John Wayne is wonderful as the Captain Bligh-like anti-hero whose hardness inspires mutiny on a cattle drive. A big attraction of the film was Montgomery Clift, such a different yet brilliant actor, playing his adopted son – but unfortunately he’s not on hand here. (His role is played by none other than Jeff Chandler, before he was famous but an excellent voice for radio - tough, deep - if perhaps not quite as sensitive as Clift was on screen). As a result the script is slanted towards Wayne and the story loses a bit of steam after the mutiny.
Walter Brennan and Joanne Dru are in it; in Brennan’s case that’s a good thing. (NB Dru was one in a long line of unremarkable actors who played these great Hawksian roles). Listening to this – you know something, I feel for Cherry Valance. He’s supposed to be this quasi-villain but he’s just trying to help out the goodie… yet no one seems to care he dies at the end. (Or does he? I thought in the film that he died but here Brennan comments that Cherry has just been wounded.)
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