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 Well, Pilgrim, what else would you want? The Duke is outnumbered but he's hanging tough. Dean Martin's got the shakes (real stretch there) and Walter Brennen dispenses lovable guff. Ricky Nelson signs on. Angie Dickinson pines for the Duke.People shoot, sing and throw dynamite around. All of this builds up to The Big Showdown. Pilgrim, if that's not enough, you need to stay East River.
Now behind bars, Burdett makes it clear that his brother and friends will be in town to break him out of jail and settle the score with the sheriff. Chance weighs his few options as he tries to prepare himself for a showdown with Burdett's gang. What does Chance have in his corner? A drunk deputy and a crippled jailer aptly named Stumpy (Walter Brennan). 'Rio Bravo,' as others have mentioned, is not a study of a man in trouble as in 'High Noon,' or a look at hate and revenge as in 'The Searchers.' No, 'Rio Bravo' is a Western more interested in pure entertainment. Consider both the elements of and the actors in the film: In 1959 John Wayne was still a major box-office attraction. Dean Martin had of course appeared in many films (Who could forget his comedies with Jerry Lewis?), but was essentially a singer who also made movies. Although Martin has some surprisingly good moments in the film, I suspect he was cast to appeal to the thirties and older female audience. For the younger female audience, there's Ricky Nelson. No stranger to acting (Remember the Ozzie and Harriet show?), Nelson appears in the film basically as a marketing ploy: He gets to sing two songs with Martin. (He even makes a pitch to the 1959 audiences in the trailer.) Then there's Walter Brennan, who is one of the all-time wonderful characters in the movies. I love him, but Stumpy begins to wear very thin as the film progresses. A very young Angie Dickinson appears in the film, but the longer she is onscreen, the less interesting her character becomes. You'd think from reading this review that I didn't like the film at all. I do like it, but I think that for the reasons mentioned above, it strays from becoming a great Western and settles instead for being a good, entertaining film that wants to appeal to a wide audience. So is this a classic that has stood the test of time? I'm not sure. In my mind, it can't approach some of the great westerns of all time like 'The Searchers,' 'Shane,' 'Red River,' 'She Wore A Yellow Ribbon,' '3:10 to Yuma,' 'High Noon,' or even 'Unforgiven.' But you could certainly do a lot worse. Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes
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During the first five minutes of 'Rio Bravo,' not one word is spoken. None are necessary. Director Howard Hawks masterfully gives us a story that needs no dialogue as a strung-out deputy named Dude (Dean Martin) walks into a bar, desperately seeking a drink. Tough-guy Joe Burdett (Claude Akins) toys with Dude and humiliates him. When the dust settles, Burdett has killed a man and is arrested by the town sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne).
