Rooster Cogburn (...and the Lady)

Rooster Cogburn (1975)

"I do not fear a skunk; I simply do not care for his odor." Eula Goodnight

I've got my Navy Colt sidearm, a Winchester rifle on my saddle, and a pocket full of ca-tridges." Rooster Cogburn

Towards the end of his career, John Wayne (1907 - 1979) started to play more interesting, rounded characters. Wayne had been a fixture in westerns since the 1930s with many excellent characterizations but mainly unidimensional, running to the white hat/black hat variety with a certain set of mannerisms that can be seen time and again. As he aged, Wayne apparently became more comfortable living inside the characters and began to give them little failings, foibles, humor and other human qualities. You will note in his later films that Wayne is doing something even when he is not the focus of attention. One of his best parts was a hard drinking, one-eyed marshall who always brought in his man, more often dead than alive, Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn in True Grit, for which he won a well-deserved Best Actor Oscar.

In 1975 Wayne reprised the role in Rooster Cogburn, also known as Rooster Cogburn... and the Lady. Instead of a precocious teenager, he had an elderly spinster woman as his foil, driving him like a mythological harpy to "do the right thing" - i.e., what she wanted him to do. That elderly woman was the estimable Katharine Hepburn (The African Queen, The Lion in Winter) an actress not often seen in westerns. Hepburn plays Eula Goodnight a preacher's daughter in a church out in the back of beyond. When Miss Goodnight's father is killed by a pack of no-good dynamite stealing bandits, she attaches herself to Rooster's one man posse tracking the bad guys.

The script is nothing special, being an amalgamation of "True Grit" and the "African Queen" - but what is special is what the actors do with it, living within their characters, hamming it up, and having a good time doing it. Sure, it's shameless, but it's fun to watch two legendary actors pushing the envelope. Almost every line of dialog is quotable and will have you in stitches.

Wayne is a seedy, alcoholic reprobate who has to adapt to a strait-laced virginal (68-year old!) Hepburn, who has a tongue sharper than any serpent's tooth. Throughout the film there are various shoot-outs, chases, and rides down the rapids on a raft loaded with nitroglycerin and a gatling gun, to keep the viewer on the edge of their seat. For support we have Anthony Zerbe and Richard Jordan as the bad guys and John McIntyre as the judge who alternately fires and re-hires Rooster as necessary to maintain law and order in the Arkansas Territory. All of the performances are delightful and make the movie a real pleasure to watch again and again.

Wayne has several scenes with his associates that reveal the facets of Rooster's character (he pulls a cork once in a while). Richard Jordan chews the scenery in one of his best performances as bad man "Hawk." Strother Martin, a fixture in westerns, has a memorable cameo as "Shanghai McCoy," a man who has "been everywhere and done everything," according to his speech. John McIntyre has some notable words with Wayne, also, but the real sparks fly between the Duke and Hepburn. The dialog must be heard - almost every line is quotable.

Director Stuart Millar got the best out of everybody in this light hearted spoof of the classic western. The cinematography takes advantage of the scenic beauty of the Pacific Northwest and the music, by Laurence Rosenthal, is reminiscent of Elmer Bernstein's fine work. The Universal DVD runs 107 minutes, and is presented in 2.35:1 theatrical format that reveals the full beauty of the film.

John Wayne is one of the finest actors in the western genre. See one of his later works where he parodied his old stalwart character with sidesplitting results.

More John Wayne westerns I highly recommend:

True Grit

Rio Bravo

The Shootist

Thanks for reading!