Red River (1948), starring John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Walter Brennan, Harry Carey, Sr., Noah Beery, Jr., directed by Howard Hawks
Product description of Red River
One of the finest westerns ever made, this “monumental, sweeping and powerful” masterpiece (Variety) features impassioned performances, stunning cinematography and adventure on a grand scale. Starring John Wayne, Montgomery Clift (in his screen debut), Walter Brennan, Harry Carey, Sr. and Noah Beery, Jr., Red River is a hard-hitting, action-packed adventure that captures the grandeur, majesty and danger of the wild American West.Wayne gives “one of the best performances of his career” (Cinebooks) as Tom Dunson, a self-made cattle baron who’ll do anything to protect his way of life. So when plummeting livestock values demand that he drive his herd through thetreacherous Chisholm Trail, Tom proves that he’ll risk anything to reach his destination even his own sanity.
Editorial review of Red River courtesy of Amazon.com
Any short list of the all-time greatest Westerns is bound to include this 1948 Howard Hawks classic about an epic cattle drive. Red River features one of John Wayne’s greatest performances. Like his Ethan Edwards in John Ford’s 1956 masterpiece The Searchers, the Duke plays an isolated and unsympathetic man who is possessed by bitterness. Wayne is Texas rancher Tom Dunson, who adopts a young boy orphaned in an Indian massacre.
That boy, Matthew Garth (played as an adult by Montgomery Clift in his screen debut), becomes Dunson’s assistant and heir apparent–until Dunson’s temper gets out of control during a long cattle drive and Matt intervenes to stop him. From that moment on, Dunson swears he will kill Matt. Red River has everything a great Western ought to have: a sweeping sense of history, spectacular landscapes, stampedes, gunfights, Indian attacks, and, of course, Walter Brennan as Dunson’s crusty old cook and comic sidekick, Nadine Groot. As a special bonus, the film also features the legendary Harry Carey (upon whom Wayne would base some of his gestures in The Searchers) and his son Harry Carey Jr, who became a fixture in Ford and Hawks’ Westerns. Red River is essential for anyone who loves Westerns, or movies in general. This one’s a real beaut. —Jim Emerson, Amazon.com
Cast of characters
- John Wayne (The Quiet Man, McLintock!) … Thomas Dunson
- Montgomery Clift (From Here to Eternity, A Place in the Sun) … Matt Garth
- Joanne Dru (3 Ring Circus, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon) … Tess Millay
- Walter Brennan (Sergeant York, To Have and Have Not) … Nadine Groot
- Coleen Gray (Nightmare Alley, Kansas City Confidential) … Fen (as Colleen Gray)
- Harry Carey (The Whales of August, Sundown) … Mr. Melville (as Harry Carey Sr.)
- John Ireland (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral) … Cherry Valance
- Noah Beery Jr. (Of Mice and Men, Only Angels Have Wings) … Buster McGee
- Harry Carey Jr. (The Whales of August) … Dan Latimer
- Chief Yowlachie (The Paleface) … Quo
- Paul Fix (The Ghost Breakers) … Teeler Yacey
- Hank Worden (McLintock!) … Simms Reeves
- Mickey Kuhn (Gone with the Wind) … Matt – as a Boy
- Ray Hyke … Walt Jergens
- Hal Taliaferro … Old Leather
