Red River (film)

"I signed nothing. If I had, I'd stay. You'll remember I joined your train after you left St. Louis."

"I'm startin' my own herd. I've watched the land south of here since we left the Salt Fork. It's good land, good grass for beef, so I'm goin' South where it is."

"Wherever they go, they'll be on my land. My land. We're here and we're gonna stay here. Give me ten years and I'll have that brand on the gates of the greatest ranch in Texas."

"The big house will be down by the river and the corrals and the barns behind it. It'll be a good place to live in. Ten years and I'll have the Red River D on more cattle than you've looked at anywhere. I'll have that brand on enough beef to feed the whole country. Good beef for hungry people. Beef to make 'em strong and make 'em grow. But it takes work and it takes sweat and it takes time. Lots of time. It takes years."

"[to Meeker] All right, we rounded up some of your stock and some of Diego's and some of everybody else's around here...I haven't got the time or the inclination to cut 'em out. So I'll drive 'em to Missouri and give you two dollars a head when I get back."

"Well, we start tomorrow. We're goin' to Missouri with ten thousand head. Most of you men have come back to Texas from the war. You came back to nothing. You find your homes gone, your cattle scattered, and your land stolen by carpetbaggers. Well there's no money and no work because there's no market for beef in the South. But there is in Missouri. So we're goin' to Missouri...Cumberland didn't make it. No one else has. That's the reason I'm here. I want you all to know what you're up against. You probably already know, but I want to make sure you do. We got a thousand miles to go. Ten miles a day'll be good. Fifteen will be luck. It'll be dry country, dry wells when we get to 'em. There'll be wind, rain. There's gonna be Indian Territory - how bad I don't know. When we get to Missouri, there'll be border gangs. It's gonna be a fight all the way. But we'll get there. Nobody has to come along. We'll still have a job for ya when we get back. Now remember this! Every man who signs on for this drive agrees to finish it. There'll be no quittin' along the way, not by me and not by you! There's no hard feelings if you don't want to go. But just let me know now."

"[to Bunk] You started all this...we're three or four hundred head short and you killed Dan Latimer...stealin' sugar like a kid. Well, they whip kids to teach 'em better."

"All right. Anybody else? Say it now, 'cause I don't want ever to hear it again. I don't like quitters, especially when they're not good enough to finish what they start. Now go on! Speak up! Say it and you can join your friends here..."

"[to Matt] Go on, draw. I said 'DRAW'! [Long pause] Then I'll make ya. You're soft! Won't anything make a man out of ya?! [He seizes Matt's gun from his holster and throws it away] You once told me never to take your gun away from ya! [He hits Matt in the face several times] You yellow-bellied, chicken-livered..."

"If I was you, Colonel, I'd ponder on lettin' him be. He's a mighty set man when his mind's made up. Even you can't change him. Now he'll be headin' South. Mind he don't stomp on you on the way out."

"Colonel, me and Dunson...well, it's me and Dunson."

"Why do Indians always want to be burnin' up good wagons?"

"Never liked seein' strangers. This is 'cause no stranger ever good news'd me."

"[about Matt and Cherry] They was having some fun - peculiar kind of fun, sizing each other up for the future. Them two's gonna tangle for certain and when they do, it ain't gonna be pretty because they got a thousand miles to do it in."

"[to Bunk] I could take the end of your nose off just as easy. A man in your age stealin' sugar!"

"[to Bunk] Your sweet tooth is almost as bad as having a whiskey tongue or liking a woman."

"It's all right. For fourteen years, I've been scared, but it's gonna be all right."

"It was all burnin', only Indians around, just all burnin' and smokin', smellin'. They were burnin' everything. I can see it. It's plain. I can see it. It was burnin' the wagons. People was screamin'."

"I've been wondering too. The way he looked when we left him. It all happened so fast. I hadn't...I hadn't started out...I couldn't let him hang Teeler and Laredo...I don't know. He was wrong. I hope I'm right. I hope there's a railroad in Abilene."

"Which would you rather have? What's behind, or what might be ahead?"

"How can a man sleep with Indians out ahead and him behind us?"

"[to Matt] But your heart's soft. Too soft. It may get you hurt some day."

"[to Matt] What are you so mad about? I asked you why you're angry. Is it because - because some of your men might get hurt, killed maybe?"

"[to Matt] I asked you before why you were so mad. Is it, is it because your cattle, the cattle Cherry told me about, might run off? Or maybe, maybe you don't like the idea of helping, helping a bunch of women."

"I'm scared too. That's why I'm talking because it's the best thing to do when you feel that way. Just talk and keep on talking...I talk to myself even if I have to sit in front of a mirror and talk...You can talk to me. I'm right here. It would help. Oh please, you can tell me to mind my own business if you'd like. And if it would help any, you can hit me, like I did you right across the mouth. But it would be good for you to talk, and I'd like to talk to you...Please, I'd really like to talk to ya."

"In the year 1851, Thomas Dunson accompanied by a friend, Nadine Groot, left St. Louis and joined a wagon train headed for California. Three weeks on the trail found them near the northern border of Texas. The land to the South looked good to..."

"And that was the meeting of a boy with a cow and a man with a bull and the beginning of a great herd. In search for land they traveled South through Texas, across arable and promising land, but weighed it and they found it wanting. So on they went on through the Panhandle ever southward seeking...past the Pecos...nearing the Rio Grande..."

"To Dunson it was just a job, a big job. Ever north they drove ten thousand cattle crawling through hot, dry country and by the end of the first two weeks they had covered over one hundred and sixty miles. Every mile had taken its toll --- quietly."

"The days became longer, sleep was at a premium, hard work became harder and Dunson became a tyrant. After three weeks, they reached San Sabo. Here at last was water and a place to rest tired muscles and sore aching bones."

"Thirty days on the trail and they reached the Brazos. The way now became harder. Hills and rocks impeded their progress. Each weary mile became endless. The men became morose and worried. The cattle restless and jumpy."

"Sixty days, tired cattle and tired men. Trouble was not far off. The men sat in small groups, sullen and morose. The food became worse and Dunson was constantly on the alert for the first sign of mutiny. He felt as a man alone..."

"Secretly the rest of the men hoped Teeler, Laredo and Kelsey would succeed but not Dunson. He ordered the herd to move on and move they did with Dunson driving them at every step. The Red River was not far ahead and he meant to reach it by nightfall."

"So Matthew Garth had the responsibility of a great herd - - and onward they went with the spectre of Dunson behind. He had promised revenge and Matt knew nothing in the world would stop him from fulfilling that promise. The time was coming..."

"And that night they moved. The river was rising, they must get across while there was still time. In the meantime, Dunson had found men and ammunition and taken up the chase. He was determined to overtake Matt..."

"One hundred days and in Matthew Garth's heart a growing fear that there was no railroad..."

"And history was written that day in Abilene, August 14, 1865, a day that marked completion of the first drive on the Chisholm Trail. Excitement and wild hilarity greeted the trail weary men and cattle as they poured into..."

"Title card: Among the annals of the great state of Texas may be found the story of the first drive on the famous Chisholm Trail. A story of one of the great cattle herds of the world, of a man and a boy - - Thomas Dunson and Matthew Garth, the story of the Red River D."

"Simms Reeves: Plantin' and readin', plantin' and readin'. Fill a man full of lead and stick him in the ground and then read words at him. Why, when you killed a man, why try to read the Lord in as a partner on the job?"

"Mr. Melville: There's three times in a man's life when he has a right to yell at the moon: when he marries, when his children come, and when he finishes a job he had to be crazy to start."

"John Wayne - Thomas Dunson"

"Montgomery Clift - Matthew 'Matt' Garth"

"Joanne Dru - Tess Millay"

"Walter Brennan - Nadine Groot"

"Coleen Gray - Fen"

"Harry Carey - Mr. Melville"

"John Ireland - Cherry Valance"

"Noah Beery Jr. - Buster McGee"

"Harry Carey Jr. - Dan Latimer"

"Chief Yowlachie - Quo"

"Paul Fix - Teeler Yacey"