January 8, 2012

"Rio Bravo" was on TV last night...

... and — I wish I could find the perfect video clip for you — we suddenly realized Walter Brennan ("Stumpy") sounded like Ron Paul.

24 comments:

edutcher said...

"640 acres wa'n't much to you, Nathan, but it was an awful lot of country to me".

That one?

PS Glad Meade has you watching the good stuff, instead of those Euro things.

Ann Althouse said...

I was reading. Meade was channel surfing.

edutcher said...

Sure.

Wince said...

I never heard Ron Paul say, "dagnabbit."

DADvocate said...

Walter Brennan

You mean Granpappy Amos?

(And the boys and the girls,
of the family known as the Real McCoys)

I'm Full of Soup said...

Didn't Angie Dickinson look great in that!

Wally Kalbacken said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jose_K said...

Didn't Angie Dickinson look great in that! she always looked great

Wally Kalbacken said...

I remember him as Will Sonnett, as well as Stumpy. Dang 'nam it!

And I have long thought of Ron Paul as a ranting geezer.

Toad Trend said...

Some of the exchanges between Stumpy and 'Dude' are funny.

Dean Martin sure loved those drinking parts.

I also like Wayne's 'Big Jake'.

wv - rackitte

Charlie Martin said...

Oh wow, you're right. I knew I'd heard him before.

You should watch Rio Bravo through sometime. That's possibly the best screenplay ever written.

traditionalguy said...

Angie Dickinson played a woman gambler who handled John Wayne's old fashioned sheriff character quite easily.

Stumpy's role was one that we don't see anymore... that of an elder man that still has good contributions he can make.

Rio Bravo was definitely written in a pre-digital age.

BigFire said...

In a way, Rio Bravo is Howard Hawk and John Wayne's answer to High Noon. Situation is set up similarly, but instead of begging the whole town for help, the sheriff decided to just tough it out, turning down offer of assistance from the likes of the wagon train master. He did eventually get additional help, but those were volunteer that have their own reason for helping.

A very good movie indeed.

Der Hahn said...

One of my 'If I pass it while channel-surfing I stop and watch it to the end' movies.

1775OGG said...

Walter Brennan was in many movies, usually in a supporting role. He was in Sergeant York, in the role of Pastor Pile. Quite often, he played the role of a grumpy old man, with false teeth, and a bunch of semi-civilized sons, and daughters. IMDB credits him with over 230-titles with which he's associated.

Not sure I buy your association of his character with Ron Paul although there are similarities, certainly with regard to the squeaky voice.

Another Wayne movie El Dorado was basically Rio Bravo with a slightly different script and with Arthur Hunnicutt playing the "Stumpy" role; pity.

edutcher said...

"Rio Bravo" was, indeed, Howard Hawks' answer to "High Noon". He was disgusted at the idea Gary Cooper had to beg for help and, in the end, was saved by Grace Kelly.

History disagrees with both interpretations. Most Western towns were full of men who had fought in Mexico, the Civil War, or various wars in Europe or its colonies, as well as fighting Indians. As a great many were Southerners, a version of the code duello, where a man was expected to defend his honor, was also in play.

Northfield MN is the classic example of what happened when the townsfolk had a chance to decide whether to fight or submit.

PS Hawks was very up front about not being able to understand a woman who didn't like to go hunting and fishing, so a lot of his female characters are very masculine.

As for Angie Dickinson, never my cup of lapsang souchong, but especially not in this one.

Now, Martha Hyer in "The Sons of Katie Elder", or Olivia DeHavilland in "They Died With Their Boots On"...

Anonymous said...

...or you could watch 'El Dorado' and see the exact same movie with a different supporting cast.

edutcher said...

LarsPorsena said...

...or you could watch 'El Dorado' and see the exact same movie with a different supporting cast.

More laugh lines, but nowhere near as good.

Near the end of his career (and The Duke's), Hawks tried to wring out one last riff, "Rio Lobo".

Better left forgotten.

1775OGG said...

@edutcher: Right on about Northfield, its citizens shoot the stuffing out of the James-Younger gang.

While Jesse and Frank escaped the town's posse, some of the Youngers were caught and wound up in the MN State Prison. One of them worked on the prison newspaper, which became the best such paper in all the land.

Crime didn't pay there but repentance had its own rewards, kind of.

cliff claven said...

I think Ron Paul looks and sounds like Frank Perdue.

Larry said...

If you go to their pages on IMDB, both Brennen and Jimmy Stewart are reviled more often than not as conservative racists.

Sgt. York, I just bought that. Rio Bravo like True Grit would be perfect if you could dump Glenn Campbell and Ricky Nelson.

I do admit that I like the Nelson songs in RB.

knox said...

"Rio Bravo... " one of my all-time favs. If you can sort of block out Ricky Nelson, poor thing, it has the. perfect. cast.

I remember hearing praise for John Wayne, that he generously stood back and let Dean Martin steal every scene. Which he does, IMO. I think it's an awesome performance.

Emilie said...

I was listening to the New Hampshire debates on the radio tonight, and I thought that Romney sounded a lot like Dick Van Dyke.

Unknown said...

You know, in film school everybody had a movie "classic" they secretly hated. Mine was Rio Bravo, touted as a masterpiece of structure because it was by Hawks. The singing interludes with Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson were just laughable!