On this Day in 1948...

Red River, starring John Wayne and directed by Howard Hawks, was released in the theaters. Hawks was a versatile director who had directed every type of movie genre except Westerns, and this was Wayne's first movie with him. Hailed by critics and fans as perhaps the greatest Western of the 1940's, the epic story tells the tale of the first cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail in 1866 and Thomas Dunson, the man who led it. Wayne's role as Dunson was diferent from anything he played before. For one thing, it was the first time he played an old man (he did so again in 1949's She Wore a Yellow Ribbon). It was also a different role for Wayne in that he played a ruthless, driven man bent on completing the drive no matter what (or who) it costs, in the process causing a mutiny. It was the closest he ever came to playing a bad guy in the movies, and it worked. Wayne showed he could really act. (A little trivia for hardcore Western fans: this is the only A-list Western where the Duke wore a holster string. Traditonally in the genre, this was considered the mark of a bad guy.) This is one of the alltime great Westerns, and shows up regularly on top ten lists (including mine).