El Dorado **** (1966, John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, James Caan, Charlene Holt, Arthur Hunnicutt, Edward Asner, Christopher George) – Classic Movie Review 2560

Howard Hawks directs John Wayne and Robert Mitchum in this big Western film El Dorado late in all their careers in 1966. The 58-year-old Duke stars as the once-ace gunman Cole Thornton with a paralysed arm and Mitchum plays his old friend J P Harrah, the drink-sodden sheriff of El Dorado.

Along with the help of an ancient deputy called Bull (Arthur Hunnicutt) and a gambler kid called Mississippi (James Caan), take on cattle baron baddies Bart Jason and Nelse McLeod (Edward Asner, Christopher George) trying to spring a prisoner from jail.

Even for the mid-Sixties, it is a very old fashioned movie, but in a good way. Indeed it received poor reviews and it was perceived as old fashioned and out of tune with the times, but it proved to be hugely successful at the box office. Though it is long-winded in the telling with a 126-minute running time, it’s a very pleasing, comfortably familiar, well-staged Western. Hawks may be old but he proves he hasn’t lost his touch.

Although the plotlines, situations and characters are so familiar, the movie comes up fresh since there is a particularly punchy screenplay by Leigh Brackett which is brought to vivid life by the performers. The script is supposedly based on Harry Brown’s novel The Stars in their Courses, but he wanted his name removed from the opening credits because the film bears little resemblance to his book.

There are endearing, almost parody-style performances by the two old stars in their archetypal characters , as well as excellent work from Hunnicutt, George and especially a young Caan as the gambling kid who can’t shoot. Mitchum said Hawks told him that the story didn’t matter because the film had some great characters, and that’s right – along with the great performers.

It proved a good follow-up for Hawks to his Rio Bravo, which is so similar to it in its storyline that it could be a remake. Wayne wanted to play the sheriff again as he had in Rio Bravo, but Hawks insisted on Mitchum.

In this man’s movie, Charlene Holt plays Maudie, Michele Carey is Joey MacDonald and Marina Ghane plays Maria. Also in the cast are R G Armstrong, Paul Fix, Johnny Crawford, Robert Donner, Robert Rothwell and John Gabriel.

Shooting started in late 1965 and it took 84 days. When the film was wrapped in late January 1966, it was 24 days over schedule.

Wayne was cantankerous and difficult. Caan said he and Wayne got into an altercation after Caan accused him of cheating over a game of chess, but Mitchum intervened. The right-wing Wayne did not get along with the liberal Asner and constantly referred to him as ‘that New York actor’. Though playing an older character, Wayne refused to wear a gray toupee and most of the scenes showing his character running were performed by a double.

If this is the second in a trilogy after Rio Bravo (1959), it is completed by Rio Lobo, Hawks’s final movie in 1970 before his death in 1977, aged 81.

Ed Asner (November 15, 1929 – August 29, 2021).

RIP Ed Asner (November 15, 1929 – August 29, 2021), a good actor and a good man.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2560

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