Don't Make a Scene: Two Rode Together

The Story: One take.

Let me amend that. One take between two great actors.

Two Rode Together was the first film James Stewart had made with the legendary director John Ford. But, he'd been warned by pals John Wayne and Henry Fonda that Ford could be...let's say "irascible." "Irascible" is a good word for it. 

 

It was Widmark's first film with Ford, as well...although Widmark had worked with Wayne on The Alamo and Ford had shown up on-set—to make his presence known. Unbeknownst to both actors, Ford had taken each one aside and warned them that the other was well-known for trying to "steal" the picture. As a result, both of them were at the top of their respective games, stepping on each other's lines, making it move fast, making it sound like real conversation, taking advantage of every drop of humor they could. It's one of the most natural of scenes of conversation ever done.

The video of the scene below shows just how good these guys were here: Stewart, with his distinctive ability to...pause...and control the rhythm of the conversation and to "snap" the laugh-lines; Widmark with his quick-witted reactions and mis-directions. And it's all in one unbroken five minute "take" without flaw and all with business about cigars and freshening up, all the while the river burbles in the background. Ford set up the crew standing in the cold, powerful current of the water—the crew might have rebelled if there was another take.

Ford was not happy with this movie. It's theme of the duplicity of civilized people in regards to the Nation's native race had been done by Ford...and done better...in The Searchers. He did this one as an I.O.U. to the late Columbia chief Harry Cohn, but this one didn't take his recent ruminations on the cost of "taming the West"—as a counter-argument to his earlier Cavalry pictures—as far as he wanted to go. He'd do that with Cheyenne Autumn, still three years away.

 

The Set-Up: Sheriff of Tascosa, Texas, Marshall Guthrie McCabe (James Stewart) is persuaded by Cavalry Officer Jim Gary (Richard Widmark) to accompany him on a mission to ransom Comanche captives for the bereft families. The task is easier than first thought, given the shiftless nature of the Marshall.

 

Action (such as it is).

 

MARSHALL GUTHRIE McCABE: It's harder than my saddle. 

FIRST LT. JIM GARY: You're in great shape, sitting on that porch. 

GARY: You know, 

GARY: I still can't figure it out. 

McCABE:  Huh?

GARY: I can't figure it out. No fuss. No argument. 

GARY: What made you decide to come along? 

McCABE: Yeah, yeah...Ride all night on some wild goose chase. I'll tell you this, you didn't decide me to come along. I'll tell you that.

GARY: I didn't figure I did. 

GARY: Those things come one in a box? - 

McCABE: Don't you ever buy your own cigars? - 

GARY: Sure. I bought two last payday. That was three months ago.

McCABE: Here. 

GARY: Thanks a lot. 

GARY: Here, I got a match. 

McCABE: Gee, I'm surprised you can afford matches. 

GARY: I can handle that, all right. 

GARY: Why did you come? 

McCABE: Hm? 

McCABE: Well...If you must know, it was mostly to get away from Belle. 

GARY: Belle? Why? - I thought you two were kind of: - 

McCABE: I know, I know, I know. I know, I know...I know.

McCABE: Well, to be completely ungentlemanly about it...I... 

McCABE: Not that I ever pretended to be otherwise. - 

McCABE: We were, we were...

GARY: That's what I heard. 

McCABE: And... 

McCABE: ...just lately she started calling me "Guth." 

GARY: I noticed that. 

McCABE: "Guth." "Guth." The first time I heard it I thought she'd got something stuck in her teeth. Guth, Guth, Guth. 

McCABE: But she didn't have anything stuck in her teeth. 

McCABE: It was in her craw...and a

GARY: Yeah.

McCABE: and a few nights ago she got it out. 

GARY: Yeah, go ahead. What happened? 

McCABE: Well, that's not a subject you can discuss in mixed company...especially when one of the parties is... 

McCABE: Matrimony!

GARY: No!

McCABE: Matrimony. 

GARY: Holy smoke. 

GARY: Matrimony. 

McCABE: And, of course, in this case, when one of the parties is sort of... 

McCABE: You...you know, 

McCABE: she carries a stiletto... 

McCABE: ...right there in her garter. 

GARY: I know. 

McCABE: And...we were sitting around the place talking... 

McCABE: How do you know? 

GARY: Well, you just told me. 

GARY: Say, she actually proposed, huh? - 

McCABE: You didn't know about that before? - 

GARY: About what? 

McCABE: About the...the stiletto? 

GARY: How would I know about that before? Come on. 

McCABE: What do you mean? Did she propose? No. 

McCABE: She didn't, if you mean getting down on one knee. 

McCABE: She didn't do that. 

McCABE: You have to give her credit for... 

McCABE: more animal cunning than that. No, no. 

McCABE: As I... As I remember the approach...

McCABE: ...it was that she didn't see why I was satisfied with just 10 percent of her take when she was willing to go for fifty-fifty. 

GARY: You mean to tell me you're getting 10 percent... 

GARY: ...of Madam Aragon's place? - 

McCABE: Don't tell me you didn't know that, Jim. - 

GARY: I didn't know about that. 

McCABE: I get 10 percent of everything in Tascosa. 

GARY: Holy crimanetta. 

McCABE: What? This goes along with the job of marshal. - 

GARY: You're a dirt... - 

McCABE: It's no secret about it. - 

GARY: You're a dirty thief, McCabe. - 

McCABE: Everybody knows it. 

McCABE: Now, wait! Wait a minute. 

McCABE: You don't think I could live on the marshal's salary, do you?

McCABE: A measly $100 a month, Jim?

GARY: Well, that's 20 more than I get. 

McCABE: I know, but look... 

McCABE: Look at you.

McCABE: Look at you. Jim, 

GARY: What?

McCABE: Jim. You're...you're a man of simple wants.

GARY: Oh-

McCABE: I just require a little more, that's all. - 

GARY: Oh, come on, that's a lot of ho-. - 

POSEY: Horses are watered, sir! 

GRAY: All right, Posey.

 

Two Rode Together

 

Words by Frank S. Nugent

 

Pictures by Charles Lawton Jr. and John Ford

 

Two Rode Together is available on Blu-Ray from Twilight Time.