El Dorado (1966)

Starts a little slow and a little familiar, but around the time that James Caan is introduced as Mississippi, this movie starts to cook, and winds up just about as entertaining as a movie can be. It's basically an unofficial remake of Rio Bravo. It has the same director (Hawkes) and the same writer (Leigh Brackett), and John Wayne plays the same character. Robert Mitchum takes the Dean Martin role and James Caan takes the Ricky Nelson one. Less singing and that's a drawback but the characters are beautifully developed and the dialogue is sharp as spurs, and I loved the scene where they take out the bad guys in the bell-tower.

Red River (1948)

I'd never seen it but noticed it as a freebie on my On Demand. It was terrific, great in every way that a film can be great. It's Mutiny on the Bounty on a cattle drive with John Wayne getting squirrely and his adopted son Montgomery Clift saving the day. The shots of the cattle drive are reason enough to see this film, but then there's tension and humor and romance, of course, with the lovely Joanne Dru (born Joanne LaCock). Does it hedge its bets at the very end by redeeming the near-psychotic Wayne? A little bit but it didn't really bother me. He's swayed by the woman he doesn't even get to marry. Great, great movie.