Rooster Cogburn *** (1975, John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, Richard Jordan, Anthony Zerbe) – Classic Movie Review 6271

John Wayne re-creates his Oscar-winning one-eyed U.S. Marshal Rooster J Cogburn act from True Grit (1969) and makes like he is Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen (1951) romancing the one and only Hepburn as feisty spinster missionary and crack shot Eula Goodnight.

The recently demoted Marshal Cogburn, suspended for several of arrests that ended in bloodshed, is promised re-instatement by the authorities if he can bring in a gang of ruthless bank robbing outlaws. Hawk (Richard Jordan) and his men have murdered Eula’s minister father and hijacked a wagon shipment of guns and nitroglycerin, so Cogburn and the lady ride off together to catch them.

Sadly, this great meeting of the two lions in winter (in their first and only film together) is let down by screen-writer Martha Hyer (writing as Martin Julien)’s routine, poorly told yarn, but you care less with this priceless star pairing. And there is a real good bunch of Western characters too help out too.

The mouthy New Yorker critic Pauline Kael said: ‘ It never Waynes but it bores. The two principal subjects of the script’s attempts at humour are Wayne’s gut and Hepburn’s age, which is to say the film tries to make jokes of what it can’t hide.’ Kael  (19 June 1919 – 3 September 2001) is breaking a rule of film criticism that personal abuse remarks should be avoided. Roger Ebert said in an obituary: ‘You couldn’t apply her approach to a film. With her it was all personal.’

Also in the cast are Anthony Zerbe, Richard Jordan, John McIntire, Strother Martin, Tommy Lee, Paul Koslo, Lane Smith, Jack Colvin, Jerry Gatlin, Richard Ramancito, Warren Vander and Jon Lormer.

Hyer’s screenplay is based on the Rooster Cogburn character created by Charles McColl Portis in his 1968 novel True Grit.

It is shot by Harry Stradling Jr, produced by Paul Nathan and scored by Laurence Rosenthal.

Harry Stradling Jr died on 17 October 2017, aged 92. He shot such films as Little Big Man, The Way We Were, and 1776.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6271

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