Movie Memories

Movie Memories

“Darmok and Geladd at Tanoglah--arms open.”

--Captain John-Luc Picard.

RB= RIO BRAVO (1959)

ED= EL DORADO (1967)

John Wayne straddled the two films

like a trick rider with his legs wide

standing on two horses at the rodeo,

the big man in the battered hat,

Sheriff John T. Chance in RB,

that cavalry hat first seen in

SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON

and then again in HONDO, using

a tricked out Winchester carbine

that had an enlarged shell lever,

copied later for THE RIFLEMAN,

and sawed off and strapped to

the lean right hip of Steve McQueen in

WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE;

as Duke became the bigger man,

gunfighter Cole Thornton in ED,

his girth widened, making his pearl-handled

pistol seem smaller.

Howard Hawks at the helm

of both westerns, the bold retelling

with new faces, yet plotted parallel,

an audacious tribute to this film pioneer,

former pilot and race car driver,

who started fresh-faced as a best boy

in the silents before he forged on

to become the master of twice-told tales.

Dean Martin graced RB as the former gunfighter,

Dude, who became the drunken Borachon,

the deputy undone by a love affair gone bad,

and his character morphed into Robert Mitchum

in ED as Sheriff J. P. Harrah, once feared

and then mocked as a drunken hulk undone

by an unforgiving and malicious siren

of the saloons and backrooms.

Walter Brennan stole RB flat-footed

as deputy Stumpy, perfecting his whine

and limp in preparation for his TV series

THE REAL McCOYS, and he was nearly

matched and checkmated by the folksy

and comedic skills of Arthur Hunnicutt in ED

as deputy Bull Harris, carrying a bugle

and a Sharps rifle, struggling to maintain

order as Mitchum sank to depths

of degradation, rags, vomit, shame, and filth.

Teen-aged Ricky Nelson got to stand up

with the big boys as gunfighter turned deputy

“Colorado” Ryan in RB, wearing two pistols,

two fisted and blazing, but still found time

to sing one song with Dean Martin,

and Ricky’s rattlesnake character became

the young James Caan as the wayward avenger

Alan Bourdillion “Mississippi” Traherne,

who wore an easterner’s hat, was better

with a knife than a gun, and as the new deputy

had to resort to using a sawed off shotgun

to compensate.

Fetching young Angie Dickinson played Feathers

in RB, asserting her sexuality, nervous as a cat,

too young for the Duke but didn’t give a damn

as the saloon girl with the thighs of gold,

who disappointingly became Marina Ghane

as Maria in EL, a minor love interest for

Mr. Morrison, a lovely buxom actress who

had a film career shorter than mine.

Tall man John Russell was the heavy,

Nathan Burdette in RB, with presence

both commanding and lethal, just before

he playedTHE LAWMAN, and the villian

became Ed Asner in ED as cattle baron

Bart Jason, who had both

a hired gang of cutthroats

and a Napoleonic complex.

Yes, the showdowns were different

but the outcomes were identical,

with the Duke triumphing

and alcohol defeated,

bad boys buried, hung, and incarcerated,

saloon girls getting laid,

and sidekicks chortling,

as the end credits rolled

and the Technicolor red curtain closed

as these Hawksian fraternal twins

of celluloid rode arm in arm,

stirrup to stirrup, haunch to haunch,

into either a sunset or rise.

Glenn Buttkus October 2010