She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

My Review

John Wayne plays an aging U. S. Cavalry captain who is given one last assignment before his retirement in “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.” John Ford directed this picture, one of many with Wayne, and he probably knew that he just had to let The Duke be The Duke. The results are, of course, enormously entertaining.

One of the stars of the show is the location filming in the stunning scenery in Monument Valley of the Navajo Reservation along the Arizona-Utah border. The filming in Technicolor by Winton Hoch earned him Academy Award for Best Cinematography.

The cast includes John Wayne, Joanne Dru, John Agar, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., Mildred Natwick, Victor McLaglen, Chief John Big Tree, Fred Graham, and Noble Johnson. “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” was a major box office smash hit for producer John Ford and RKO Radio Pictures.