Sun 17 Dec 2017
A Double Take Look at TWO RODE TOGETHER (1961).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[9] Comments
When this happened before, I called it “one for the books.” This is Steve. It has happened again. Two days after my son Jonathan wrote up a review of this movie, I received an email from Dan Stumpf containing his comments on the same film. So here you are. Two reviews of Two Rode Together, totally independently of each other, two for the price of one. As before, I’ll let Dan go first.
TWO RODE TOGETHER. Columbia, 1961. James Stewart, Richard Widmark, Shirley Jones, Linda Cristal, Andy Devine, John McIntire, Henry Brandon, Woody Strode, Harry Carey Jr. Ken Curtis. Screenplay by Frank S. Nugent. Director: John Ford.
This sees Ford gliding toward the bitterness of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, but in a showmanlike way.
Actually, the westerns of John Ford had grown increasingly disenchanted since Wagon Master (1950). After Rio Grande, made the same year, he didn’t make another western till The Searchers in 1956. Then another long pause before the cavalry pictures The Horse Soldiers (1959) and Sgt. Rutledge (1960) both of which have their pessimistic aspects… and then this.
Perhaps the defining thing about Two Rode Together is its cheerful cynicism. The West here may be filled with suckers and con men, where even the Noble Savage plays politics and keeps an eye out for the main chance, but that doesn’t keep its heroes from going about their business with professionalism and a wry smile. Jimmy Stewart lends his easy charm to his role as a corrupt lawman and Indian Trader, and Richard Widmark plays it knowing and sincere as a cavalry lieutenant who still has some sense of commitment, even if he isn’t sure to what.
In fact, Stewart and Widmark play brilliantly off each other, almost as if they’d been acting together for years, and writer Frank Nugent, who worked steadily with Ford from Fort Apache onward, gives them some cherce material: the scene at the river bank should be studied and cherished by lovers of acting, writing, directing, and just plain damn-fine movie-making.
There is surprisingly little action in Two Rode Together, yet it seems to move at a brisk pace, and the prevailing sense of humor breaks naturally for moments of keen drama. What struck me most, though, was the pervading sense of optimism in what is essentially a bleak tale.
(SPOILER ALERT!) This film ends with the mission a failure, a heroine ostracized and Jimmy Stewart out of a job, but the characters have grown and changed in important ways. Or as Widmark puts it, “I guess old Guth found something he wanted more than ten percent of.†Whatever the case, there is a gentle debunking of Western Legend here conveyed with a charm that Ford somehow never found again.
What does it mean to be civilized and what does it mean to be a savage? Can one be a civilized person in the midst of savagery? Or a savage living in civilized “polite†society? These are the philosophical and moral questions at the heart of John Ford’s Two Rode Together, an unintentionally quirky Western with strong comedic overtones and a strong romantic element.
Similar to Ford’s The Searchers (1956), the plot revolves around two men’s quest to rescue White captives from an Indian tribe. Riding with Marshal Guthrie McCabe (James Stewart) on his mission is a army officer portrayed by Richard Widmark.
When we first meet him, though, Marshal McCabe is an amoral lawman living a fairly ordinary life in a small Texas town where law and order seems to be primarily a matter of dealing with the town drunks. He’s got his hand in many pots, taking a ten percent interest in numerous town establishments. Then First Lieutenant Jim Gary (Widmark) rides into town with his Cavalry troop, the portly Sergeant Darius P. Posey (Andy Devine in a comedic role) by his side. His mission is to bring McCabe back to the Army camp for a yet undisclosed reason.
Soon enough, McCabe realizes that he’s been tasked with a dangerous mission: to bring back White captives held by the Comanches. One reason that Major Frazer (John McIntire) has chosen him for this role is because he’s not an Army officer. But that doesn’t stop him from assigning Gary with an unofficial role of accompanying McCabe on his quest.
What happens at the Comanche camp becomes the focal point for McCabe’s other journey, his internal one from selfishness and amorality to completeness and an ethical life. The catalyst for his transformation is none other than Elena de la Madriaga (Linda Cristal), a Mexican girl held captive by the Comanches. When McCabe is able to see the world through her eyes, it begins to change him.
Things get even more complicated when he brings her back to the Army camp and sees how the gossipy older White women treat Elena. As in many of Ford’s films, there is a dance. An Army dance at an outpost of civilization out in the midst of a contested territory. But it’s at this civilized dance that McCabe and Gary witness some deeply uncivilized behavior on the part of the attendees.
What’s most intriguing about Two Rode Together is that it often feels as if Ford didn’t know exactly what he wanted the movie to be. A gritty Western? A comedy Western? A romance? But by the time the film ends, one gets the sense that sometimes not choosing allows the movie to be all of those things and somehow more. Not an excellent film, but it is quite a good one, largely thanks to Ford and Stewart.
December 17th, 2017 at 8:05 pm
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but the cast and direction and the individual stories are so compelling the film moves quite well.
Historically it also has a good portrayal of Comanche chief Quanah Parker, the half white war chief who went from warrior to Federal Judge in Oklahoma.
Ford and Stewart fought over Stewart’s favorite hat so in LIBERTY VALANCE Stewart insisted on a hat clause and Ford only had him wear one in a single scene.
A favorite film, though admittedly an odd one.
December 17th, 2017 at 10:56 pm
“Then First Lieutenant … rides into town with his Calvary troop”
Had they got lost on the way to The Greatest Story Ever Told?
I read somewhere that Ford emphasised Quannah’s mixed ancestry in this film because when he cast Brsndon as Scar in The Searchers there had been complaints about Brandon not looking like a “real” Comanche, where Ford had thought viewers would realise Brandon’s role showed that the whites and Comanches were all mixed together anyway and Ethan Edwards’ obsession with miscegenation was deranged.
December 18th, 2017 at 12:17 am
I’m going to blame that fubar on a faulty GPS system. Can’t say that the editor was asleep at the wheel, can I?
I’ll go ahead and fix it, though. Thanks!
December 17th, 2017 at 11:36 pm
Ethan is neither deranged nor a racist, but a warrior who family has been murdered and niece kidnapped. People seem to make a lot out of his intention to kill the girl, but he does not. And in life we should all learn to judge by action not words.
And if you read something, somewhere, realize that it may not be so. Stuff published online is often deranged, rather than either their subjects or objects.
December 18th, 2017 at 5:09 am
Ethan had only been prevented from killing Debbie earlier in the film by Martin standing in front of her, though. Martin, who knows Ethan best by then, has no doubt of his purpose. Throughout the film it is made plain that Ethan is a man of his word: that he does what he says he will do. Perhaps he would have been no more able to carry out his intention then than he was at the film’s end, but the fact that someone finally abandons a deranged purpose does not mean he was not deranged when he wanted to do it.
Certainly, “stuff published online is often deranged”. However, stuff that convincingly explains what is often considered a serious flaw in the film – Scar being played by an obviously white actor – isn’t deranged, even if it is mistaken.
December 18th, 2017 at 5:20 am
To bring the conversation back to this movie, rather than the earlier one, here’s a question: Why did Ford make this movie, so closely related in story line to the earlier one? Did he think he got it wrong the first time?
December 18th, 2017 at 9:09 am
Ford said he did it as a favor to Harry Cohn, head of Columbia, but the idea of Harry Cohn doing anyone a favor that needs repaying seems highly unlikely.
Whatever the case, it is an excellent bit of filmmaking, and thanks for bringing the conversation back to it.
December 18th, 2017 at 10:11 am
I knew several people, actors, who knew Harry well. Louis Hayward and Valerie French. Both so=poke well of him, and Valerie found him attractive. AS for Ford signing on for two Rode Together as a favor, he had done at that point several films for Columbia release, including The Last Hurrah, a significant picture that did not do well. So, Mr. Ford may have felt some obligation, but keep in mind, that Cohn died in 1958 and Two Rode Together produced and distributed several years later. Like ‘Hurrah’ it also did not do well.
December 18th, 2017 at 1:53 pm
As well as giving Brandon a second chance, how far was Ford influenced by the possibility of directing Stewart and Widmark? Two Rode Together was the first film he made with either of them, I think, and they both took leading roles in later films by Ford.