Themes: Ranchers, Sheriffs and Outlaws, Lone Wolves
Main Cast: John Wayne, Joanne Dru, John Agar, Ben Johnson, Victor McLaglen
Release Year: 1949
Country: US
Run Time: 93 minutes
Plot
The second of John Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy", She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is the only one of the three to be lensed in Technicolor. In an Oscar-calibre performance, 42-year old John Wayne plays sixtyish Cavalry Captain Nathan Brittles. In his last days before his compulsory retirement, Brittles must face the possibility of a full-scale attack from the Arapahos, fomented by the recent defeat of Custer and by double-dealing Indian agents. After a series of minor victories and major frustrations, Brittles decides to ride into the Arapaho camp, there to smoke a pipe of peace with his old friend, Chief Pony That Walks (Chief John Big Tree). Before he leaves, he is presented with his retirement present by his troops: a pocket watch, with the inscription "Lest We Forget"(Wayne's playing of this scene, barely holding back tears as he adjusts his spectacles to read the inscription, is one of his finest moments on film). Brittles is able to forestall an Indian attack, just in time for his official retirement. The film really ends here, but there are two more potential climaxes before the words THE END dissolve into view. The patchiness of the Frank Nugent/Lawrence Stallings screenplay (attributal to the fact that it is adapted from two different short stories) prevents She Wore a Yellow Ribbon from reaching the same lofty heights as the Ford/Wayne collaborations Fort Apache (1947) and Rio Grande (1949). The gratuitous offscreen narration of Irving Pichel is also rather distracting. Even so, Wayne's flawless performance, coupled with the supporting contributions of Ford's stock company (John Agar, Harry Carey Jr., Victor McLaglen et al) and the Academy Award-winning photography by Winston C. Hoch, automatically elevates She Wore a Yellow Ribbon to classic status. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The middle leg of the John Ford/John Wayne "Cavalry Trilogy" -- following Fort Apache (1948) and preceding Rio Grande (1950) -- gives Wayne the opportunity to prove his talents as an actor, and he doesn't disappoint. His sentimental performance lends the film an emotional center lacking in other of Ford's mythic Western struggles; the role remains one of the highlights of The Duke's career. Ford reportedly said he didn't know that Wayne could act until he saw him in Howard Hawks's Red River (1948). Yellow Ribbon also features exceptional, Academy Award-winning camerawork by Winton Hoch, the cinematographer responsible for some of Ford's best-looking pictures. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
James Basevi - Art Director, Lowell J. Farrell - Associate Producer, Ann Peck - Costume Designer, Michael Meyers - Costume Designer, Edward O'Fearna - First Assistant Director, Wingate Smith - First Assistant Director, John Ford - Director, Jack Murray - Editor, Richard Hageman - Composer (Music Score), Constantin Bakaleinikoff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Charles P. Boyle - Cinematographer, Winton Hoch - Cinematographer, Merian C. Cooper - Producer, John Ford - Producer, Joe Kish - Set Designer, Jack Cosgrove - Special Effects, Jack Caffee - Special Effects, Frank S. Nugent - Screenwriter, Laurence Stallings - Screenwriter, James Warner Bellah - Short Story Author
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is a 1949western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. The film was the second of Ford's trilogy of films focusing on the US Cavalry (and the only one in color), the other two films being Fort Apache (1948) and Rio Grande (1950). With a budget of $1.6 million, the film was one of the most expensive westerns of the time, but became a major hit for RKO and remains a popular classic today.
Known for its breathtaking views of Monument Valley located in the Navajo reservation, at the northern edge of Arizona; the cinematographer, Winton Hoch, won the 1950 Academy Award for Best Color Cinematography. Ford and Hoch based much of the film's imagery on the paintings and sculptures of Frederic Remington.
Ford demonstrated a number of standard Cavalry procedures in horse management in this and other movies. Strict rotation between walk, trot, and leading the horses made them last as long as possible. They were still no match for the lightly burdened Indian horses for endurance, but US Cavalry horses were fed grain (when available), and this helped even the odds a bit.
The film is named after a song common in the U.S. military, "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon", which is still used today to keep marching cadence. It is a variant of the song "All Around My Hat"[citation needed].
On the verge of his retirement at Fort Starke, a one-troop cavalry post, the aging US Cavalry Capt. Nathan Cutting Brittles (John Wayne) is given one last patrol, to take his troop and deal with a breakout from the reservation by the Cheyenne and Arapaho following the defeat of George Armstrong Custer. His task is complicated by being forced at the same time to deliver his commanding officer's wife and niece, Abby Allshard (Mildred Natwick) and Olivia Dandridge (Joanne Dru)), to an east-bound stage, and by the need to avoid a new Indian war. His troop officers, 1st Lt. Flint Cohill (John Agar) and 2nd Lt. Ross Pennell (Harry Carey, Jr.) meanwhile vie for the affections of Miss Dandridge while uneasily anticipating the retirement of their captain and mentor. Rounding out the cast are Capt. Brittles' chief scout, Sgt. Tyree (Ben Johnson), a one-time Confederate cavalry officer; his First Sergeant, Quincannon (Victor McLaglen); and Major Allshard (George O'Brien), long-time friend and C.O.
After apparently failing in both missions, Capt. Brittles returns with the troop to Fort Starke to retire. His lieutenants continue the mission in the field, joined by Capt. Brittles after "quitting the post and the Army". Unwilling to see more lives needlessly taken, Capt. Brittles takes it upon himself to try to make peace with Chief Pony That Walks (Chief John Big Tree). When that too fails, he devises a risky stratagem to avoid a bloody war.
Errors
The film's narrator references Pony Express rider's concerns over George Custer's defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Custer was killed in 1876, whereas the Pony Express made its last ride fifteen years earlier in 1861 after only a year of service.
