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Rio Bravo (1959)
In Howard Hawks' traditional western - conceived as
a rebuking response to Fred Zinnemann's High
Noon (1952) and its main character Marshal Will Kane (Gary
Cooper); in this film, a self-reliant Sheriff in the
town of Rio Bravo, Texas remained a heroic figure who didn't need
to beg others for help [Note: Two similar
remakes by Hawks of the film included El
Dorado (1966) and Rio
Lobo (1970) - both again starring John Wayne]:
- the two and a half-minute opening scene (with no
dialogue) in which many of the major characters were introduced
in the El Toro Rojo cantina-saloon in the small Texas town of Rio
Bravo (in Presidio County) in the late 1860s; the Sheriff's derelict,
alcoholic future (and past) deputy named Dude (Dean Martin)
(nicknamed Borachon, meaning
"drunk", for
his boozing after a jilted romance), a bar-fly desperate for a drink,
was being teased for not having money to buy one; at the bar, his
antagonist Joe Burdette (Claude Akins), the brother of wealthy,
influential, and powerful rancher, tossed a silver dollar into
a spittoon to tempt and degrade him
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Alcoholic Dude (Dean Martin)
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Bad Guy Joe Burdette (Claude Akins)
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Spittoon with Silver Dollar
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- as Dude reached into the spittoon, tough Sheriff John
T. Chance (John Wayne) kicked it away and looked down at Dude with
disgust; afterwards, the spiteful Dude knocked out the Sheriff from
behind with an axe handle; during a fistfight between Dude and his
antagonist Burdette, the brutish murderer killed an innocent bystander
in the saloon, and was soon arrested (the film's first words: "Joe,
you're under arrest") and jailed by the revived Sheriff; the
Sheriff conditionally deputized Dude if he remained sober
- the introduction of secondary
characters: passing through wagon-train leader Pat Wheeler (Ward
Bond) with a shipment of fuel oil and dynamite, baby-faced, brave,
two pistols-gunslinger greenhorn Colorado Ryan (Ricky Nelson) who had
just arrived in town with the wagon train, and Chance's elderly, toothless,
crippled ("game-legged"), jumpy but loyal crippled sidekick Stumpy
(Walter Brennan)
- most of the remaining scenes
involved interactions between the characters over a prolonged, multi-day
siege period, while Joe Burdette was being held in Chance's
jail while his land-baron rancher-brother Nathan and other hired
guns were there to cause trouble and plan a jail-break; the Sheriff
explained to Wheeler: "I can't get Joe out or any help in. Those
men over there watching us - they're his. I can't make a move without
him knowing it"
- the Sheriff told how he was left to defend the
town with only old man Stumpy and the hard-drinking Dude, and Wheeler
was astonished: "A game-legged old man and a drunk. That's all you got?...If I ever saw
a man holding the bull by the tail, you're it"
- the arrival of attractive, independent, strong-minded
and alluring stagecoach passenger and gambler's widow, 22 year-old
Feathers (Angie Dickinson), she was stranded in the town's Hotel
Alamo when the stagecoach had a broken wheel; she immediately and
affectionately teased the Sheriff
- that evening in the hotel, the Sheriff was informed
that Wheeler was recruiting deputy assistance for him and talking
to people in town: ("That you should have some more help");
Chance explained he didn't need help: "Anybody
that sides in with me right now's liable to find themselves up to
their ears in trouble"; when Wheeler suggested using his wagon-train
drivers as backup, Chance refused: "Suppose
I got them, what'd I have? Some well-meaning amateurs, most of 'em
worried about their wives and kids...No, Pat, all I'd be doin' is givin'
them more targets to shoot at. A lot of people'd get hurt. Joe Burdette
isn't worth it. He isn't worth one of those that'd get killed"
- in the hotel at the same time, Feathers was playing
poker with Colorado and others, and the Sheriff grew suspicious that
she was cheating; he followed her up to her
room at the end of the game and confronted her as a card cheat ("You're
in trouble, lady"); he produced evidence (three missing aces from
the deck of cards being used in the game, and a handbill indicating
she had a shady past and reputation due to her association with her wanted gambler-husband);
after being accused, she provocatively resisted - to make him embarrassed:
"You've made me mad, Sheriff. You didn't ask me if I took those cards.
So you're gonna have to prove I've got them. And the only way I know
you can do that is to search me...Well, Sheriff,
you've got a job to do. Where do you intend to begin?.... You
have to prove I've got those cards...(she laughed at him) I think
you're embarrassed..."; Colorado
interrupted and claimed that another player was the real cheat;
after proving that Colorado's assumption was right and arresting
the man, the Sheriff was reluctant to apologize to Feathers for his
false accusations about her guilty character: ("I guess I was wrong
about you having those cards...I'm not gonna apologize, if that's
what you mean...You could quit playing cards wearing feathers");
she refused to give in: "No, Sheriff. No, I'm not gonna do that.
You see, that's what I'd do if I were the kind of girl that you
think I am"
- the sequence of the cold-blooded murder of Pat Wheeler
in the middle of the street - shot in the back when returning
to the hotel by one of Burdette's men hidden in the stable; the Sheriff
reacted: "Didn't take 'em long, less than an hour after he offered
to help. Don't get many friends like that"; he angrily chastised
Colorado for now wanting to help: "You had a chance to get in this
and you didn't want it. Stay out, we don't need ya"
- Chance and Dude pursued the wounded
gunman (with muddy boots) into Burdette's saloon, where Dude had the
customers unbuckle and drop their gunbelts and show their boots;
he noticed blood dripping into a beer mug at the bar, coming from above him
in the saloon's loft -- and with a quick reaction, he shot the paid
assassin above him: (Dude: "He stepped in a puddle,
all right. He's the fella we wanted. I guess this is his. A nice, fresh $50 gold
piece. It's just about what Burdette would figure a man's life was
worth. That's earnin' money the hard way");
Chance then threatened the remainder of Burdette's hired men:
"Paid killer. Nice, fresh $50 gold piece....You're all in it.
The whole lot of ya. You're gonna get out of town. Take your boy here
with you. You can tell Burdette you got Wheeler. You can tell him anybody
else he sends, he'd better pay 'em more because they're gonna earn
it"); the Sheriff commended Dude for having fooled Burdette's
men with his quick-draw, but warned him: "Ya surprised them. But next
time they'll be ready for ya. Next time, they'll shoot first and laugh
afterwards"
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Dude Confronting Saloon Customers
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Blood Dripping into Beer Mug From Above
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Dude Shooting Gunman in Loft
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- in the hotel later that night, the Sheriff and Feathers
spoke about her dead husband, whom she admitted cheated due to
her: "He liked to buy me things" - he left her rather suddenly and
was shot dead: ("his luck had run out"); she confessed that four
months earlier: "I didn't know about - that he was cheating until
they caught him"; that evening, she voluntarily kept watch in a chair
at Chance's hotel door until morning; according to the hotel-keeper
Carlos (Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez): "She was sitting outside your room
in a chair...All night long...She told me not to wake you, senor";
perturbed, Chance spoke to Feathers in her room where she confirmed
her concern for him - and his continual refusal of any assistance:
"You don't want anyone to help you"; he insisted that she still leave
town in an hour: "You've got to get on that stagecoach"; after he
left, she muttered to herself: "You try to help someone who doesn't
want any help"
- the sequence of the arrival of Nathan Burdette (John
Russell) who was forced to disarm by a forceful Dude standing guard,
who was confiscating all weapons while visitors were in town; Dude
showed his determination (and sober gun-shooting skill) by shooting
the reins from one resistant hired hand - impressing Burdette who
also threatened: "You're pretty good with that gun when you're sober...Every
man should have a little taste of power before he's through"
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Dude Confiscating the Weapons of Burdette and His
Men
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Nathan Burdette
(John Russell)
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Burdette Confronting the Sheriff
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- while Burdette was visiting his brother Joe in jail,
the Sheriff explained how Joe was appropriately arrested and jailed
for murder (for shooting an innocent unarmed bystander) - and then
denounced the two for taking over the town while awaiting the arrival
of the US Marshal: "I don't like
a lot of things. I don't like your men sittin' on the road bottlin'
up this town. I don't like your men watchin' us, tryin' to catch
us with our backs turned. And I don't like it when a friend of mine
offers to help - and 20 minutes later, he's dead! And I don't like
you, Burdette, because you set it up...I'm gonna sit here with your
brother in my lap until the United States Marshal gets here. That'll
be about six days"
- that same morning, Feathers refused to leave town
on the stagecoach, although the Sheriff had insisted that she leave;
when he asked why she didn't go, she answered: "Don't make me tell
you why I stayed...I won't make it any harder for you. I won't get
in your way. I'll just be here. You don't owe me a thing. And you
won't owe me when it's all over. When that happens, just tell me
to go, and I'll go. No, you won't even have to tell me. I'll know
by then, and I'll just go. Is that fair, John T.? You don't have
to answer me now if you don't want to. But just say something" --
he told her things would be different if he wasn't so involved: "If
I weren't in this mess, it might be different. But I am"; she answered:
"That's all I wanted to hear. (She kissed him - twice) I'm glad we
tried it a second time. It's better when two people do it"
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Feathers - Refusing to Leave Town
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Sheriff: "If I weren't in this mess, it might be different. But I
am"
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Kissing the Sheriff -
Twice
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- the scene of Colorado's evening visit to the jailhouse
- where he described the meaning of the Mexican tune - "Cutthroat's
Song" - that
was heard playing in the saloon (it was requested by Burdette before
he left town, signifying his objective: "no
mercy for the losers"); Colorado mentioned its historical usage: "The
Mexicans played it for those Texas boys when they had them bottled
up in the Alamo. Played it day and night till it was all over"
- that evening, Feathers told the Sheriff that she had
been hired by Carlos to "tend bar" in the hotel, and in
a very forward way - she proposed that he could sleep in her room
that night while she watched over him in a rocking chair: "Tonight
you sleep in my room. Anyone looking wouldn't look there first. You'd
have more time if anything did happen. Besides, I have a rocking
chair, it's more comfortable. Just an idea. You can think about it.
When you're in a little better humor"; before going to bed,
he carried her up the stairs to her room
- the next day, Dude was seized
and tied up in the stable by four of Burdette's men; three of the hired
killers then confronted an unarmed
Sheriff Chance in the street, and demanded Joe Burdette be set free
from jail; during a shoot-out, Chance was
assisted by Feathers who threw a flowerpot out the hotel's front-porch
window as a distraction, so that Colorado could walk out onto the
porch and throw Chance a rifle and help defend them - three of Burdette's
hired men were killed in the street, and the 4th was shot fleeing;
the hog-tied and gagged Dude was released in the stable by the Sheriff
[Note: Each of the four men were discovered with two new $ 50 gold
pieces in their pockets - the Sheriff quipped: "Price is going
up."]
- the scene was accompanied by Dude's doubting of himself
to the Sheriff; sobered and suffering from withdrawal, he felt useless
and rattled by the experience - along with trembling hands:
("A man ought to have sense enough to
know when he's no good no more...You've got no use for a man you
can't depend on....What can a man do with hands like that?")
- and he threatened to quit; the Sheriff reacted: "Go on back to
the bottle, get drunk!" and insisted that he wouldn't ever help
him again ("Maybe you're right. Maybe you aren't much good anymore")
- after the incident, Feathers drunkenly bemoaned the
fact that she had unwittingly helped the Sheriff:
("Why'd you make me do it?...You were just gonna get yourself killed, that's
all....Somebody had to help you. But you don't want anybody to do
that, do you?"), and how she had gotten
mixed up in town with "fools" and "idiots"; Colorado
suggested to Chance that he might as well become deputized and get
paid to fight off the Burdettes: "If I'm gonna get shot at, I might
as well get paid for it. How do I get a badge?", especially since
Dude had quit
- shortly later in the jailhouse, Dude
was about to take a drink - and then again heard
the "Cutthroat" song playing in the far distance, making
his resolve to stay sober stronger than ever; in close-up, he decided, with
a steady hand, to perfectly pour the contents of his liquor glass
back into the bottle without spilling ("Didn't
spill a drop") - "Shakes are gone just because of a piece of
music. Till they played that piece, I forgot how I got into this thing.
Keep on playing it, I don't think I'll ever forget again"; he
demonstrated that he was reliably cured of his alcoholic shakes and
wouldn't quit; Dude asked for a second chance to work - to assist
the Sheriff with his own re-purchased guns returned earlier by Chance
("Been
waiting till they fit you again")
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Dude's Trembling Hands - Withdrawal Symptoms
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Pouring a Drink For Himself
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Dude's Resolve to Not Drink - He Poured Liquor Back
Into Bottle
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- the musical interlude sequence in the jailhouse,
including Dude's duet (with Colorado singing with his guitar) of "My
Rifle, My Pony and Me",
and Colorado's strumming of a guitar accompanying Dude's song "Get
Along Home, Cindy" -
with Stumpy on harmonica; the group of four decided to camp out in the
jailhouse for 3-4 days awaiting the Marshal
- the next tactic by Burdette's men was to sneak into
the hotel and capture hotel owner Carlos (and his wife) and use them
to release Joe from jail; after tripping up
Chance on the dark stairs and knocking him unconscious, Dude and
Feathers were also taken captive; the revived and reluctant Sheriff
was ordered: "We go to the jail and you let Joe go" - and surprisingly,
Dude encouraged him to obey and cooperate (his motive was to get
them to walk into a trap): "Go on, take them over to the jail, and
tell Stumpy to open up and let Joe go";
at the jailhouse, Stumpy (and Colorado) suspected things weren't
right, defended the jail and shot all three of Burdette's men; after
they heard shooting at the jail, the remainder of Burdette's men
back at the hotel took Dude as a hostage
- the climactic and tense scene that involved Chance's
and Colorado's exchange of Joe for Dude at Burdette's creek-side
warehouse half an hour after sun-up; as Joe and Dude slowly walked
toward each other during the swap of hostages, Dude tackled Joe and
they scuffled together on the ground as a major shootout broke out
between the two sides
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- a
key role was played by Stumpy who suddenly arrived to even the odds,
and threw dynamite sticks (from Wheeler's stockpile) at the warehouse
where Burdette's men were hidden, as Chance shot the sticks and caused
them to explode; Stumpy exclaimed: "Hey
dude, how do ya like them apples?...That got 'em. That took a bite
out of 'em. Look at 'em quit!"; Burdette's gunmen
quickly surrendered ("Don't shoot, we've had enough"); the few remaining
Burdette gunmen were locked up in the jail to await the Marshal ("Rest
of them all cleared out. We won't have any trouble")
- in the concluding scene, Sheriff Chance was in Feathers'
upstairs bedroom, where she was modeling for him a skimpy, sheer black
negligee and tights for her new job in the hotel as a singer - and
she knew why he was complaining: "Is it because they show so much
of me?" - she challenged him about his stubbornness and lack of commitment
to her: "You're
a stubborn, stubborn man, John T. Sometimes
I know what you're thinking. And other times, you just can't make
up your mind about me, can you? You like what you see. You like kissing
me. You like what you touch. But you decided in the beginning what
kind of a girl I was. And I haven't helped much. I wore these before
I met you. I wanted you to know it. To know what kind of a girl you
were getting. I wanted you to get that funny look on your face and
tell me not to wear them. But it didn't work. You didn't even get
mad. I told you once you wouldn't have to say anything. That I'd
know, but I don't know. So you're gonna have to talk. I'm hard to
get, John T. You're gonna have to say you want me"
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"I'm hard to get, John T. You're
gonna have to say you want me...I've
waited so long for you to say that. I thought you were never ---
you have the funniest way of saying things"
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- when she started to leave the
room, he threatened to arrest her for wearing the negligee and tights
in public downstairs: ("Where are you going?...You
wear those things in public, I'll arrest ya"); she was touched
by his strange expression of love for her, by refusing to have her
wear the outfit; it was his way of signaling that he wanted to marry
her, and she was agreeable: "I've
waited so long for you to say that. I thought you were never ---
you have the funniest way of saying things. Just when I think you're
gonna say one thing..." - he interrupted her and ordered her to remove
her tights -- ("Get those darn things off")
- as she changed out of her
outfit behind a screen, she admitted that her whole act was a ploy
to get him to be romantic with her (in her words, to say 'that you
loved me'); she asked directly: "Tell
me something. These tights, now why didn't you want me to wear them?" -
he answered: "Because I didn't want anybody but me to see you
in them"; she was pleased with his answer and then asked: "Oh,
I like that. You're getting better already. Shall I...? Shall I save
them and wear them just for you?"
- in the final moments of the film, the Sheriff answered
by tossing her negligee out the window, and it fell at the feet of
Dude and Stumpy who were walking along - they commented with the
film's final lines: (Stumpy: "Do
you think I'll ever get to be a Sheriff?" Dude: "Not unless
you mind your own business")
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Sheriff John Chance
(John Wayne)
Deputized Dude (Dean Martin)
Pat Wheeler (Ward Bond)
Colorado Ryan (Ricky Nelson)
Stumpy (Walter Brennan)
Sheriff with Wheeler - Who Noted Chance's Only Defense:
"A game-legged old man and a drunk"
Feathers
(Angie Dickinson)
Chance Refusing Wheeler's Volunteered Help
Poker-Playing Feathers
Feathers Confronted by the Sheriff for Card-Cheating: "Search me"
After Wheeler's Murder, The Sheriff's Harsh Rebuke of Colorado's Offer:
"Stay out, we don't need ya"
Sheriff Confronting Burdette's Men in Saloon: "You're
gonna get out of town"
At the Hotel Bar with the Sheriff
Feathers in Her Room the Next Morning with the Sheriff
In the Jail, The Sheriff Denounced the Burdettes
Hotel Front Porch Shootout Against Three of Burdette's
Men
Colorado's Song: "Get Along Home, Cindy"
The Sheriff Forcibly Led to the Jailhouse by Three of Burdette's Men,
to Release Joe
Joe Burdette Let Out of Jail for Hostage Trade (for Dude)
The Sheriff at the Burdette Warehouse to Arrange
Trading Dude for Joe
Climactic Shootout at Burdette's Warehouse - Stumpy Hurling
Exploding Dynamite
Feathers - With Her Black Negligee/Tights in Her Hand: "Shall I save
them and wear them just for you?"
Stumpy and Dude on the Street with the Negligee
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