Red River features iconic Western genre actor John Wayne in one of his best career collaborations. The 1940s to 1960s are often considered the Golden Age of Westerns, and 1948’s Red River is one of the best Western movies made. John Wayne plays the tough rancher, Thomas Dunson, who must drive a herd of cattle from Texas to Kansas. Over time, Dunson’s obsession with success at the end of the journey turns him from a well-respected man to a tyrant. This is unusual for a John Wayne movie, as the actor usually played stoic, morally upstanding men.
John Wayne was a man of habit, and his tendency to play the same kinds of characters often led to him being typecast in his later movies. Wayne also preferred to work with the same people, leading to some legendary collaborations and great working relationships with other well-regarded Western movie actors. John Wayne’s most frequent co-star was Paul Fix, who was less well-known than Wayne but a prominent character actor whose various characters all had different relationships with Wayne. John Wayne and Paul Fix made 26 movies together, but one stands out as their best.
John Wayne’s Best Movie With Paul Fix Is Red River
Paul Fix Played A Minor Role In Red River
Red River is often considered the best movie collaboration between John Wayne and Paul Fix. Unlike many Western movies, which often have a central antihero or a relatively simple plot involving a struggle between good and bad characters, Red River features complex, flawed men. John Wayne showed his darker side in Red River, which led to another frequent collaborator, director John Ford expressing shock that he could act. Paul Fix was already known as a talented actor but he was especially praised for his role as a cattlehand who stood up to Dunson.
The biggest name in Red River was undoubtedly John Wayne, and the movie also starred Montgomery Clift in his first-ever film role. Clift played Matt Garth, the only survivor of a wagon accident, who became Dunson’s young protegee. The relationship between Dunson and Garth is one of the major storylines in the movie, and the story is more of a coming-of-age story for Matt than a celebration of John Wayne. Paul Fix’s role as the cattle hand Teeler Yacey was minor, but his demeanor and gritty portrayal added to the movie’s emotional depth.
Paul Fix Didn’t Need Much Screentime To Make An Impact In John Wayne Movies
11 John Wayne Movies Have A 100% Positive Rating On Rotten Tomatoes (& 3 Also Star Paul Fix)
Red River is one of the few movies in which John Wayne didn’t play a hero, and this made his performance even more remarkable. That said, most John Wayne movies also gave the supporting cast the chance to shine, and Paul Fix excelled at playing smaller character roles, appearing in over 100 movies and TV shows during his long career. While Teeler Yacey was not a central character in Red River, Fix was always compelling to watch during his collaborations with Wayne, and his largest role in a John Wayne movie was in the 1935 movie, The Desert Trail.
It was these regular collaborations with major stars that cemented Paul Fix in movie history.
John Wayne movies have an impressive record on Rotten Tomatoes, with 11 of his movies earning a 100% critical rating. Three of these movies are collaborations with Paul Fix, with the 1944 war movie The Fighting Seabees coming first. Their other two 100% rated collaborations are Westerns, with Red River being released in 1948 and The Sons of Katie Elder coming later in 1961, with Paul Fix playing Sheriff Billy Wilson. While Red River was a career-defining movie for John Wayne, it was these regular collaborations with major stars that cemented Paul Fix in movie history.