.S. campaign tactics began to target civilians as well as confederate armies. By late 1862 the Union had been whipped repeatedly in battle after battle and in Northern Virginia their supply lines were constantly being disrupted by guerilla cavalry raids let by the confederate partisan genius, John Singleton Mosby, "The Grey Ghost". As a reaction against Mosby's raids General Philip Sheridan had union forces sweep through the Shenandoah Valley. pillaging and burning out landowners who backed and supplied Mosby's forces. One of these burn-out operations seems to have involved the plantation owned by Kirby Yorke's wife (O'Hara). Worse, still, the troop detachment sent to tend to this "dirty business" was Yorke himself...and the man who set the first fire was family friend Sergeant Quincannon. From that day, fifteen years prior to the time "Rio Grande" is set, Yorke's wife has had nothing to do with him...and he has not seen his son, Jeff, in all that time either.
When "Rio Grande" opens, something surprising and disruptive has taken place; Private Jefferson Yorke, Kirby's son, has shown up as a troop replacement at Fort Starke, having flunked out of West Point for poor math grades. This surprise hits Kirby hard, but more is to come. Kathleen Yorke shows up with
War Department paperwork, which, with a fee, can get her son out of the Army. She intends to take him home. Her first meeting with her husband in 15 years, however, gives instant indication that the feelings between these two run deep and strong still. There is lot to be resolved here.
And resolved things are, but before such resolution can occur there are Indian attacks to be dealt with, massacres to soldier through, a young soldier's ascension to manhood to unfold, and the bitterness of the past to be put behind. All of these things
are depicted with John Ford's sentimental love of humanity, rollicking sense of humor, and heavy-hearted acknowledgement of
tragedy when it occurs.
Ben Johnson is here, Hollywood's greatest horseman, doing some of his fabulous riding sequences. Claude Jarman, Jr. does a great job portraying Yorke's son Jeff, and Harry "Dobie" Carey, Jr.("YO"!!) and Victor McLaglen provide comic shenanigans with professional panache. The Sons of the Pioneers portray the "Regimental Singers". and the vocal soloist...new to the Pioneers at the time...was young Ken Curtis. If one is an old "Gunsmoke" fan, it may take some real effort to get a grip on the notion that this impeccable young man would one day be "Festus Hagen" on t.v. Curtis's rendition of the popular old ballad "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" is excellent.
Other musical ditties are the jaunty "Aha, San Antone" (written by Dale Evans), "Yellow Stripes On Britches Blue" (life in the cavalry), and a portion of a Stan Jones composition, "Cattle Call", which would subsequently be released on the radio as a hit single recording by country music star Eddy Arnold (and a song that has since been "covered" by Leanne Rimes).
A performance of note in "Rio Grande" is that of (Col.)Peter Ortiz (USMCR) as "Captain St. Jacques" , a lean, eyepatched officer of obvious French descent who shows the carraige and demeanor of a Foreign Legionnaire. There was reason for that, as Ortiz had served for several years IN the Foreign Legion. A Californian of French-Spanish ancestry, he attended college in France and went into the Legion in 1932 and served in North Africa. Later he returned to the United States and, when WWII broke out, he took a commission in the Marine Corps. Ortiz never set foot in the Pacific Theatre of that war, however, as did MOST Marine officers and enlisted men. When his background military history was evaluated by Washington, Ortiz was detached from the Marines and assigned to the Office of Strategic Services, The OSS, the forerunner to today's CIA. The OSS sent him to North Africa to help run sabotage and intelligence networks there (and to Liaison with Free French Forces), and then later he was parachuted into occupied France to work with the resistance underground (the "Maquis") against the Germans. Ortiz was captured and spent time till war's end in a POW camp. A heavily decorated warrior...2 Navy Crosses, The Legion of Merit, the Order of the British Empire,FIVE French Croix de Guerre, AND Chevalier of the French Legion d'Honneur...Otiz was a real "Audie Murphy type" known to John Ford through their mutual OSS connections. Ortiz appeared in only two films, both Ford vehicles, "Rio Grande" and "What Price Glory?" with James Cagney.
Filled with action, great performances all around, and true star power in Wayne and O'Hara (as well as a sweeping, emotionally moving orchestral score by Victor Young), "Rio Grande" is just a marvelous entertainment vehicle. The performances of these two mega-stars are powerful, evocative,and absorbing. One scene in particular is remarkable. It is just prior to Ken Curtis's serenade and involves nothing more than John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara looking at each other across a table in a tent . There is NO dialog. Everything is conveyed through the eyes and facial expressions. It is all nuance...and it is magnificent. Brilliantly directed...brilliantly acted.
And, as for more acting Kudos, J. Carroll Naish makes a wonderful General "Little Phil" Sheridan . He looks like Sheridan and is dressed like Sheridan. Even wears the kind of hat the real Sheridan typically wore. Great touch, that, and good job Mr. Naish!
"Rio Grande"...one of the all-time great westerns. I'll recommend it ANY day.
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