Well, I’ll be a suck-egg mule-! Legs like that, and she can shoot, too! – Rio Lobo (1970)
Rio Lobo (1970)
A bold Civil War heist sets off a mystery that refuses to stay buried, sending ripples across the years as unlikely partners chase the truth behind a heinous betrayal. What waits for them is a troubled town caught in the grip of corruption, where every clue opens another layer of danger. A patchwork of alliances forms in response to the better-organized criminals. In the end, the assembled group must fight for justice on the frontier.
“So, let’s start at the beginning.”
Hello to all the classic people who are returning. I am glad you are back. I want to welcome any new visitors and let you know there will be spoilers ahead. Today on Classic Movie Review, we are taking on Rio Lobo (1970).
The IMDb rating for this film is 6.7.[1] The Rotten Tomatoes scores list a 70 percent Tomatometer and a 70 percent Audience Score.[2] Great film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and wrote, “Rio Lobo is just a shade tired, especially after the finely honed humor and action of El Dorado.”[3]
Rio Lobo (1970) brings together many familiar elements of the Howard Hawks and John Wayne collaborations, offering a mixture of action, camaraderie, and frontier justice. Although it does not reach the heights of their earlier work, the film carries a certain late-career charm, built on Wayne’s presence and Hawks’s easygoing direction. The pacing can be uneven, yet moments of tension and character interplay help give the movie its own personality in the long line of Westerns from this period.
This movie had a profound effect on me as an impressionable youth. The Yankee Army looked like a pain in the ass with John Wayne as a colonel barking orders and threatening the staff. On the other hand, the Confederates were a mixed bunch of Cajuns and other wild-eyed southern boys. They looked like they were having a blast robbing trains and whatnot. Their leader was easygoing and would work well in the modern workforce, where collaboration and inclusion are the words of the day.
I have tried many things from this movie over the years, like placing my ear to a train track to determine if a train is coming. You know what you find out. Train tracks are greasy.
Actors – Rio Lobo (1970)
Returning
John Wayne returns to the show as one of the most defining figures in American film history. I first covered him in Stagecoach (1939), the film that launched him from hardworking contract player to full-fledged star. From that first appearance as the Ringo Kid, Wayne developed a screen image built on sincerity, physical assurance, and a strong moral center that audiences embraced for decades. His career spanned landmarks such as Red River (1948), The Searchers (1956), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), each revealing new dimensions of the rugged characters he embodied so easily. Through the 1960s and 1970s, he continued to evolve within the Western genre, balancing humor in films such as McLintock! (1963) with tougher, more reflective performances in El Dorado (1966), Chisum (1970), and eventually The Shootist (1976), his poignant farewell to the screen. His presence in Rio Lobo adds to the familiar authority and charisma that defined his entire career.
Christopher Mitchum returns after we previously covered him in Big Jake (1971). Robert Donner returns from El Dorado (1966). Edward Faulkner returns from The Undefeated (1969).
New
Jorge Rivero brought an athletic presence and striking screen charisma to his role in Rio Lobo (1970). Born in Mexico City, Rivero became one of the most prominent Mexican actors to cross over into American film during the late 1960s and early 1970s. His early career included adventure pictures and action films that capitalized on his physicality, but Rio Lobo (1970) offered him a prominent Hollywood platform alongside John Wayne.
Jennifer O’Neill was at the beginning of her film career when she appeared in Rio Lobo (1970). Raised in New York, O’Neill initially gained fame as a model before transitioning into acting. Her early roles demonstrated a natural poise and emotional openness that set her apart among young actresses of the time. However, she did not shine in this film.
Jack Elam was already a seasoned and unmistakable character actor by the time he joined Rio Lobo (1970). Known for his distinctive features and unforgettable screen presence, Elam built a career playing eccentric, dangerous, and often unpredictable characters.
Victor French built much of his early career in Westerns. His rugged features and grounded acting style made him a natural fit for frontier roles. I remember him mostly as Pa Ingalls’ friend in “Little House on the Prairie.”
David Huddleston was one of Hollywood’s most versatile character actors, recognized for his height, commanding voice, and ability to shift between comedy and drama.
Mike Henry came to acting after a successful NFL career. His athletic build and natural toughness led directly to film roles that emphasized physical action.
Susana Dosamantes brought grace and screen appeal to her role, going on to establish a long career in Mexican cinema and television.
Sherry Lansing appears briefly in Rio Lobo (1970), long before becoming the first woman to head a major Hollywood studio.
Story – Rio Lobo (1970)
The American Civil War is nearing the end. Union Colonel Cord McNally (John Wayne), a hardened and competent officer, waits nervously at a train station as a large gold shipment is inbound.
As Union cavalry units wait at the train stations, a group of Confederate raiders are waiting in the gaps.
Several stations away, the gold is secretly loaded onto a special train that is guarded by McNally’s trusted subordinate, Lieutenant Ned Forsythe (Peter Jason), who oddly looks like a young Meatloaf.
McNally and his cavalry detachment listen to the telegraph signal and hope to catch the raiders if they go after the gold.
Near a steep grade, between stations, the Confederates under Captain Pierre Cordona (Jorge Rivero), known as Frenchy, and his young sergeant, Tuscarora Phillips (Christopher Mitchum), gently guide their team as they prepare for the attack.
On the steep grade, the raiders grease the track to stop the train when it arrives. At the bottom of the slope, another bunch of the raiders tie slack ropes to small pine trees to stop the train car when it is sent back down.
The train reaches the greased section of track and becomes stuck. The raiders subdue the engineer and coal tender. The gold is locked in another car with Lieutenant Forsythe and his squad. Two Confederates, wearing beekeeper hats, have a hornet’s nest in a bag. I’ll start nitpicking now. Hornets ain’t bees. You might protect your face with that bee gear, but they’ll tear through your clothes and put a whomping on you.
Anyway, they throw the hornets in with the gold and soldiers. They pull the telegraph lines down, drain the steam engine, and set the gold car loose to roll back down the hill. They jump on a flat car to go along for the ride.
The Union squad members begin jumping off the hornet-laden car as the speed increases. Many are hurt from the jump, but most just have big welts all over from the hornet stings.
At the bottom of the hill, the train cars hit the ropes and begin uprooting trees. It’s a great scene, but using hemp ropes tied to pine trees, I don’t feel would even slow the train. Anyway, in the movie, the car’s final stop.
The raiders smoke the hornets and take the gold away. One group goes with a wagon, and the other rides in a different direction on horses.
When he is told that the telegraph has stopped, McNally heads his troop in the direction of the attack. Traveling along the line, McNally finds Lieutenant Forsythe dying from a broken neck from the jump from the gold car. Forsythe says a traitor tipped off the raiders, and McNally agrees.
McNally sends half of his men to follow the wagon tracks seen by the stopped gold car, while he and the other half follow the horse tracks that went in a different direction. The raider trail keeps splitting, and the Union group keeps dividing until McNally is alone.
McNally sees a presumably wounded Frenchy ahead, and he stops. It is not long before Tuscarora jumps him from behind, and they take McNally prisoner. They treat McNally with respect, but they plan to use him to help them escape the ever-increasing Yankees.
McNally leads the escaping rebels north, right into a cavalry camp. He sounds an alarm, and after a bit, the Confederates are captured, and the gold is recovered.
McNally questions Frenchy and Tuscarora about the information they received from the traitor. They admit they have been paying for information, but won’t give up their contact, knowing that other Confederates will continue the theft of gold.
Eventually, the war ends, and McNally travels to a Union prison camp to happily find that the two Confederates have survived their incarceration. Now that the war has ended, Frenchy and Tuscarora provide McNally with the information about the Union traitors. They do not know the traitors’ names, but describe them as a white-haired fellow, called Whitey, and the other is a larger man.
Although the war is over, McNally still wants to find the men who are responsible for the death of his friend, Lieutenant Forsythe. He does not blame the two Confederates for the death, knowing what they did was war. Frenchy and Tuscarora plan to head to Texas and say they will contact McNally if they have any more information.
Eventually, McNally receives word from an old friend, Sheriff Pat Cronin of Blackthorne, Texas, informing him that Frenchy is trying to contact him.
In the town of Blackthorne, Cronin and McNally are Jee hawing when a primly dressed woman storms into the sheriff’s office and demands that the sheriff arrest a man for murder. The woman is Shasta Delaney (Jennifer O’Neill), and man, she is not a good actress.
Shasta says that she was working with a traveling medicine show, and a deputy from Rio Lobe murdered her elder partner in cold blood. Under questioning, Shasta says the sheriff in Rio Lobo is Blue Tom Hendricks (Mike Henry). McNally knows Hendricks as a criminal he has dealt with before. Cronin explains that he can’t do anything because it is outside his jurisdiction. Shasta leaves in disappointment.
Cronin and McNally head to the hotel/restaurant where Frenchy is staying. The hotel clerk (Hank Wordon) says that Frenchy left word that if he is disturbed, he will shoot. The two men decide to get a drink. Shasta is sitting to the side, dejected with her head down.
Before long, a Rio Lobo deputy, a white-haired man named Whitey (Robert Donner), and three others ride into town looking for Shasta. They send one man around back while Whitey and two men demand that Shasta go with them, but she refuses. Shasta says Whitey is the man who killed her friend. Cronin demands that he produce an arrest warrant.
The deputy from the back gets the drop on Cornin and McNally. Shasta fires a derringer through the table and hits Whitey. McNally disarms the man from the back, then shoots two other men, but the man from the back gets back up to shoot. He is shot from the second floor by Frenchy, who is still in his long Johns.
Cronin stands up, holding his shoulder. He is not shot but says he banged it when he hit the ground. McNally says you are too old for this business. That is a small Easter egg to John Wayne, who was suffering from a shoulder ligament tear during filming and was indeed too old to play a Civil War cavalry officer.
Frenchy identifies Whitey as one of the Union traitors who sold information about gold shipments. Shasta passes out and is taken to Frenchy’s bed after a local prostitute is evicted. Frenchy says that a Yankee businessman, whom no one knows, is trying to take Tuscarora’s father’s ranch.
Shasta is sassy when she wakes in Frenchy’s room. She says she is going to Rio Lobo with the two men because she knows the town. She also wants to pick up her friend’s medicine show wagon. The trio rides towards the town of Rio Lobo. The first night, they bed down by an old Indian ruin. Frenchy is a bit of a man whore and presents his intentions to Shasta. She gives him one kiss and sends him away. When she finds out she is sleeping under an Indian burial, she beds down by McNally because he is “confrontable.”
The next night, the trio sneaks into Rio Lobe. Shasta takes them to Tuscarora’s girlfriend, María Carmen (Susana Dosamantes). María and Tuscarora have been cut off from each other by the sheriff and his gang of deputies. Frenchy was almost caught by the deputies but ducked into a house. Inside, the lovely and half-naked Amelita (Sherry Lansing) invites the door crasher to stay.
Shasta devises a plan to reconnoiter the town of Rio Lobo. McNally rides in, saying he has a toothache. María has already told him that the dentist, Dr. Ivor Jones (David Huddleston), is a friend of Tuscarora.
Not long after McNally arrives, Tuscarora comes in at the head of his own horse herd and crew. Tuscarora goes to see María, but it is not long until deputies beat and arrest Tuscarora for horse theft. They also slap Amelita to the ground.
The sheriff stops the beating and orders both Tuscarora and María arrested. McNally can’t stay out of the trouble, even though it is too early for him to cause trouble. McNally sends María home, and the law people let him.
As they fake a tooth extraction, Dr. Jones tells McNally that a man named Ketcham (Victor French) arrived in town following the war. Blue Tom Hendricks killed the local sheriff, and Ketcham had the killer made sheriff. Dr. Jones also says that with Tuscarora in jail, they will blackmail his father, Old Man Phillips (Jack Elam), into signing over his ranch. Ketcham has been acquiring land and water rights all over the area in the same way.
Amelita helps Frenchy and Shasta hide from a group of deputies searching houses for the pair. McNally makes it back to María’s house. McNally, Frenchy, and Shasta travel to the Phillips’ ranch. Shasta uses the medicine show wagon to get close, while Frenchy sneaks around back. There are four guards outside, and the gang of three handles them easily.
Old Man Phillips is in the house and at first shoots at his rescuers. He eventually lets them into the house, verifies who they are, and agrees to go along on the fight. The four head towards Ketcham’s ranch, but drop Shasta off at a friendly ranch owner’s place for safety. Frenchy is still trying to date Shasta.
They make the assault on Ketcham’s ranch that night. Old Man Phillips makes too much noise with his whiskey bottle, and McNally says, “Why don’t you blow a bugle?” That seems to be a reference to the bugle blowing Bull (Arthur Honeycutt) in El Dorado (1966).
When they get into the big house, McNally sees that Ketcham is really Sergeant Major Ike Gorman, the man who was selling information to the rebels during the war. An enraged McNally beats Ketcham to a pulp. Old Man Phillips keeps the other ranch hands in the bunk house with shotgun fire.
They order Ketcham to have his ranch hands stand down and to bring horses for the group to escape on. Ketcham accidentally sets his own legs on fire. The group won’t put him out until he agrees to sign the ranch deeds and water rights back to the rightful owners. Old Man Phillips wires his shotgun triggers into a dead man’s switch, so Ketcham won’t try to escape.
McNally, Frenchy, Old Man Phillips, and their hostage, Ketcham, ride towards Rio Lobo. McNally sends Frenchy to get help from the U.S. cavalry. In town, the group finds that María has been beaten again. Sheriff Hendricks has also slashed a large scar on Amelita’s face. She vows to kill the bad sheriff.
When Henricks finds out that his men at Old Man Phillips’ ranch have been attacked, he sends a couple of groups of deputies out to guard the roads.
McNally and Old Man Phillips use Ketcham to force the sheriff and his deputies out of the jail. McNally figures that with Tuscarora freed, they can hold the jailhouse building until the cavalry arrives.
Henricks’ deputies capture Frenchy before he can get to the fort for help.
Dr. Jones brings food and beer to the jail.
Shasta returns to town and sneaks into the jail to talk with McNally and Old Man Phillips, and to find out how Frenchy is doing.
One of the Hendricks’ deputies delivers a message that they have captured Frenchy and will exchange him for Ketchum. The exchange is set to take place in the morning at the end of town between a cantina and a warehouse. There is a small creek nearby. That sounds just like Rio Bravo (1959) and El Dorado (1966).
Dr. Jones takes the deeds and water rights to hand over to the legitimate owners. McNally and crew head to the exchange point. McNally switches his rifle for one with a shorter barrel and an extra-large cocking lever. Of course, this represents the gun that the Ringo Kidd (John Wayne) twirled in Stagecoach (1939).
When they reach the exchange point, many of the farmers have come to help fight Ketchum and Hendricks. Another group of helpers hide behind a wall. Tuscarora slips across the no-mans-land and slides into the creek. He uses a hollow reed to breath. This was a trick he used during the war. He hides under the bridge and waits for the time to attack.
The two hostages are brought out for exchange. McNally removes Ketchum’s belt, so he has to use his hands to keep his pants up, just like at TSA. When Frenchy reaches the bridge, Tuscarora gives a bird whistle to let him know he is there. The Confederates used bird whistles earlier in the movie. It was also a theme in some of the Duke’s movies. In The Undefeated (1969), a Union sergeant hears a whistle and states, “Seems I’ve heard that bird before, sir, at Missionary Ridge. And if I’m not mistaken, that’s a gray-bellied sapsucker.”[4]
Frenchy dives into the creek, and McNally forces Ketchum to stay where he is in the middle of the exchange. McNally tells Hendricks that Ketchum has signed away all their money. Hendricks gets enraged at this news and then guns his former partner down in cold blood.
McNally shoots Henricks in the leg, and another deputy shoots McNally in the leg. Gunfire opens from all directions, including under the bridge, where Frenchy and Tuscarora are hiding. Hendricks sends big man Pete (Gregg Palmer) to dynamite McNally’s crew. Now I am getting shades of The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) and El Dorado (1966).
Pete tries to toss the dynamite into the cantina, but is shot first. The dynamite explodes outside, killing Pete. The townsfolk continue to attack until the remainder of Hendricks’ men flee. The wounded sheriff uses his Winchester as a crutch, filling the barrel with dirt. When he fires at his fleeing men, the rifle explodes in his face.
To complete Hendricks’ demise, Amelita arrives and guns him down. But not before Henricks fires at her and misses.
McNally tells the men that they have their town back. Amalita is shaken by what she has done, even though it was the right move. She helps the wounded McNally walk off into the sunset.
Conclusion – Rio Lobo (1970)
Rio Lobo (1970)is the last collaboration between director Howard Hawks and John Wayne, as this movie was Howard Hawks’ last directing gig, bringing to a close a career that began in 1926. This film reused many themes from their earlier Westerns. At its heart, it is a buddy film with revenge and healing. It really marks the end of an era in film. The straightforward good-versus-evil Westerns would fade away not long after this. As I mentioned earlier, it was getting increasingly hard for John Wayne to act under harsh conditions and to compensate for his age and weight.
Director Howard Hawks, meanwhile, was wrestling with his own frustrations. At seventy-four, he was still tearing around the desert on a dirt bike during lunch breaks, but he later admitted the movie reflected a creative well running dry. It became his final film, and even he conceded that it didn’t measure up to his earlier work.
The international cast and inexperienced actors were very hard on Hawks. They originally wanted Robert Mitchum to play the role that Frenchy filled. Mitchum was adamant that he was retired. When Mitchum visited his son on set, Hawks tried and failed to convince him to reprise the drunken sheriff role from El Dorado (1966).
The production also attempted to promote some rising performers. These include Capt. Pierre Cordona, or Frenchy, played by Mexican leading man Jorge Rivero. Also, there was model Jennifer O’Neill, as Shasta, Mexican actress Susana Dosamantes as María, and Sherry Lansing as Amelita. They all had good careers, but this film did not set any of them on fire. Sherry Lansing was the most successful in becoming the first female studio head. Lansing produced Fatal Attraction (1987), The Accused (1988), and Black Rain (1989), among others.
On a high note, Wayne had to leave mid-production to receive his well-deserved Best Actor Oscar for True Grit (1969).
I mentioned a couple of Easter eggs during the narrative. Another is that there was a wanted poster bearing the name Hondo Lane, the character Wayne played in Hondo (1953).
World-Famous Short Summary – Couldn’t we get a better actor for this part?
Beware the moors.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066301/
[2] Rio Lobo | Rotten Tomatoes
[3] Rio Lobo movie review & film summary (1970) | Roger Ebert
