“Rio Lobo,” which turned out to be Howard Hawks very last picture, represents his weakest collaboration with John Wayne’. Hawks and Wayne had previously made thee terrific films, “Red River,” “Hatari!” and “Rio Bravo,” and one mediocre, “El Dorado.”
Hawks described the special relationship he had with Wayne in the following way: “For Rio Lobo, I called him up and said, ‘Duke, I’ve got a story.’ He said, ‘I can’t make it for a year, I’m all tied up.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s all right, it’ll take me a year to get it finished.’ He said, ‘Good, I’ll be ready.’ And he came down on location and he said, ‘What’s this about’ And I told him the story. He never even read it. He didn’t know anything about it.” Wayne confirmed this story: “I just ask the director which hat he wants me to wear and which door I come in.”
But this implicit, almost-blind, faith in Hawks had its price: many critics felt Wayne’s talent was misused in “Rio Lobo,” a much weaker Western than either “Rio Bravo” or “El Dorado,” which form sort of a trilogy.
Based on a screenplay by Hawks’ frequent writer Leigh Brackett and Burton Wohl, from a story by Wohl, the film is set right after the Civil War. Wayne plays Union Captain Colonel Cord McNally, who teams up with two Confederate soldiers, Captain Pierre Cordona (Jorge Rivera) and Tuscarora (Christopher Mitchum) to find Ketcham (Victor French), the man responsible for stealing a shipment of gold and is now a greedy land baron, who controls the land and the law.
Their mission brings to a town that’s being terrorized by the corrupt Sheriff Hendricks (Mike Henry). Rallying the town’s people behind them, insisting that they should stand up for their civil rights, Wayne and his aides terminate the nasty sheriff’s tyranny.
This being a Hawks film means that his recurrent motifs, male courage and male camaraderie, are in evidence, here in the relationships between Wayne and his Confederate troops. But while the script is workable, the acting is not, and lines are delivered in a throwaway mode, uncharacteristic of acting in a Hawks picture. Even Wayne, usually a pro, can’t rise to the occasion, and surrounded by amateurs, he must have given up on his professionalism.
Significantly, Hawks himself attributed the picture’s failure to his casting: “I didn’t like it. I didn’t think it was any good. I only made it because I had a damn good story and the studio couldn’t afford to put a man as good as Wayne in it, so we ended up with the cast we had.”
“Rio Lobo”‘s cast included such unknown or inexperienced actors in leading parts as Jorge Rivero, Victor French, and Christopher Mitchum (son of Robert Mitchum, who co-starred with Wayne in “Rio Lobo”).
Perhaps a reflection of the changing times, women play more important roles in “Rio Lobo” than in previous Hawks-Wayne Westerns. For one thing, there are three of them, though none gives a decent performance. Shasta Delaney (Jennifer O’Neill), a young and beautiful woman, is attracted to Captain Cordona, but likes Wayne’s company; at night, she snuggles up against him for security. When Wayne suggests that she might do better with Cordona, she replies, “He’s too young, but you’re older, more…comfortable.”
At the end of the film, Cordona and Tuscarora go off with their women and Wayne, left alone, turns to Amelita (Sherry Lansing, who would become the first female president of a Hollywood studio, Fox, in 1982, and then run Paramount for over a decade), whose face had been disfigured by the villains. The film implies that these duos settle for each other because no one else will have them. Wayne has become a comfortable old man, relinquishing his pursuit of young attractive women.
As McNally, Wayne gives a lazy performance, but he is likeable and easy to watch. The only good acting is by Jack Elam as Phillips, doing what he has done in numerous films.
Despite good talent behind the screen, including lenser William Clothier and composer Jerry Goldsmith, overall, this Western leaves a lot to be desired, including Hawks’ direction, which is no more than serviceable here. Many critics lamented what the saw as a sad finale to a magnificent career.
About Howard Hawks
Although highly respected by French critics, Hawks was underestimated in the U.S. until the late 1960s, when a new generation of critics re-examined his work. Hawks was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 1974 for his cumulative work of four decades, which was interpreted as a compensation for never winning a legitimate, competitive directorial Oscar. He was nominated for the legit Best Director Oscar just once, in 1941, for the war biopic “Sergeant York,” starring Gary Cooper. Hawks died at his home in 1977.
Running Time: 114 Minutes
Cast:
John Wayne (Col. Cord McNally)
Jorge Rivero (Capt. Pierre Cordona)
Jennifer O’Neill (Shasta Delaney)
Jack Elam (Phillips)Victor French (Ketcham)
Susana Dosamantes (Maria Carmen)
Christopher Mitchum (Tuscarora)
Mike Henry (Sheriff TomHendricks)
David Huddleston (Dr. Jones)
Bill Williams (Shriff Pat Cronin)
