Rio Grande finds John Wayne as
Lt. Colonel Kirby Yorke in command of a regiment along that same river, dealing
with the Apaches and family problems. It seems that his son, played by Claude
Jarman Jr., has washed out of West Point, but has
decided to join the regiment as an ordinary trooper. His mother and Wayne’s
estranged wife, Kathleen, played with passion by Maureen O’Hara, comes to fetch
him back. It seems that Yorke and his wife were on opposite sides of the Civil
War and that Wayne’s character, as
a cavalry commander under Phil Sheridan, was obliged to set his wife’s
plantation to the torch. That sort of thing would put the strain on any
marriage. And Trooper Yorke is quite firm about his decision to join the
cavalry, which reinforces the theme in the movie about honor and
responsibility.
The film has the usual vignettes about cavalry life in the 19th Century that
one expects from a work by John Ford. But the main plot concerns the slow, but
inevitable reconciliation between Yorke and his wife. And it would not be a
cavalry western were there not a battle with the Indians, in this case a band
of Apaches who have captured some of the children from the post and are all set
to do them hideous harm. This aspect has been criticized as being politically
incorrect, but the Apache were historically very cruel to their captives. The
children are rescued and the Apaches defeated. There are solid supporting
performances by Ben Johnson, Victor McLaughlin, Harry Carrey Jr., and Chill
Wills.