Rooster Cogburn (film)

Plot

Because of his drunkenness and questionable use of firearms, aging one-eyed (wearing a distinctive black eye patch) U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne) in the Indian Territory (future Oklahoma) has been stripped of his badge by Judge Parker (John McIntyre) at the territorial capital of Fort Smith for excessive violence, fatness and drunkeness, complaining he had "gone to seed"!. But he's given a chance to redeem himself after a shipment of highly explosive nitroglycerine is stolen from a transporting troop of United States Army cavalry. Rooster agrees and eventually tracks the outlaws, led by Hawk (Richard Jordan) and his gang, along with Rooster's former scout Breed (Anthony Zerbe - who had earlier betrayed the Cavalry troop escort to be ambushed at a creek crossing by Hawk's cutthroats), to a church mission at the remote settlement of Fort Ruby in the Indian Territory. The village had been overrun earlier by the gang who camped overnight plying the Indians with liquor and gambling, who then killed an elderly missionary preacher who protested, Rev. George Goodnight (Jon Lormer) and a number of the local Indians. The Reverend's spinster daughter, Miss Eula Goodnight (Katharine Hepburn), wants to join Marshal Cogburn to track the criminals down, becoming his unwilling partner along with her student Wolf, the son of one of the deceased Indians, who aspires to be one of the first Indian lawmen and United States Marshal.

Meanwhile, in a scuffle between two bandit men, one of them is wounded by a stab wound. The heavily loaded wagon's wheels also hit a rock, but the men manage to fix it, while gang leader Hawk goes ahead to scout out their next crime target. Getting ahead of Hawk's gang, Rooster, Wolf, and Eula stake out a crossing across a gully in the woods, barricading the path with logs. The bandits are stopped and Rooster threatens to blow up the wagon and its high explosive contents unless the men dismount, which they do. A man attempts to shoot Rooster in the back, but Miss Eula makes the perfect shot from across the ravine and kills him, revealing herself to be an excellent sharpshooter. Another man tries the same, but is killed instantly by a bullet to the chest. Rooster cries out "Posse!" and his two partners fire into the air, causing the men to actually think he has overwhelming superior numbers in his posse, which they flee. Rooster captures the wagon, the wood boxes of the unstable volatile "nitro" and the new revolutionary repeater Gatling gun, an early machine gun onboard.

The men carry on back to their leader, Hawk. He orders Breed to investigate the tracks back at the ravine which he finds out there was not much of a posse, much to Hawk's disdain. Hawk, Breed and the bandit which got stabbed, ride on to town where they had planned using the nitro to rob a bank of its gold shipment, while the other men attempt to fix the axle, which they eventually do. The stabbed man cannot make it, causing Hawk to shoot him, saying "Let the buzzards have him" to Breed. That night the outlaw men kidnap Wolf, saying they will let him go if Cogburn gives back the wagon, the boxes of explosives and the Gatling gun, but are actually planning to get the wagon back, and to kill the three heroes anyway. Wolf shoots the man who is holding him with a small 5-shot Pepperbox handgun/derringer, that Rooster previously gave to him to protect himself and Miss Eula if need be. He escapes and scampers back to Cogburn's camp safely. Rooster has Eula hitch up the wagon horses, while Wolf scatters the outlaws horses. The bandits retreat from the torrent of Gatling gun fire, allowing the heroes to escape safely. The next day, Rooster "borrows" a raft from an old ferryboat man (Strother Martin) by wagging his pistol in the complaining old-timer's face, stashing as many boxes of bottles with nitroglycerine as possible on board and head down the mountainous river facing narrow rocky rapids and waterfalls. The "bad men" attempt to ambush the three, but they fire the rapid-fire Gatling gun up at them on the rocky cliffs and they manage to escape around the corner bend in the stream. Breed and another bandit set up a trap across a broader slower part of the river downstream with an underwater rope to snare Marshal Cogburn and his party. As the bandit hidden behind the shore rocks is about the kill Rooster in cold blood as he bends over and tries to free the raft from the snag, Breed shoots him in the back from behind, then standing up showing himself to Rooster and reminding him that it was in return for Rooster saving his life years prior. That night, Breed returns to the outlaws camp informing Hawk that the other bandit died in a shootout with Rooster. Hawk, checking Breed's gun, seeing only one expended bullet. Hawk now knowing that Breed had to have killed the other outlaw himself, launches himself at Breed in a furious violent rage and kicking the betraying scout down into a rocky ravine, killing him. The three heroes encounter massive white-water rapids the following morning. They managed to get through safely, though at the cost of losing the Gatling gun falling overboard. They hear horses up ahead and realize Hawk is planning to encounter them downriver at the wide shallow slow floating waters, so they dump the dynamite boxes overboard to float ahead of the damaged raft. Miss Eula and Wolf pretend to surrender, saying Marshal Cockburn is injured. He jumps up from being hidden behind the remaining boxes and shoots the several explosives boxes floating ahead with his sharpshooter rifle, blowing up Hawk and the several remaining bandits mounted on their horses. A few days later, Judge Parker, at the insistence demands of Miss Eula, gives Rooster his job back, especially when she compares him to the warrior Gideon in the Biblical Scriptures and mistakenly reveals Cogburn's true first name of "Reuben" to the old judge's amazement! Miss Eula and Wolf, say goodbye to Rooster as they, along with a number of settlers return to rebuild Fort Ruby, but jerks her horse back returning saying teary eyed that he is a credit to the whole male species and that she was proud to be his friend! Old Cogburn rears back in his saddle saying she got the last word in anyways!!

Cast

Production

The screenplay was written by actress Martha Hyer, the wife of producer Hal B. Wallis, under the pen name "Martin Julien". Director Stuart Millar, a longtime Hollywood producer, had directed only one film, When Legends Die based on the classic novel by Hal Borland, prior to helming Rooster Cogburn.

Although True Grit was released by Paramount Pictures, Wallis made a deal with Universal Pictures to finance this film.

The film was shot in Oregon, in Deschutes County, west of the city of Bend (for the mountain scenes), on the Deschutes River for the whitewater rapids, and on the Rogue River in the counties of Josephine and Curry, west of Grants Pass (for the river scenes). Smith Rock State Park was a setting as well; the Rockhard/Smith Rock Climbing Guides building at the park entrance was originally built as a set for the movie, where it was portrayed as "Kate's Saloon".

John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn were born a mere ten days apart (Hepburn being the elder), and their careers paralleled each other, yet Rooster Cogburn marked the only time the Hollywood veterans appeared together in a film. It was the final film from producer Hal B. Wallis. Although it was promoted as Rooster Cogburn (...and the Lady), the opening credits of the film give the title as simply Rooster Cogburn.

Strother Martin, who portrays Shanghai McCoy in this film, also appeared in True Grit, playing a different character.

The cinematography was by Harry Stradling Jr.

Critical response

In his review in The New York Times, Vincent Canby called the film "a high-class example of the low Hollywood art of recycling". He praised the performances by the two leads—Wayne for his continuation of his Oscar-winning role as Cogburn, and Hepburn for a performance that recalls her "marvelous characterization opposite Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen". Canby felt that the film's lighthearted tone and convincing performances allows the viewer to accept the film on its own terms. He concluded that the film is "a cheerful, throwaway Western, featuring two stars of the grand tradition who respond to each other with verve that makes the years disappear".

Box office

The film grossed $17,594,566 at the box office, earning $4.5 million in North American rentals. It was the 25th highest-grossing film of 1975.