El Dorado is a 1967 western movie starring John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. It was directed by Howard Hawks and released by Paramount Pictures. This film was written by Leigh Brackett. It was based on the novel The Stars in Their Courses by Harry Brown. Nelson Riddle wrote the musical score. The film was shot in Technicolor and ran 126 minutes. The original paintings in the credits are by Olaf Wieghorst.
It was the second film in a trilogy directed by Hawks varying the idea of a sheriff defending his office against belligerent outlaw elements in the town: the other two films were Rio Bravo (1959) and Rio Lobo (1970), both also starring John Wayne.
Trivia
The similarity between Rio Bravo and El Dorado gave rise to an amusing exchange in the 1995 movie Get Shorty. In this scene, L.A. drug dealer Bo Catlett (Delroy Lindo) breaks into the home of B movie and horror movie actress Karen Flores (Rene Russo) in order to steal a valuable movie script. He accidentally touches the TV remote and switches on a cable channel, which is showing Rio Bravo. This awakens Flores and her boyfriend, mafia enforcer Chili Palmer (John Travolta). The pair confront Catlett and, in an attempt to talk his way out of the situation, Catlett confuses details about the respective casts of Rio Bravo and El Dorado. Palmer, a film buff and would-be movie producer, is appalled at this lack of knowledge and proceeds to give the bemused Catlett a tongue-in-cheek lecture setting the facts straight.
Film footage from El Dorado was later incorporated into the opening montage of Wayne’s final film, The Shootist, to illustrate the backstory of Wayne’s character.
Poem
The poem repeated in the film is “Eldorado”, a ballad poem by Edgar Allan Poe.
Cast
- John Wayne as Cole Thornton
- Robert Mitchum as Sheriff J.P. Harrah
- James Caan as Mississippi
- Arthur Hunnicutt as Bull Harris
- Charlene Holt as Maudie
- Michele Carey as Josephine ‘Joey’ MacDonald
- Ed Asner as Bart Jason
- Christopher George as Nelson McLeod
- R. G. Armstrong as Kevin MacDonald
- Paul Fix as Dr. Miller
- Robert Donner as Milt (McLeod gang)
- Jim Davis as Jim Purvis (Bart Jason’s foreman)
