El Dorado (1966)

A gun for hire (John Wayne) returns to the town of El Dorado only to find that the town sheriff (Robert Mitchum), who is also his friend, has become a laughed at drunk because of a woman. When a rich landowner (Edward Asner) tries to force a rancher (R.G. Armstrong) to sell him his water rights, it's only a matter of time for gunplay to breakout in the town. Based on the novel THE STARS IN THEIR COURSES by Harry Brown and directed by Howard Hawks (RED RIVER). After the failure of the racing car drama RED LINE 7000 (1965), Hawks returned to the tried and true, a John Wayne western. It was a smart move because the film was a commercial and critical hit. Personally, I found it a rather pedestrian western with the strong star power of Wayne and Mitchum kicking it up a notch. By calling it pedestrian, I don't mean it's a bad movie, I mean it's a rather routine western. Still, the Hawks auteurs and fanboys have attempted to elevate it into one of Hawks' masterpieces and I'm not buying it. The screenwriter Leigh Brackett considered EL DORADO one of her best screenplays and became upset when Hawks began fiddling with it and refashioning it until it resembled RIO BRAVO. With James Caan, Charlene Holt, Christopher George, Arthur Hunnicutt and Michele Carey as a tomboy, who looks out of place in the old West with blonde streaks in her brown hair and false eyelashes.