Rio Bravo (1959)

Director:

Howard Hawks

Writers:

Jules Furthman (screenplay) and
Leigh Brackett (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

4 April 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Western | Romance | Drama

Tagline:

and Dean and Ricky sing, too! "Rio Bravo" "My Rifle, My Pony and Me" "Cindy"

Plot:

A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a cripple, a drunk, and a young gunfighter...

Plot Keywords:

Small Town | Sheriff | Texas | Gunslinger | Jail

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

John Wayne	...	Sheriff John T. Chance
Dean Martin	...	Dude ('Borachón')
Ricky Nelson	...	Colorado Ryan
Angie Dickinson	...	Feathers
Walter Brennan	...	Stumpy
Ward Bond	...	Pat Wheeler
John Russell	...	Nathan Burdette
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez	...	Carlos Robante (as Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez)
Estelita Rodriguez	...	Consuela Robante
Claude Akins	...	Joe Burdette
Malcolm Atterbury	...	Jake (stage driver)
Harry Carey Jr.	...	Harold (scenes deleted)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sheb Wooley	...	Cowboy (scenes deleted)
Walter Barnes	...	Charlie (bartender) (uncredited)
Nesdon Booth	...	Bit part (uncredited)
George Bruggeman	...	Clem (uncredited)
Yakima Canutt	...	Gunman on horse (uncredited)
Jose Cuchillo	...	Pedro (uncredited)
Robert Donner	...	(uncredited)
Fred Graham	...	2nd Burdette man in shootout (uncredited)
Joe Gray	...	Card player (uncredited)
Myron Healey	...	Barfly (uncredited)
Riley Hill	...	Messenger (uncredited)
Eugene Iglesias	...	1st Burdette man in shootout (uncredited)
Gordon Mitchell	...	Bar Cowboy - Watching fist fight (uncredited)
Tom Monroe	...	Henchman (uncredited)
Chuck Roberson	...	Gunman (uncredited)
Bing Russell	...	Cowboy murdered in saloon (uncredited)
Joseph Shimada	...	Burt (undertaker) (uncredited)
Dean Smith	...	Card-Playing Burdette Henchman (uncredited)
Bob Steele	...	Matt Harris (Burdette gunman) (uncredited)
Ted White	...	Bit part (uncredited)

Directed by
Howard Hawks

Writing credits
Jules Furthman		(screenplay) and
Leigh Brackett		(screenplay)
B.H. McCampbell		(short story)

Produced by
Howard Hawks	....	producer

Original Music by
Dimitri Tiomkin

Cinematography by
Russell Harlan		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Folmar Blangsted

Art Direction by
Leo K. Kuter

Set Decoration by
Ralph S. Hurst

Costume Design by
Marjorie Best

Makeup Department
Gordon Bau	....	makeup supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Paul Helmick	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Robert B. Lee	....	sound

Stunts
Bill Babcock	....	stunts (uncredited)
Joe Byrne	....	stunt double: Ricky Nelson (uncredited)
Yakima Canutt	....	stunt coordinator (uncredited)
Philip Dalton Crawford	....	stunt man (uncredited)
Fred Graham	....	stunts (uncredited)
Joe Gray	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Herron	....	stunts (uncredited)
John Hudkins	....	stunts (uncredited)
Chuck Roberson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Dean Smith	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Terhune	....	stunts (uncredited)
Ted White	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jack Williams	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jack N. Young	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Richard Doran	....	assistant camera (uncredited)

Music Department
Dimitri Tiomkin	....	conductor
Sidney Cutner	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Maurice De Packh	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Manuel Emanuel	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Michael Heindorf	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Gus Levene	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
George Parrish	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Leonid Raab	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Herbert Taylor	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Armada Productions (as An Armada Production)

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1959) (USA) (theatrical) (presents)
• Action Gitanes (1999) (France) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Warner Home Video (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2002) (USA) (laserdisc)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Bros. (1959) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (1959) (France) (theatrical)
• Warner Home Video (2001) (Germany) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2001) (Germany) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2007) (Germany) (DVD) (special edition)
• Warner Home Video (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD) (Blu-Ray Disc)
• Warner Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Warner Home Vídeo (2001) (Brazil) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo (UK) (complete title) (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

141 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Australia:G | Australia:PG (DVD rating) | West Germany:12 (nf) | USA:Approved (certificate #19034) | South Korea:15 (2007) | Finland:K-16 | France:U (re-release) | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | UK:U (original rating) (cut)

Filming Locations:

Old Tucson - 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Company:

Armada Productions

Trivia:

Dean Martin's agent approached Howard Hawks to consider his client for the role of the drunken deputy Dude. Hawks agreed to meet with Martin at 9:30 the next morning. When Hawks learned that Martin had done a show in Las Vegas until midnight, and hired a plane to fly him to the meeting, Hawks was so impressed that he simply sent Martin to get a costume and told him he had the part.

Goofs:

Continuity: After they put Joe in jail, and Joe tells Dude he should sit back there in place of Stumpy, Dude is holding his beer bottle down by his hip. When the camera angle changes, Dude is holding the bottle up by his mouth, and then throws it at Joe.

Quotes:

[first lines]
John T. Chance: Joe, you're under arrest.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s'éteint et que le film commence (2007)

Soundtrack:

My Rifle, My Pony, and Me

The real bullettime

It says much about current cinema that this vintage slice of Hollywood is now considered too long and too slow by the modern generation of movie goers. Howard Hawks labours to create setting, mood and pace introducing genuine characters are colourful for the flaws they have as their positive points presenting heroes one can empathise with, people with three dimensions, not thin caricatures that popular many of today's movies.

No character empathises this more than Dean Martin's broken down drunk Dude. Nicknamed "Borachon" by the Mexicans (Borachon is Spanish for "Drunkard") Dude battles with the demons that drove him to drink as he desperately tried not to let down Sheriff Chance, John Wayne, who believes in him more than he believes in himself. Dude's pouring back of a glass of bourbon into the bottle is one of the most life affirming scenes ever committed to film.

Wayne never really does anything other than play John Wayne and Hawks spins on this playing with the ethos of the man. The same steadfast values that mean Wayne's Sheriff John T. Chance will not release the prisoner Joe Burdette back to his murderous gang leave him stiff and awkward in front of Angie Dickinson's love interest "Feathers" creating perhaps the quintessential John Wayne movie in which the Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett's screenplay explores the depths of the ideals that Wayne stands for. This is a movie about not just about redemption, but about the reasons for a tough redemption in a World in which collapse and lawlessness are easier options.

And when Dude pours his Bourbon back, affirming that even though he cannot be the man he was but he can still be a good man, you will not be wishing it was film in bullettime.