Red River (1948)

For anyone who has never driven across or seen the actual Red River, let me be the first to tell you that the river is red. The Red River acts as a natural border between northern Texas and southern Oklahoma. A few years ago I flew to the southwest for my job. After visiting my Irving, Texas office, I drove my rental car three hours north to Oklahoma City to visit our office there.  I saw the sign indicating I was about to cross the Red River and thought about the John Wayne movie RED RIVER (1948) which I had never seen. I expected to see a typical river, blue or green or black in color, flowing underneath. But it was red, a deep brownish red. It must have been an easy name to come up with for the first explorer or settler or cowboy or Indian who saw it.

The film RED RIVER, directed by Howard Hawks with a screenplay by Borden Chase and Charles Schnee based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Borden Chase, is almost always referenced as one of the great westerns of all time. It is an epic western, the story of a huge cattle drive from Texas to Kansas along the Chisholm Trail. At first glance, RED RIVER would appear to be a John Ford film as it stars many actors from the Ford repertory including John Wayne, Harry Carey, Jr, Hank Worden, Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru, and John Ireland. But it's the great genre director Howard Hawks not John Ford at the helm. Whereas Ford's Cavalry trilogy always had a feeling of family with some Irish humor thrown in, RED RIVER has the usual Hawksian elements: a group of men who live by a code of honor, a tough independent woman amongst all the men, and a hero finding redemption.

RED RIVER begins in 1851 as a wagon train out of St. Louis heads west for California through Texas.  But breaking from the train to begin his dream of starting a huge cattle ranch is Thomas Dunson (John Wayne, with long blond hair). Joining Dunson is his irascible friend Nadine Groot (Walter Brennan).  Dunson's girl Fen (Colleen Gray) wants to come as well but Dunson will have none of that. The two parties go their separate ways. Later in the day, Dunson and Groot see smoke where the wagon train was headed. They suspect an attack by Comanche Indians.  That night, a war party tries to attack them. Dunson kills a Comanche wearing the bracelet Dunson gave Fen, confirming his worst fears.  The next day, a young boy named Matt Garth (Mickey Kuhn) emerges from the brush, the lone survivor from the wagon train massacre. With Matt's one cow and Dunson's bull, the trio ride south until they reach the right land near the Rio Grande.  Dunson sets his stakes down to start his cattle ranch and the Red River D brand.

Dunson builds his cattle empire but then the Civil War calls and Matt and many other young men go off to fight. When Matt returns (played by adult Montgomery Clift), Dunson still has a huge ranch, but he's penniless. The Civil War has made the south broke. There's no market for beef in Texas so Dunson decides to drive his ten thousand head of cattle to Missouri to sell, a journey no one has ever done. With Matt leading the drive and Groot heading the chuck wagon, Dunson picks up a few other colorful characters to drive the herd including young hotshot gunslinger Cherry Valance (John Ireland), dependable and loyal Buster McGee (Noah Beery, Jr), Native American Quo (Chief Yowlatchie), earnest Dan Latimer (Harry Carey, Jr), Teeler Yacey (Paul Fix), and eccentric Simms Reeves (Hank Worden).

Director Hawks alternates between cattle drive scenes during the day and camp fire dialogue at night as the drive begins. A stampede caused by the clumsy Bunk (Ivan Parry) ignites the first real drama of the drive as Dan Latimer is trampled and killed by the frightened herd. Dunson wants to whip Bunk but Matt steps in, saving Bunk's life. This is the first real conflict between Dunson and Matt. Forty days into the drive, the men are wet from rain and low on food.  Sixty days into the drive, with morale low, a stranger stumbles into the camp. He's from another cattle drive that was jumped by Missouri border gangs. He tells the men that Kansas is where the cattle are being bought not Missouri. Some of the camp want to go to Kansas but Dunson stays firm with his plan to go to Missouri. Teeler and two other men flee the drive, tired of the tyrannical Dunson. Cherry is sent to retrieve them. Dunson starts to become paranoid as the cattle drive reaches the Red River.

Cherry returns with the three deserters. Dunson wants to hang them but Matt intervenes again. Matt disarms Dunson and takes over the drive. Matt makes the decision to lead the drive to Abilene, Kansas. Dunson promises to follow them and kill Matt.  Buster returns from a scouting mission with news that there's a wagon train up ahead with food and women. When they arrive, the wagon train is under attack by Indians. Matt and Cherry help the wagon train fight off the Indians. Both men fall in love with the lovely Tess Millay (Joanna Dru). Tess wants to come along with Matt to Kansas but he won't have it. Matt fears they won't find the town but they see a nearby train that leads them to Abilene, a town hungry for cattle. It's August 14th, 1865 as Matt and his men drive the herd down Abilene's Main Street. Matt makes a deal with Mr. Melville (Harry Carey, Sr) who buys the cattle at a good price. Dunson, now with some new, armed men, follows the cattle drives trail all the way to Abilene. Dunson comes across Tess and her wagon train. Tess convinces Dunson to bring her along. Dunson and his gang ride into town for the big showdown between Dunson and Matt, a showdown that ends with a satisfying Hawks ending

Like the river in Ford's RIO GRANDE, the river in RED RIVER symbolizes many things. The river carries the sweat and toil of settlers heading east and west; north and south. It's hope when Dunson, Matt, and the drivers cross it with their ten thousand head of cattle, one step closer to making some money in Missouri or Kansas.  The river also represents blood and death. Early in the film, Dunson and a Comanche fall into the river fighting and Dunson kills the warrior in the dark water. Dan Larimer is one of many men who die during the cattle drive, his blood sowing the land that leads to the Red River.

RED RIVER is a western version of Mutiny on the Bounty with Dunson as Captain Bligh and Matt as Fletcher Christian. Dunson is a taskmaster, driving his men as hard as his cattle, pushing them relentlessly through long days and dwindling food. His word is law and the wranglers respect his monumental plan until Dunson begins to lose their trust when he first wants to whip Bunk for starting the stampede and later, tries to hang deserters Laredo, Teeler, and Kelsey. Dunson has become a crazed tyrant and the drive almost comes apart because of it. Matt is the intermediary between Dunson and the drivers. Cherry and later Dunson call Matt "soft" but he's the one human being on this drive, caring for his buddies just as much as he loves his surrogate father Dunson. Matt has seen too much of man's inhumanity during the Civil War. The drivers respect Matt's wisdom and when Matt leads the mutiny, Cherry, Buster, and even old Groot have no problem switching alliances or pointing a gun at Dunson. The men still respect Dunson but he's lost his way, gone mad on this cattle drive and they put their trust with Matt that he'll lead the way to Abilene and prosperity.

Director John Ford has been quoted after watching Wayne's performance in RED RIVER stating that "I never knew the big son of a bitch could act."  I think Ford knew Wayne was a fine actor but he liked to put Wayne down to remind him Ford was boss. That changed with Hawks casting Wayne in RED RIVER. Dunson is a different type of character than Wayne had played in Ford's Cavalry trilogy. Physically, Wayne sports blond hair. Dunson's metamorphosis from settler to surrogate father to ruthless cattle baron to villain is an actor's dream. Thomas Dunson would prepare Wayne later for one of his most memorable performances as the multi-layered Indian racist Ethan Edwards in John Ford's THE SEARCHERS (1956).

RED RIVER is the first film to find a younger actor like Montgomery Clift strong enough to stand toe to toe with the John Wayne mystique. Hawks casting of Clift as Matt Garth is essential to the success of the Dunson/Matt relationship. Clift's smoldering persona and cool cockiness makes him a perfect choice to play Matt. Other young actors like John Agar (FORT APACHE), Jeffrey Hunter (THE SEARCHERS), and even Glen Campbell (TRUE GRIT) never could hold their own against the formidable Wayne. Dunson and Matt have a love/hate relationship.  Matt the wagon train orphan that Dunson takes in, demanding that he be a part of the Red River D brand. Dunson telling him not until Matt earns it. Matt will earn it in more ways than he can imagine, having to overthrow the father-like Dunson on the biggest cattle drive of his life. This was only Clift's second feature film but his career would take off after RED RIVER in films like A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951) and FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953). Sadly, like Marilyn Monroe (who he acted with in THE MISFITS in 1961), Clift would die way too young.

Walter Brennan as Nadine Groot is an interesting character. Groot is there for many of RED RIVER'S humorous moments including losing his false teeth to Quo in a poker game. Groot will have to borrow his teeth back during meal time from Quo. But Groot is also the conscience to his friend Dunson and a grandfather to Matt. In the beginning, Dunson listens to Groot, laying off Matt when Groot thinks he's being too harsh on the young man. But Dunson begins to stop listening to Groot as paranoia and fear set in, as Dunson begins to lose his hold on the drive and the drivers, doubting his destination, resorting to threats of violence against the men who love him.

There aren't a whole lot of women in RED RIVER and there's too big a gap between the appearance of Fen at the beginning and Tess near the end.  Tess Millay (Joanna Dru) is the poster girl for the tough Hawksian woman with one of the greatest introductions in a Hawks film as she takes an arrow to the shoulder while flirting with Matt during an Indian attack on her wagon train. Ironically, actress Joanna Dru hated acting in westerns yet her two noteworthy performances are RED RIVER and SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON (1949). Sex is used as a bartering commodity by both the women and men on the range.  Fen (Colleen Gray) basically tells Dunson when he's done herding cattle for the day, she'll be waiting in bed for him each night. Dunson still turns down her request to join him as he starts his ranch. Haunted by Fen's death and still not married fourteen years later, Dunson asks Tess if she'll bear him a son, a real son as Dunson's hatred of his adopted son Matt festers. Dunson has planted the seeds for his cattle kingdom in Texas but he hasn't fathered a son to take over when he dies. Tess declines his request, her heart beating for Matt. Look for a young Shelley Winters as a Dance Hall girl briefly in RED RIVER as well.

Many Hawks films have a good band of supporting characters, usually men, who live by a code of respect and honor even if they don't always agree. Standing out in RED RIVER are Noah Beery, Jr as Buster McGee and John Ireland as Cherry Valance. Buster is honest and trustworthy, the type of friend any ranch hand would want.  Buster has the best line in the film when he races back from a scouting trip, yelling to the boys about the wagon train he found. "Women and coffee, I tell ya!" he yells. Actor Noah Beery, Jr would later become famous as James Garner's father on the television series THE ROCKFORD FILES. Cherry Valance could have his own movie.  He's a gunslinger who seems to have no loyalties as he jumps from one cattle rancher Meeker (Davison Clark) to Dunson. He's a loner but has a friendly rivalry with Matt, trading fancy shooting shots with him and later vying for Tess's affections. Matt and Cherry are almost like brothers. Cherry seems to only think about himself but when Dunson comes looking to kill Matt, Cherry's loyalty to Matt steps up. Actor Ireland starred in a lot of westerns before moving on to a long television career but he also appeared in ALL THE KING'S MEN (1949) and SPARTACUS (1960). Ireland would even be married to co-star Joanna Dru for a time after the film.

Many think Hawks' RIO BRAVO (1959) is his best western (also starring Wayne) but right now, I would stick with RED RIVER.  Like Ford's THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962), RIO BRAVO has a bit of a TV western back lot feel.  RED RIVER feels big and open. Hawks handles the logistics with all the cattle, horses, and wagon trains effortlessly and the exteriors of Arizona (filling in as Texas) are excellent. His storytelling is economical. When Hawks needs to get some information to the audience early in the film, he uses Walter Brennan's voice over to explain Dunson's vision or briefly shows written words on pages from an anonymous story of the drive to punctuate plot points. Dimitry Tiomkin's score grows on the viewer and the theme song Settle Down also by Tiomkin is catchy.  But it's the growing conflict between Dunson and Matt to lead and finish the greatest cattle drive ever that powers RED RIVER.

RED RIVER is beloved by western fans and Billy Crystal's recent film CITY SLICKERS (1991) is a modern tip of the cowboy hat to maybe the first epic western ever. RED RIVER would prove to director John Ford and many others that John Wayne was a talented actor capable of playing flawed characters. If a trip to the Red River Valley is not on your next travel destination, then catch director Howard Hawks RED RIVER, an enjoyable two hour diversion.

The Eagle Has Landed (1976)

On a spring break vacation with my family to Maui, Hawaii in 1977, I found myself terribly sunburned after my first day playing in the surf on Napili Beach.  Confined to wearing a t-shirt and pajamas pants to cover my lobster red thighs, I went into the hotel's gift shop to find a book to read, preferably in the shade or my hotel room. I remember being intrigued by the titles in the shop which included Robin Cook's Coma, Clive Cussler's Raise the Titanic, and Jack Higgins' The Eagle Has Landed. I ended up choosing Raise the Titanic which I enjoyed very much (and have never seen the film version). Like authors Robert Ludlum or Ken Follett (two of my favorite authors as a teenager who also had books in the gift shop), Jack Higgins wrote thrillers, often set in World War II, that I never read and still haven't. So for Higgins best known novel, I've done the opposite and chose to watch the film version of Higgins THE EAGLE HAS LANDED (1976) instead of reading the book first.

THE EAGLE IS LANDED is directed by John Sturges, the legendary director of BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (1955), THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960), and THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963). Surprisingly, EAGLE would be the last film Sturges would direct although he lived until 1992.  He treats the film like his previous epics, unveiling the plot slowly and methodically but it doesn't carry the dramatic effect that say THE GREAT ESCAPE had as that film was based on a true WWII mass POW escape while EAGLE is a work of fiction. The action sequences are typical of war action films from the 1960's and early 70's.  Nicely staged but a little too rehearsed and perfect. SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and BAND OF BROTHERS battles scenes have raised the bar immensely from the days of THE DIRTY DOZEN (1969) or THE EAGLE HAS LANDED. But Sturges knows how to film production value and he gets the most out of a fighter plane landing on an airstrip, a seaport on a Norwegian island, trains and train station (in Finland posing as Poland) and the English village that Churchill plans to visit.

Screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz adapted the Jack Higgins novel.  Mankiewicz had become a hot commodity after his screenplays for the James Bond films LIVE AND LET DIE (1973) and THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974). Mankiewicz writes good, catchy dialogue but the characters in EAGLE are broad and over the top and a little too glib for a war movie.

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED begins with news footage of a real life rescue mission in September 1943 known as the Gran Sasso Raid where German paratroopers rescued Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from a high mountain ski resort where he was held by his Italian captors. Brimming with confidence after the Mussolini rescue, Higgins novel postulates that Hitler wanted to kidnap Winston Churchill to use as a bargaining chip as the war nears its end. Admiral Canaris (Anthony Quayle) assigns the one-eyed Colonel Max Radl (Robert Duvall), veteran from the Russian front, to do a feasibility study on whether this plan could succeed. Both know Hitler will soon forget about it but Heinrich Himmler (Donald Pleasence) will not.  An intelligence report Radl receives mentions that Churchill is to visit a war factory in England in a month and stay at a small English village called Studley-Constable for the night. Radl sees an opportunity and goes over Canaris's authority to make it happen.

Radl enlists Colonel Kurt Steiner (Michael Caine), a decorated and brilliant German paratrooper with the 12th Parachute Attachment to pull off the kidnapping. But Steiner and his squad have just been sent to a Norwegian penal colony to be court martialed by the German SS after Steiner tries to help a Jewish girl escape at a Polish train station. Steiner is a patriot but he's no Nazi. Also enlisted by Radl is Liam Devlin (Donald Sutherland), an ex-IRA soldier with no love for the English. Radl pulls strings to get Steiner temporarily pardoned and he and Devlin meet Steiner on the Norwegian island to work out the mission.

Devlin is dropped into England first by plane and hooks up with a local spy Joanna Grey (Jean Marsh). Devlin's cover is as the new marsh warden (like a game warden). Devlin quickly gets the lay of the village, meeting the town's vicar Father Verecker (John Standing) as well as the pretty Molly Prior (Jenny Agutter) who takes to the Irish newcomer quite quickly. Next, Steiner and his men disguised as Polish paratroopers are dropped along the coast, their transport a captured English plane. Steiner's team's code name is Eagle.

The locals are excited by the arrival of the paratroopers who claim to be an advance team for Churchill's visit.  Steiner's first obstacle arrives when Captain Harry Clark (Treat Williams), an American Ranger shows up. His unit is headquartered eight miles up the road in an English manor. Steiner and Devlin's intelligence did not warn them of this. After Clark leaves, the Germans race around the village, practicing maneuvers. A young girl watching them falls into a pond near a mill. One of the Germans jumps in and saves her but he's crushed by the mill's water wheel, exposing his German uniform under the Polish white suit. Steiner and his men herd the rest of the villagers into the church.

Hiding in the church are Molly and the vicar's sister Pamela (Judy Geeson) who sneak out to warn the Americans.  Pamela makes it to the American headquarters. In charge is Colonel Clarence E. Pitts (Larry Hagman), anxious for some action, who without alerting the English, takes his Rangers to fight the Germans.  When Captain Clark finds out Pitts plan, he finds and stops Churchill's convoy from going to the town.  The Germans stall Pitts and his men giving Steiner and Devlin time to escape. Steiner's kidnap plan has turned into a suicide mission. EAGLE ends with a nice twist at the end as Steiner, disguised as an American soldier, goes after Churchill solo.

One theme that Sturges/Mankiewicz get across very well in THE EAGLE HAS LANDED is desperation.  As a whole, the German high command is desperate for some kind of good news as they realize the war is lost. That Radl and Himmler even attempt to kidnap Churchill so late in the war is ludicrous but the paranoia of Hitler has infected everyone.  Radl's plan is suicidal from the beginning. Steiner and his team accept the suicide mission, desperate to get off their island prison, Steiner desperate to regain his honor. Even Colonel Pitts, the desk bound American, is desperate for combat, about to be sent packing back to the United States without ever firing his gun.  His subordinates are happy to sit out the remainder of the war in the beautiful English countryside but the German plot will give Pitts his opportunity for battle. Pitts will get more action than he bargains for.

Actors Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, and Donald Sutherland were some of the best actors working in the 1970's, at the heights of their careers and yet I find them badly miscast in this war film. Canadian actor Sutherland as Devlin goes way over the top with his Irish accent, almost sounding like the leprechaun from the Lucky Charms commercials. American actor Robert Duvall looks the part as the veteran Radl, with the bald head and eye patch but his German accent is fair at best. And English actor Caine starts out with an German accent until the plot reveals he went to college in London and speaks English perfectly, which gives him the liberty to throw out his German accent once he and his parachute team land in England. I just couldn't believe Caine as a German.  Only Donald Pleasence as Heinrich Himmler looks and plays his character correctly, insulated in his Nazi office from the inevitable, fanatical until the end. Pleasence worked with director Sturges in THE GREAT ESCAPE.

Colonel Pitts played by Larry Hagman (TV's I DREAM OF JEANNIE and DALLAS fame) has a great time as the redneck, amped up desk general who's in over his head when the Germans take over the nearby town. Pitts is similar to a character that writer Mankiewicz would introduce in the James Bond film LIVE AND LET DIE (1973), a redneck sheriff named J.W. Pepper (played with great relish by Clifton James). And Treat Williams, in one of his first roles, brings a nice intensity as American soldier Captain Clark. Clark should really be running the show but he defers to the buffoonish Colonel Pitts until Pitts makes a fatal decision. Also look for actor Jeff Conaway (GREASE and TV'S TAXI) as an American Ranger.

1976 represents a watershed time as a group of acclaimed veteran directors would make some of their last films. THE EAGLE HAS LANDED would be Sturges last film. Other prestigious directors last films at this time included Alfred Hitchcock's FAMILY PLOT (1976), Robert Wise's THE HINDENBURG (1975), Richard Brooks' LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR (1977), Fred Zinnemann's JULIA (1977), and Billy Wilder's FEDORA (1978).  A new breed of young hotshot directors were just starting to make a name for themselves at this time and would take filmmaking to the next level. Names like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and Brian DePalma.

John Sturges was famous for his western and war films. THE EAGLE HAS LANDED, although not nearly on par as Sturges THE GREAT ESCAPE, is an entertaining what-if movie that if not for some misguided casting, might have been better received. But all parties involved give it their best effort and it shows in its production value.