She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon | |
---|---|
Directed by | John Ford |
Screenplay by | |
Based on | The Big Hunt 1947 story in Argosy Pictures |
Starring | |
Narrated by | Irving Pichel |
Cinematography | Winton C. Hoch |
Edited by | Jack Murray |
Music by | Richard Hageman |
Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | Argosy Pictures |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 103 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.6 million |
Box office | $2.7 million (rentals)[3] |
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is a 1949 American
The film was shot on location in Monument Valley utilizing large areas of the Navajo reservation along the Arizona-Utah state border.[citation needed] Ford and cinematographer Winton C. Hoch based much of the film's imagery on the paintings and sculptures of Frederic Remington. Hoch won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color in 1950. It was also nominated as 1950's Best Written American Western (which the Writers Guild of America awarded to Yellow Sky).
Plot
On the verge of his retirement in August, 1876 at Fort Starke, a small Frontier Army post, aging cavalry veteran Nathan Cutting Brittles is given one last mission: to deal with a breakout by the Cheyenne and Arapaho from their reservation following the defeat of George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and prevent a new frontier war.[4]
Brittles' task is complicated by a second order: to deliver his commanding officer's wife and niece, Abby Allshard and Olivia Dandridge, to an eastbound
Assisting Capt. Brittles with his mission is his chief scout, Sgt. Tyree, a one-time Confederate captain of cavalry; his first sergeant, Quincannon; and Maj. Allshard, Brittles's long-time friend and commanding officer.
After apparently failing in both missions, Brittles returns with the troop to Fort Starke to retire. His lieutenants continue the mission in the field, joined by Brittles after "quitting the post and the Army". Unwilling to see more lives needlessly taken, Brittles takes it upon himself to try to make peace with his old friend Chief Pony That Walks. When that too fails, he devises a risky stratagem to avoid a bloody war by stampeding the renegades' horses out of their camp, forcing them to return to their reservation ... on foot, trailed at a discreet distance by Lt. Cohill's troop of cavalry.
Brittles is recalled to duty as Chief of Scouts with the rank of
Cast
- John Wayne as Captain Nathan Brittles
- Joanne Dru as Olivia Dandridge
- John Agar as Lieutenant Flint Cohill
- Ben Johnson as Sergeant Tyree
- Harry Carey Jr.as Lieutenant Ross Pennell
- Victor McLaglen as Sergeant Quincannon
- Mildred Natwick as Mrs. Abby Allshard
- George O'Brienas Major Mack Allshard
- Arthur Shields as Dr. O'Laughlin
- Michael Dugan as Sergeant Hochbauer
- Chief John Big Tree as Pony-That-Walks
- Fred Graham as Sergeant Hench
- George Sky Eagle as Chief Sky Eagle
- Tom Tyler as Corporal Quayne
- Noble Johnson as Red Shirt
Director John Ford's older brother Francis appears in only one scene as Connolly, the barman. Ford kept Francis on wages "for eight weeks even through Francis could have completed his scenes in less than a week".[5] Other uncredited cast members include: Irving Pichel as narrator (voice), Harry Woods as Karl Rynders, the sutler; Cliff Lyons as Trooper Cliff; Mickey Simpson as Wagner, the blacksmith; Fred Libby as Corporal Kumrein; and Rudy Bowman as Private Smith.[6] Among Rynders' associates is veteran character actor Paul Fix (Harry Carey, Jr.'s father-in-law) in a small uncredited role.[7]
Production
Casting
Director Ford initially was uncertain whom to cast in the lead role. However, he knew that he did not want John Wayne for the part—considering, among other factors, that Wayne would be playing a character over twenty years older than he was at the time. Reportedly, Wayne's 1948 performance in
Filming
The cast and crew lived in relatively primitive conditions in Monument Valley. Most slept in dirt-floor cabins that only had communal cold-water drum showers. The film was completed ahead of schedule and under budget.
Although the film's cinematographer, Winton Hoch, won an Academy Award for his work, filming was not a smooth creative process because of conflicts with Ford. Ironically one of the most iconic scenes from the film was created during a dispute. As a line of cavalry rode through the desert,[10] a real thunderstorm grew on the horizon. Hoch began to pack up the cameras as the weather worsened only for Ford to order him to keep shooting. Hoch argued that there was not enough natural light for the scene and, more importantly, the cameras could become potential lightning rods if the storm swept over them. Ford ignored Hoch's complaints; completing the scene as the thunderstorm rolled in, soaking the cast and crew. Hoch later had filed a letter of complaint against Ford with the American Society of Cinematographers over the filming of this scene.[2]
The story of Hoch's refusal to shoot in this thunderstorm has often been repeated, but actor
This was the second John Ford movie filmed in Technicolor. The first was Drums Along the Mohawk (1939).
Publicity
A theater poster featured the male lead wearing a yellow neckerchief with his uniform and a yellow banner (with proportions and shape evocative of a stylish ribbon) behind him, that also looped some 270 degrees around the female lead's shoulders.
1958 television pilot
A 1958 unsuccessful television pilot written by James Warner Bellah titled Command starred Everett Sloane as Captain Brittles and Ben Cooper as Lt Cohill.
Awards
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon earned the 1950 Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color for Winton C. Hoch.
References
- ^ "Detail view of Movies Page". www.afi.com.
- ^ a b c "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
- ^ "Top Grossers of 1949". Variety. January 4, 1950. p. 59.
- ^ Nixon, Rob. "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on July 2, 2019. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
- ^ Bar, Charles (July 2010). "Irish Brother Feeney: Francis Ford in John Ford's films". Senses of Cinema. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
- ISBN 9780786429547.
- ISBN 9780786429547.
- ^ Nixon, Rob (November 15, 2002). "Red River". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
- ^ a b Davis, Ronald L. (2001). Duke: The Life and Image of John Wayne. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 140–141. 0806133295. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
- Express.co.uk. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
- ^ OCLC 847602806.
- OCLC 810122531.