Rio Lobo

Rio Lobo

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Howard Hawks
Produced by Howard Hawks
Screenplay by
Story by Burton Wohl
Starring
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography William H. Clothier
Edited by John Woodcock
Production
company
Distributed by
Release dates
  • December 17, 1970 (1970-12-17) (USA)
Running time
 114 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $6 million[1]
Box office $4.25 million
(North America rentals)[1][2]

Rio Lobo is a 1970 American Western film starring John Wayne. The film was the last film directed by Howard Hawks, from a script by Leigh Brackett. The film was shot in Technicolor with a running time of 114 minutes. The musical score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith and the movie was filmed at Cuernavaca in the Mexican state of Morelos and at Tucson, Arizona.

It was the third Howard Hawks film varying the idea of a sheriff defending his office against belligerent outlaw elements in the town, after Rio Bravo (1959) and El Dorado (1966), both also starring John Wayne.

Plot

During the American Civil War, Col. Cord McNally (John Wayne) has instructions telegraphed to his close friend, Lt. Ned Forsythe (Peter Jason), in charge of the Union troops on a Union army payroll train. However, Confederates led by Capt. Pierre Cordona (Jorge Rivero) and Sgt. Tuscarora Phillips (Christopher Mitchum) hijack the train. Their plan is to listen in on the telegraph wires, grease the tracks to stop the train, disconnect the payroll wagon from the engine so it rolls back down the hill, using a hornet's nest to force the Union guards to jump off the train, then catch the train with many ropes tied to trees. In the process, Lt. Forsythe is fatally injured.

In the subsequent fighting, they trick McNally and capture him but McNally leads them into a Union camp, pushes a branch forward, and lets it swing back to knock Tuscarora off his horse, then yells out to the camp. As the Confederates flee, McNally jumps Cordona. McNally realizes that a traitor must be selling information to the Confederate States of America, in order for the hijackings to be successful. McNally questions the pair, but they give him no information and are imprisoned.

When the War ends, McNally visits them as they are being released, and asks them to tell him from whom they got their information. When Tuscarora points out that they were the ones who had killed McNally's friends yet McNally has nothing against them, McNally replies that the killing was an act of war, while the one who sold them the information was a traitor. Unfortunately they don't know the traitors' identities, having only seen them from a distance. One was a big, dark-haired, mustachioed man, and the other was very white-haired and pale. McNally then tells Cordona and Tuscarora that if they should ever come across these men again, to contact him through a friend of his, Pat Cronin (Bill Williams), who is the sheriff of Blackthorne in Texas. Tuscarora is on his way to Rio Lobo, Texas where he grew up.

Later McNally is contacted by Cronin on instructions from Cordona. When he arrives in Blackthorne, however, Cordona is sleeping in a hotel room with a woman. Shasta Delaney (Jennifer O'Neill), arrives in the hotel, wishing to report a murder that took place in Rio Lobo. Cronin explains that he cannot intervene because Rio Lobo is outside his jurisdiction. Later a posse from Rio Lobo arrives and wants to take Delaney away. She claims, however, that the leader, "Whitey" (Robert Donner), is the murderer about whom she has been talking.

When one of the posse aims a gun at Cronin, Shasta shoots Whitey under the table, and Cronin and McNally finish off the posse. As the last one is about to shoot McNally, Cordona appears at the top of the stairs and shoots the gunman. Shasta faints from the shock of killing someone. Cordona tells McNally that Whitey was one of the two men for whom McNally was looking. He goes on to tell McNally that Tuscarora had contacted him and had told him that he saw one of the men, for whom McNally is looking in Rio Lobo. He also reports that there is trouble in Rio Lobo and that Tuscarora needs help. His father and other ranchers are being bullied by a man named Ketcham, who installed his sheriff, "Blue Tom" Hendricks (Mike Henry), after Hendricks killed the previous incumbent.

McNally, Cordona, and Shasta go to Rio Lobo, where they discover graft and corruption. Hendricks arrests Tuscarora on trumped up charges. For further help, they go to Tuscarora's father, Old Man Philips (Jack Elam). When the three sneak into Ketcham's ranch, McNally learns that Ketcham is really Sergeant Major Ike Gorman (Victor French), the traitor. McNally punches him around and forces him to sign the title deeds of the ranches back to their rightful owners. Philips then wires the triggers back, forming a dead-man's trap, on his double barreled shotgun so they can order Hendricks and his men out of the jail . They take over the town jail for cover, freeing Tuscarora, while Cordona goes for the Cavalry. Meanwhile, Tuscarora's girlfriend Maria Carmen (Susana Dosamantes) and her friend Amelita (Sherry Lansing) lend assistance. For that, Hendricks slashes Amelita's face, and Amelita swears to McNally that she will kill Hendricks.

However, Ketcham's men capture Cordona. Ketcham's gang offers to trade Cardona for Ketcham. In the meantime, word spread of the trade and roughly 20 ranchers turn up to help, knowing that, if McNally fails, the town will have gained nothing from the returned deeds. During the prisoner exchange, Cordona dives from the bridge into the river where Tuscarora was hiding. McNally yells out that Ketcham is now bankrupt, having signed the deeds back, so the furious sheriff guns Ketcham down, and in turn, McNally shoots the sheriff in the leg. McNally then gets shot in his leg by one of the deputies, and is dragged back into the cantina by Philips.

After a failed attempt to blow up the cantina McNally's force was in, the remaining bandits are outflanked and outgunned by the other ranchers who have come to help. Hendricks's men realize this and they flee. Hendricks shoots at them, but he had been using his rifle as a walking cane and it had become clogged with mud, and it explodes in his face. As he stumbles to his horse, Amelita guns him down, thus keeping her word. McNally tells the ranchers that they have their town back.

Cast

Production

The film was meant to be shot in Durango, Mexico on a budget of $5 million. However shooting on the movie Lawman took up facilities there so Hawks and Cinema Center had to spend an extra $1 million to allow shooting at Old Tucson, and near Los Angeles.[3]

Hawks was injured while filming the railway scene, requiring four stitches.[4]

Hawks said he had to fight Cinema Center to cast Chris Mitchum in the movie.[5]

The script was rewritten throughout production.[6]

Soundtrack

Rio Lobo
Soundtrack album by Jerry Goldsmith
Released 2001
Genre Film music
Label Prometheus Records
Producer Jerry Goldsmith

The music for Rio Lobo was composed by Jerry Goldsmith.[7] The soundtrack album was released in Belgium in 2001 on Prometheus Records.[7]

All tracks written by Jerry Goldsmith. 

No.TitleLength
1."Captured"  1:39
2."New Arrival / Unexpected Gun"  3:03
3."A Good Teacher / Quiet Town / Cantina"  9:42
4."Plans / The Raid"  7:01
5."Scar / Hang on a Minute / Finale"  5:37
6."Main Title"  2:16
7."A Good Teacher (Complete)"  6:00
8."No Place to Go"  1:14
9."Cordona's Capture"  0:42
10."The Trade / Retribution / End Title"  6:41

Critical reaction

On its release, the film received mostly negative reviews.[8] The only notable positive review came from Roger Greenspun of The New York Times who said that the film was "close enough to greatness to stand above everything else so far in the current season."[8] His comments surprised other critics and resulted in numerous angry letters sent to the newspaper.[8] The performances of Christopher Mitchum, Jorge Rivero and Jennifer O'Neill were also strongly criticized. However, in subsequent years, the film has grown in stature, and currently holds a 71% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film made $4.25 million (USD) in rentals, twentieth among the highest money-making pictures of the year.[8] It was to be Hawks' last film and is considered to be a second, if much looser, remake of Hawks’s and Wayne's classic 1959 film, Rio Bravo. (The first remake was El Dorado, with Wayne and Robert Mitchum).

Trivia

Writer and reporter George Plimpton was cast in a minor role in this film (4th Gunman). Footage of him preparing for and filming his part was used in a documentary-like television special "Plimpton! Shoot-Out at Rio Lobo."

This was the last of two film acting appearances of Sherry Lansing, who later became the first female CEO of a major Hollywood film studio (Paramount). Her previous film role was in the same year, Loving.

A wanted poster in Sheriff Pat Cronin's office is for Hondo Lane, a character played by John Wayne in Hondo nearly twenty years earlier.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Nat Segaloff, Final Cuts: The Last Films of 50 Great Directors, Bear Manor Media 2013, p. 126-130.
  2. ↑ "All-time Film Rental Champs", Variety, 7 January 1976 p 48
  3. ↑ 'Lawman' Won a Shoot-out With 'Rio Lobo' on Location in Mexico SHIVAS, MARK. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 28 June 1970: p26.
  4. ↑ Howard Hawks Injured The Washington Post, Times Herald (1959-1973) [Washington, D.C] 28 Mar 1970: C2.
  5. ↑ Filmdom's Gray Fox Back on the Job Again: The Gray Fox Is Back at It Warga, Wayne. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 24 May 1970: s1
  6. ↑ John Wayne: A Hollywood Star in Old and Now Days Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 21 June 1970: q17.
  7. 1 2 "Rio Lobo (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". Discogs. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 4 McCarthy, Todd. Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood, New York: Grove Press, 1997.
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