Trailer
Plot summary
In the summer of 1879, the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Regiment holds a frontier post in Texas, where Apache raiders strike and then slip across the Rio Grande into Mexico, beyond the reach of the troopers. Its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke, has lived apart for fifteen years from his wife Kathleen and their son Jeff, since the Civil War, when he burned her family's plantation in the Shenandoah Valley on orders. Jeff failed mathematics and left West Point, then enlisted in the regiment as a private. Kathleen appears at the post without warning, meaning to purchase a discharge for her underage son and take him home. Jeff refuses to leave, tells his father he wants no special treatment, and the disagreement revives the affection his parents once had.
Cast
- Peter Ortizas Capt. St. Jacques
Show all 20 cast
- Fred Kennedyas Trooper Heinze
- Tommy Dossas Regimental Singer (uncredited)
- Karl Farras Regimental Singer (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Rio Grande (1950)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ford wanted to film The Quiet Man, but Republic Pictures studio president Herbert Yates insisted he first make Rio Grande with Wayne and O'Hara, thinking The Quiet Man's script weak; when it finally came out in 1952 it vastly out-performed Rio Grande, grossing $3.8 million in its first year.
- O'Hara recalled that Ford insulted and belittled Wayne frequently on set; while those who knew Ford were used to his abusive behavior, Claude Jarman, another newcomer to the Ford set, felt the cast was scared and "you never knew what [Ford] was going to do."
- McGuinness based his story on a specific raid by the 4th Cavalry Regiment in May 1873, when Colonel Ranald Mackenzie, under orders from General Phil Sheridan, crossed the border to fight Kickapoo people and kidnapped some of their women and children to hold as hostages; this was illegal, and the Mexican government protested.
- Joseph Breen, acting under the Production Code Administration, said the script was "blatantly racist" and asked the producers to cut some of the more egregious lines, which they did.
- Skilled stuntman and rodeo star Ben Johnson played his third credited role in Rio Grande, and the stunt where he rides two horses "Roman style", standing on the backs of two separate horses, took him three weeks to master.
- The location shoot, which Harry Carey described as a "vacation" picture, was shot in just 32 days, with 665 takes of 646 setups.
