Rooster Cogburn (1975)

02/15/06

Rooster Cogburn, John Waynes second to last film follows the continuing adventures of the character he introduced in his Academy Award winning performance in the 1969 movie True Grit. At the start of the film Ruben 'Rooster' Cogburn is releved of his job as a U.S. Marshell by Judge Parker (John McIntire) for having shoot 64 suspects in his eight years working along the Arkansas/Indian Territory boarder. But no sooner does the Judge dismisses Rooster then he must again ask for his help. A notorious villain named Hawk (Richard Jordan) and his gang have stolen a wagon load of nitro from an army convoy and are planning to use it to rob a train full of gold passing through the neighboring territory. On his way to head off the outlaws Rooster stops at a small Indian mission where he meets Eula Goodnight (Katharine Hepburn) a New England missionary whose preacher father was killed by the gang for opposing their side-business of selling guns and liquor to the Indians. Despite his initial protests Marshall Cogburn is joined on his journey by Ms. Goodnight and an Indian boy (Richard Romancito) named Wolf whose parents were killed by the gang. The movies story its self is really nothing special but the verbal sparing and flirting between Hepburn and Wayne (in there only joint screen appearance) just makes this motion picture.