As early as 1946, John Wayne shot the first of his five films with director Howard Hawks.
Red River, a fictional story about the first cattle drive from Texas to Kansas, is about a growing feud between Duke’s Texas rancher Thomas and his adopted adult son Matt, played by Montgomery Clift in his film debut. And it turns out the two Hollywood stars didn’t get along in real life either.
Burt Lancaster was originally cast as Matt in Red River. Clift was eventually offered $60,000 for the film, but had to be persuaded to take part because he was worried about a decisive fight between the larger and taller Wayne.
There were also fears that there would be feuds on set between the two stars, as they both held different political views.
Rumor has it that they agreed not to discuss such matters so that filming would go smoothly.
Still, Duke and co-star Walter Brennan didn’t get along with the “arrogant little bastard” Clift and avoided him when they weren’t filming together. The young actor later turned down Dean Martin’s role in Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo over a decade later to avoid the two actors. He also didn’t really get along with the director, with whom he remembered late-night poker games he played with Wayne.
The 26-year-old later said of the two political conservatives: “They laughed and drank and told dirty jokes and patted each other on the back. They tried to draw me into their circle, but I couldn’t join in. The machismo repelled me because it seemed so artificial and unnecessary.”
When filming began, Wayne had serious concerns about whether Clift would be manly enough to play a tough cowboy who could stand up to him.
The young actor, who was one of Hollywood’s original method actors alongside Marlon Brando and James Dean, burned his thigh with a blank cartridge during a quick-draw exercise on the first day.
He was also nervous about facing off against Wayne, but was spurred on by Hawks, who encouraged him to watch his scenes with Duke as David versus Goliath. The director told Clift to downplay his scenes with Wayne before their first on-screen confrontation. In fact, Clift ended up impressing Wayne.
Although Wayne personally disliked his co-star, he found Clift to be very convincing in Red River in the end. However, the Matt actor was disappointed with the final result when he saw a rough cut of the film before its delayed release in 1948.
The rising star thought the ending was silly, “because Joanne Dru takes care of things and turns the showdown between me and John Wayne into a farce.”
Although he found his own performance in the film mediocre, he later said, “I saw myself in Red River and knew I was going to be famous, so I decided to get drunk anonymously one last time.”
