What must John Wayne have thought when they remade John Ford’s 1939 black and white classic in color with little known Alex Cord in his role as The Ringo Kid? I’ll guess the Duke took it in stride. Wayne was a big star by then, no small thanks to John Ford and the Stagecoach that launched his ‘A’ list career.

The remake followed the story line of the original screen play, other than moving the setting from Arizona/New Mexico to a Wyoming run from Dry Fork to Cheyenne. Most notably the remake featured a star-powered cast with box office appeal. We knew John Wayne and Andy Divine from the original cast with a vague recollection of Claire Trevor and John Carradine. The remake cast Red Buttons as the Whiskey Drummer Preacher, Bing Crosby as the alcoholic Doc, Van Heflin as Marshall Wilcox, Slim Pickens for Divine’s Driver, Stefanie Powers as the expectant mother and Keenan Wynn as the killer Luke Plummer. Buttons and Crosby added touches of humor to their character interpretations.

With all that going for the film you’d figure you had a winner. If you did, you figured wrong. Critics panned the retake. Despite all the star-power, the original was judged so superior as to render the reprise poor porridge. The box office seemed to agree, returning a modest $4.0M on a $3.5M budget, a tad over 14% ROI. Not the stuff Academy Awards are made of.

Next Week: Dodge City
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Ride easy,
Paul