In True Grit, Rooster had just the right amount of humour. In the sequel he’s become almost a figure of fun, a caricature of Wayne’s award-winning performance. His early scenes with John McIntire are the worst, with Cogburn's mannerisms accentuated to a ridiculous level. Once he meets up with Hepburn things settle down a little and the two do spark off each other quite well, although there are still a few missteps along the way.
For Eula Goodnight, Hepburn dusts off her spinster character from The African Queen (and brings much of that film's plot along with it). It’s the sort of role that came easy to the actress, strong-willed and feisty with a touch of arrogance. One can only imagine what the stars might have accomplished had they had a vehicle more worthy of their talents; just look at her work in On Golden Pond, with that other cinematic titan Henry Fonda, to see what she could accomplish when challenged.
The only actor, other than Wayne, to return from True Grit is Strother Martin, but here he’s playing a completely different character. He only gets one brief scene, but the inveterate scene stealer is always a welcome sight. It’s this moment, as the lawman commandeers a raft, that Duke comes closest to capturing his original performance.
It’s from the underrated Richard Jordan, as the villain of the piece, that the film gets its best performance, but he’s given far too little to do. His confrontation with good bad guy (or bad good guy?) Breed, an old acquaintance of Rooster’s whose loyalties are divided, is over in a flash. Not only does the film waste time building up the animosity between the two with no payoff, but it also wastes the talents of Anthony Zerbe as Breed.
The film is not without enjoyment for the die-hard Wayne or Hepburn fan (and I definitely qualify as the former) but the uninitiated would be far better served watching True Grit or The African Queen than this ill-conceived attempt to merge the two. And for all its faults it's still far better than the True Grit TV movie starring Warren Oates that followed a few years later.
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