Leofwine_draca RIO GRANDE is a solid enough John Ford western, benefiting from crisp black and white photography and an action-orientated storyline that sees cavalry officer John Wayne going up against some murderous Apaches. There's a story of family drama at the heart of the movie which gives the characters life and more motivation than you sometimes see in this genre, and Maureen O'Hara holds her own against Wayne in her scenes with him. Ford can always be relied upon to shoot spectacle well and the narrative has a pretty fast pace which keeps it bubbling along nicely. I didn't mind the songs, either, which is unusual.

FightingWesterner Commanding a remote outpost in Texas, cavalry officer John Wayne reconnects with estranged wife Maureen O'Hara and new-recruit son Claude Jarman Jr. However, the reunion is complicated by an Apache uprising and an illegal incursion across the Rio Grande.One of the lesser talked-about pairings of Wayne and John Ford and their third cavalry picture, this is satisfying, though a bit familiar in the drama department. Action scenes and Monument Valley locations are excellent, as are the musical numbers by Ken Curtis and the Sons Of The Pioneers. O'Hara looks a little young to have a teenage son though.Memorable subplots include fugitive recruit Ben Johnson trying to stay ahead of the law and some male-bonding between himself, Jarman, and fellow soldiers Harry Carey Jr. and Victor Maglaglen.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . Wayne's film career, once again sums up the primary aspect of his "Col. Kirby Yorke" character in John Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy" Capper, RIO GRANDE. Yorke's son is described here as being "under-aged" as a military enlistee, meaning that he's 17, at most. Since he hasn't laid eyes on Dear Old Dad for at least 15 years, it's likely Daddy disappeared when it was his night to change diapers and offer the bottle. Yet at the end of RIO GRANDE Pops Yorke grudgingly admits from his litter that Junior turned out okay. The upshot of all of this seems to be that if you want your son to thrive, do NOT let him within a mile of any male "role model" remotely resembling John Wayne. This theme of father\son estrangement making the youngster's character grow stronger is borne out in picture after picture starring Mr. Wayne. But since American schools are carefully crafted to "dumb down" their students, the U.S. suffers from the Uncommon Sense that EVERY day is Opposite Day. Therefore, each time that there is a mass shooting, sales of the deranged killer's weapon-of-choice hit All-Time Highs. Similarly, despite director Ford's best efforts, a majority of America's Dads (during the 1900s, at least) strove harder "to be like John" each time they saw a Wayne flick!

Dark Jedi In this old classic John Wayne had not yet become the somewhat grumpy old tough guy as he is in many of his classical movies. He is somewhat younger and his character as Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke is a bit more emotional than the characters that he often played and there is a bit more romance in this movie as well. At least in my experience with John Wayne's movies.I was not sure if I was going to like this movie so much since it is generally put in the Romance genre as well as the Western genre. However I can without a doubt say that I did indeed like it quite a lot. It is still a good old-fashioned Western movie with brawls, fistfights and a lot of shooting. John Wayne is great in his role and a lot of the supporting characters are very enjoyable. I especially liked the old Sgt. Major and I would have liked there to be a more official scene of forgiveness between Mrs. Yorke and him. There were a lot of nice interaction between the Sgt. Major as well as between other characters in the movie. At times the movie was really funny due to these interactions between several of the rather original characters in the movie.To my understanding John Ford was more or less forced by Republic Pictures into making this movie in exchange for his pet project, The Quiet Man, to be produced. I would say that this was a good move by the movie company even though the movie was produced as a low-budget movie even by the standards at the time.The only thing I feel sorry about is that it was shot in black & white. As is often the case in good old Western movies there are a fair share of lovely nature scenery and I think some of that would have been much better in full color.Oh by the way, one thing puzzles me. Why on earth did they make a movie poster with John Wayne without a mustache when he is having one throughout the whole movie?