John Wayne

Jorge Rivero

Jennifer O'Neill

Jack Elam

Christopher Mitchum

Victor French

Susana Dosamantes

Sherry Lansing

David Huddleston

Mike Henry

Bill Williams

Jim Davis

Dean Smith

Robert Donner

George Plimpton

Edward Faulkner

Peter Jason

Chuck Courtney

Robert Rothwell

Don 'Red' Barry

Sondra Currie

Chuck Hayward

Conrad Hool

Lance Hool

John Hudkins

Michael Jeffers

Frank Kennedy

Richard LaMarr

John McKee

Boyd 'Red' Morgan

William H. O'Brien

Gregg Palmer

Jim Prejean

Rudy Robbins

Chuck Roberson

Danny Sands

Cap Somers

Bob Steele

Tommy Tedesco

Ethan Wayne

Hank Worden

Howard Hawks

William H. Clothier

Jerry Goldsmith

John Woodcock

Burton Wohl

Hoyt Bowers

Robert Emmet Smith

Leigh Brackett

Monty Westmore

Terry Leonard

Hal Needham

Leah Rhodes

Yakima Canutt

William Kiernan

Dan Perri

John R. Carter

Paul Helmick

Jean Austin

Dave Grayson

Robert M. Beche

Mike Moder

Robert Stein

Bill Dietz

Ray Mercer Jr.

Craig Binkley

Lloyd R. Apperson

Jack A. Finlay

A.D. Flowers

Cliff Wenger

Patricia Norris

Theodore R. Parvin

Luster Bayless

Joan Joseff

Dennis L. Judd II

Joe Canutt

Tap Canutt

Steve DeFrance

Tony Epper

Jerry Gatlin

Chuck Henson

Ace Hudkins

Kimo Owens

Neil Summers

Jack Williams

Rodd Wolff

Richard 'Dub' Wright

Jack N. Young

William Dodds

Harry R. Jones

James V. Vajana

Lloyd Ahern II

Richard Barth

Frank Redmond

Bill Johnson

Gene Feldman

Arthur Morton

Robert Bain

Israel Baker

Harry Bluestone

Vince De Rosa

Bob DiVall

Bonnie Jean Douglas

Dominick Fera

Carl Fortina

Sam Freed Jr.

Alton Hendrickson

Norman Herzburg

William Hinshaw

Artie Kane

Dennis Karmazyn

Abe Luboff

Alfred Lustgarten

Edgar Lustgarten

Virginia Majewski

Peter Mercurio

Tommy Morgan

Richard Nash

Erno Neufeld

John Neufeld

Richard Perissi

Emil Richards

Frederick Seykora

Paul Shure

Henry Sigismonti

Sheridon Stokes

David Tamkin

Western

Rio Lobo

Cinema Center Films

Batjac Productions

Malabar

Estudios Churubusco Azteca S.A.

United States of America

Don't say comfortable eh?  

Out of Paramount Pictures, Rio Lobo is directed and produced by Howard Hawks (the last film he would direct) and stars John Wayne, Jorge Rivero, Jeniffer O'Neill, Jack Elam & Christopher Mitchum. It's written by Leigh Brackett & Burton Wohl, musically scored by Jerry Goldsmith and photographed by William H. Clothier on location at Cuernavaca, Mexico & Tuscon, Arizona. It's the third film in a loose trilogy by Hawks & Wayne that follows Rio Bravo (1959) & El Dorado (1966). Plot follows Wayne as Union officer Cord McNally who loses gold shipments (via the railway) to Confederate guerrillas led by Pierre Cordona (Rivero) & Tuscarora Phillips (Mitchum). It's the start of a relationship that will see all parties end up in Rio Lobo, Texas, where a traitor and a despotic sheriff are in their midst.

Rio Lobo is easily the weakest Western that Hawks made with Duke Wayne. He himself would say that he didn't like the film, felt it wasn't any good, while Wayne himself was quoted as saying that he had already made the film twice before. Almost everything about Rio Lobo is tired, from the formula of the story to Wayne sleepwalking thru a role that held no challenge, it's a poor send off for one of America's finest directors. The script is solid enough, with many Hawksian themes evident; and it's nice to see the three lady characters be important to the story, but the cast put around Wayne are poor and out of their depth and this rubs off on the normally professional Wayne who finds he has nothing to act off of.

It's not a total stinker, tho, certainly Clothier's photography and Goldsmith's score are worthy of investing time with, and the lead off sequence involving the train robbery is well put together and stirs the adrenalin. Sadly the film is never able to reach those heights again, with the ending being a rather tame affair that doesn't do justice to the bitter revenge tone that Hawks has steered the film towards. Of the sub-standard support cast there's only Jack Elam who is worth watching, be it for comedy value or for just giving it some gusto. All told the film just about comes out as watchable Sunday afternoon fodder. A running theme in the film sees fun poked at the ageing Wayne's expense, one of which involves the word comfortable. That is an apt word to use for Rio Lobo, because director and star are in the comfort zone, comfortably making an unchallenging and old hat movie. 5/10

CinemaSerf

There are really only two things to speak of with this: Tommy Tedesco's lovely guitar solo of Jerry Goldsmith's theme and Jack Elam is perfectly cast as the cantankerous whisky-swilling "Mr Phillips". Otherwise, it's just a routine outing for John Wayne (and Howard Hawks) who pretty much bears the weight of the film. Jorge Rivero; Jennifer O'Neill and Christopher Mitchum make up the numbers. The story is fun - a Yankee colonel meets up after the Civil war with two former Confederate officers to track down a man who had been selling secrets during the war and we have a few, predictable, adventures en route to an explosive climax.

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Rio Lobo promo, 1977