Mtgman asks:
I am fifty eight, six years older that the Duke in Rio Bravo. I think that women in their twenties and thirties can be decorative, but I really don’t find women under forty to be really attractive. The other, more complete answer to this question: I have never found Angie Dickenson attractive at all, no matter what her age was at the time.
Just one man’s opinion.
I love them both, although I have to give the edge as an overall movie to “Rio Bravo,” simply because it’s the greatest western ever made. When you go down the list, though, it’s very close.
John Wayne: Great in both movies. More vulnerable in “El Dorado” because of his age and his injury, but still a rock either way. Nobody else you’d rather have on your side in a fight.
Second Banana: Dean Martin in “Rio Bravo,” Robert Mitchum in “El Dorado.” Again, both are equally great so I can’t say who’s better. Some have said Dean Martin isn’t believable as a cowboy: why? Because he’s Italian? What, there weren’t any Italians who made it out to the west? Come on.
The Sidekick Deputy: Walter Brennan in “Rio Bravo,” Arthur Hunnicut in “El Dorado.” While I love Hunnicut a lot, and appreciate his greater physical presence in the latter movie, Brennan is simply one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, character actors of all time. Edge has to go to him.
The Kid: Sadly, this one isn’t close. Rick Nelson is a (still) criminally under-appreciated musician who had more to do than anyone with making rock 'n roll acceptable as a pop culture phenomenon, but he was not an actor. He’s not so bad in “Rio Bravo” that he “interrupts the movie,” as some have said, but he’s not good. James Caan, on the other hand, probably couldn’t sing his way out of a paper bag but he’s a damn good actor. He gets it.
The Girl: Another tough one. Angie Dickinson in “Rio Bravo,” Charlene Holt in “El Dorado.” I love Angie Dickinson a lot, and don’t find it bothersome in the least that she’s so much younger, I still have to hand it to Charlene Holt, who is more clearly a WOMAN. And gorgeous, too.
The Bad Guy: Not really close here, either, unless you count the wonderful Claude Akins in “Rio Bravo” instead of the relatively generic John Russell as the villain. But really, Ed Asner is just too good either way. One could say that the real bad guy in “El Dorado” is Christopher George’s gunslinger, but I think he’s only really leaning the way he’s leaning because he’s being paid. If the money was good enough, he’d probably have joined up with Duke. He is excellent in this film, though. One of several actors in it who puzzlingly did not become major stars, even though they had serious charisma and real acting chops. Charlene Holt is another, Michelle Carey is yet another.
Other than that, it’s a wash. Same director, same screenwriter (both among the greatest in their fields), even the same location (Old Tucson Studios, Arizona). Two excellent, classic movies that make me scratch my head and wonder why the hell they don’t even TRY to make 'em this good anymore.
I like the scene in The War Wagon when Wayne and Kirk Douglass turn around and shoot the two guys coming out of the bar. Douglas says, “Mine hit the ground first.” and Wayne replies, “Mine was taller.”
Personally I have just merged the best of both in my head and remember a truly great movie with Wayne, Mitchum, Caan, Brennan,Asner and Dickenson.
Caan blasts a cactus with a shotgun, and Wayne looks at him suspiciously, “We you aimin’ at it?”
(Second resurrection for this one, huh?)
Probably my second and third favorite John Wayne movies (“The War Wagon” has to be #1). Dean Martin was far better than Mitchum, but in most other ways I give the nod to “El Dorado”.
The scene in ED where Wayne declines the job from Asner, that alone makes ED stand out. The bit with “Fancy vest”, and then the way he backs his horse out. Just classic. Second runner up is the scene where he takes the dead boy back to the family. Wayne’s “It don’t help much” was perfectly understated.
Mitchum played a drunk much better than Martin because Martin was a fake Hollywood drunk who basically pretended to be a lush. Mitchum was the real thing.
I’d say Mitchum was just a better actor. This wasn’t a bad performance for Martin, he was just better suited for lighter drama.
I love ‘em both. I agree completely with mahermis’ analysis.
Personally, I like El Dorado a little more, because the big fight scene made a little more sense. In Rio Bravo, the fight scene is just developing when it gets completely snafued by the dynamite.
(If dynamite was that effective, it would have been the go-to weapon in all western gunfights!)
The fight in the church, with Bull shooting at the bells, was more fun, and (slightly) more believable. (Bad special effects of the guy falling to his death in the pews.)
By the way, I’m really pissed at Turner Classic Movies for trimming out the business with James Caan pretending to be Chinese so he can sneak up on the bad guys. Racist? Hell yes. And so the hell what? Are we really going to get into the business of editing out bits of great movie classics? Phooey!
I too love 'em both; but If I can’t choose McLintock! then El Dorado would edge out Rio Bravo.
I enjoy John Wayne as the moral gunfighter over JW the sherrif
Side Kick James Caan the sawed off shotgun shooter is more fun than Ricky Nelson the gunfighter.
While I like Angie Dickenson; When I hear Charlene Holt laugh when she realizes that John Wayne and Robert Mitchum both know her. Man that’s one sexy laugh. It makes me feel all tingly down there.
Friend in trouble: Robert Mitchum over Dean Martin. DM is better with his interaction in the bar when the dollar is thrown into the spittoon; but RM is more fun to watch as he’s getting sober, and how when everybody bring him soap; then when Maudie has to leave through the back, RM is the one in the tub and he covers HIS eyes as Maudie walks past. 
Bonus hot girl: Michele Carey as Josephine “Joey” MacDonald. Who doesn’t love that scene when James Caan tells her “Why do you wear your hair like some wild mustang that needs a curry-comb and a brush?”
Bad guy gunslinger I definitely have to go with Christopher George over Ward Bond in this one.
For pure entertainment value I have to go with El Dorado.
Ward Bond wasn’t a bad guy in Rio Bravo. The bad guy was John Russell, playing rich evil dude Nathan Burdette, with Claude Atkins as his thug brother Joe.
Yeah, but they gave a bit part to Bob Steele, who was a huge star of westerns back in the 30s-40s. Those directors tried to include old-time western actors when they could, including people like Steele, Yakima Canut, etc. I always thought it was a nice gesture.
Steven, I read somewhere that John Wayne wanted to be the sheriff in Eldorado, Robert Mitchum said hell no you can not make a movie where one of the greatest movie stars is a drunk. So Robert was cast as Jp Harrah and John Wayne as Cole Thornton… Also I like Rio Lobo because John Wayne’s Character and Frenchey go to help Robert Mitchum’s Son’s character
I have watched Eldorado, and now I am watching Rio Bravo. I love both movies, Rickey Nelson’s Character cracks me up how he wont start trouble with out telling the sheriff first. I also like the beginning of the Shootist where they use clips from his old movies. Eldorado I love the part where Bull says " Give me another gun and I will play marching through Georgia"
wasn’t support your local sheriff/gunfighter with james garner a parody of sorts of both movies ?
“You hit that feller when he wasn’t looking!”
“Just as hard as I could.”
Jack Elam: “And me? I go on to be a big star in Italian Westerns.”