OVP: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

Film: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

Stars: John Wayne, Joanne Dru, John Agar, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey, Jr., Mildred Natwick

Director: John Ford

Oscar History: 1 nomination/1 win (Best Cinematography*)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2023 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the Golden Age western, and the stars who made it one of the most enduring legacies of Classical Hollywood.  This month, our focus is on John Wayne: click here to learn more about Mr. Wayne (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

John Wayne's career is legendary for a variety of reasons.  Obviously, the guy made a lot of classic films, which helps.  Perhaps more importantly, especially in establishing his legacy, was that he made so many films.  Because Wayne was the kind of actor who needed to be famous, maybe because he spent nine years after The Big Trail getting bit work, he didn't want to waste his stardom.  From 1939 until the 1970's, Wayne was the lead in at least one movie every year, in most cases multiple films, which is basically unheard of for an actor of his celebrity, and why your dad can watch so many John Wayne movies (which is usually the claim when people talk about Wayne today, that he's someone whom "your dad/grandpa" watched a lot of his movies).  A big part of that run was films he made with John Ford, one of the biggest directors of the era, and the guy who gave Wayne his second big break (the one that stuck) in Stagecoach in 1939.  All told, the two men made 14 films together, spanning from Stagecoach until 1963's Donovan's Reef.  Many of these were westerns, and while a lot of them I'd seen before (and loved), so they weren't eligible for this series (The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance at the top of the list), I couldn't ignore this partnership in a month filled with John Wayne, so we are going to feature today She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, a massive hit the two men achieved for RKO in 1949.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Nathan Brittles (Wayne), who is about to retire from his post in the Frontier Army, but before he does he has to deal with a reservation breakout of the Cheyenne & Arapaho tribes following Custer's defeat at the Battle of Little Big Horn (they want to prevent a war).  He also is tasked with bringing his commanding officer's wife (Natwick) and niece Olivia (Dru) to a stage going east.  Olivia, beautiful and headstrong, is being bartered over by several of the men in the company as they try to woo her.  The film itself continues with both missions seemingly lost (it appears as if Brittles will not be able to get the women to their destination, and war is inevitable), but with the help of his men, he manages to trick the Native Americans by stealing their horses, and forcing them to return to the reservation.  In the end, Brittles doesn't retire, instead getting a promotion, and continues on in the army.

The movie itself is somewhat lacking.  This doesn't have the finesse in its screenplay that some of Ford's later partnerships with Wayne would elicit, giving us a pessimistic look at what the Frontier could give (this is very much still in the post-WWII drive of patriotism above all else).  Wayne is playing a man twenty-years his senior quite believably, but most of the rest of the cast isn't as impressive.  Dru is in a side love triangle so ancillary you'll be forgiven for not being able to tell her beau's apart, and if she ended up with the right guy.

Where the film gains all of its glory is in its cinematography.  I recently went to Monument Valley on a vacation, and it really is one of the most beautiful places on earth.  I understand why westerns (and Ford in particular) used it as a filming location, and they called out repeatedly on my tour that this is one of the movies that best shows the land.  It really is glorious.  There's a scene in the rain that is actually rain that kind of has to be seen to be believed, and it's not just pretty pictures.  There's a moment where a stationary camera watches as a charge of horses spring across a shallow river that is magnificent, giving us actual build-up until the moment where the horses are so close, you feel like you have to give the audience a rain poncho.  This is one of those times Oscar got it exactly right.