The Story: After Howard Hawks made his wide-screen historical epic Land of the Pharaohs (and it bombed, his first unsuccessful film), he took a break from directing for four years, traveling through Europe and considering the next step in his career. Hawks was an iconoclast; he worked in different genres always finding a way to make the form work, whether it was mystery, action, sports, comedies (screwball and otherwise), war films, westerns, even musicals (he'd even produced one of the first and widely-regarded science fiction films, The Thing from Another World). Returning to America, he discovered the country had fixated on television and movies were struggling to compete with a product that provided entertainment in the home (the wide-screen format Hawks had just used was one of the ways the industry fought to attract viewers out of their homes and away from "The Tube"). The most prominent programming at the time was a genre Hawks knew well—the Western. For his next project, Ford would make his first "Western" in 11 years (that being the classic Red River which he made in 1948). In the interim, another western made in 1952 had made a mark—High Noon, the story of a town sheriff forced to face a gang of vengeful gunmen he'd put away years before. The towns people will not help him and he can't recruit any deputies and is forced to meet the gun-men alone. This rankled Hawks (as it did star John Wayne, who'd first refused the role). "I didn't think a good sheriff was going to go running around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking for help..." Hawks believed in professionals and Gary Cooper's Will Kane was not an exemplar of that, trying to recruit help for what was his responsibility and throwing away his badge in the end as a sign of contempt for the towns-people who would not come to his aid. By contrast, Sheriff Chance has help, but not good help, and doesn't want anybody else—anybody else will just stand a chance of becoming a casualty, and that's something Chance doesn't want on his conscience. In this scene, that philosophy is spelled out. The Set-Up: Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) "has the bull by the horns," as his friend Pat Wheeler (Ward Bond) is fond of saying. He's got the son (Claude Akins) of the well-to-do-but-bad-in-deed Burdette clan holed up in his jail, and the Burdette's have surrounded the town to make sure no jurisdiction can come in deal with it and Chance can't get out. That's the big issue, but Chance has a saloon of them, what with a snaky gambler and his accomplice (Angie Dickinson) playing fast and loose with the local card-game, the only deputies being a crippled old crust-bucket (Walter Brennan) and a former deputy (Dean Martin), who's having an intolerable time quitting the bottle. Then, there's Wheeler, who's a good guy, but he wants to help Chance out of the jam he's in. And that doesn't set well with Chance. But that's the least of his worries. And he's going to do something about it. Now.
Action!
The bar is busy and games are going at the tables. At one table Wheeler is playing poker with some other men including Colorado and a fat man in a checkered vest, and with the girl Feathers.
Chance and Dude go to one end of the bar where they can watch the room, and Dude speaks to the bartender who goes away to draw a glass of beer. Chance and Dude look over the room. Carlos, who has seen them, takes the beer from the bartender and brings it himself, looking worried. He gives Dude the beer and speaks to Chance. There is no one close enough to overhear.
He crosses to the table where Wheeler is playing and speaks to him.
Poker-Player: The kings full.
PAT WHEELER: That's good. Beats me.
SHERIFF JOHN T. CHANCE: Spare a minute, Pat?
FEATHERS: Good evening, Sheriff.
WHEELER:(throws down his cards and gets up)Deal me out.
CHANCE: Evening.
(Wheeler follows Chance—they return to the bar where Dude is drinking his beer)
CHANCE:
You two know each other?
WHEELER: Yeah.
CHANCE: No thanks, Carlos.
WHEELER: Chance, I've been wanting to talk to you.
CHANCE: You've been talking too much, Pat. WHEELER: What do you mean "talking too much"?
CHANCE: Anybody that sides in with me right now's liable to find
themselves up to their ears in trouble. WHEELER: Is that why you haven't asked for
any deputies?
POKER-PLAYER: Give me a new deck of cards.
I'm not having any luck with this one.
Carlos takes the old deck, goes to the bar and gets a fresh deck from the bartender, putting the old deck on the bar near Chance. Chance fusses idly with the cards while he talks to Wheeler.
WHEELER: I was talking about why you haven't
asked for any new deputies.
You could get some.
How about my drivers?
You could use them.
CHANCE: Suppose I got them, what would I have?
CHANCE: Some well-meaning amateurs.
Most of them worried
about their wives and kids.
CHANCE:
Burdette has thirty or forty men,
all professionals.
Only things they're worried
about is earning their pay.
CHANCE:
No, Pat, all I'd be doing is giving them
more targets to shoot at.
A lot of people would get hurt.
CHANCE:
Joe Burdette isn't worth it.
He isn't worth one of those
that would get killed.
WHEELER: Then what are you going to do?
WHEELER: All you got for help is that old man
down at the jail and this--(indicating Dude)
DUDE: Borrachon is the name,
Mr. Wheeler.
DUDE: I'll go outside so you can talk more freely.
CHANCE: Wasn't good, Pat.
Let's sit down.
WHEELER: Yeah, I know.
I shouldn't have said it.
WHEELER:
I meant nothing by it.
WHEELER: But I'm so used to stumbling
over that fellow.
WHEELER:
I don't think I ever saw him
standing on his own two feet...without something to hold him up.
CHANCE: How long you been coming here? WHEELER: Going on two years. CHANCE: If you'd have come through three years
ago, you wouldn't have stumbled over him.
Dude was good.
He was my deputy.
CHANCE: Best man with a gun I ever worked with. WHEELER: That's pretty hard to believe, Chance. What...? CHANCE: A girl. Just a girl
that came through on the stage.
CHANCE:
She was no good,
but couldn't tell him that.
I tried and he damn near killed me.
Anyway, he was hooked.
Went away with her.
Six months later
he came back without her.
That's when the Mexicans
started calling him borrachon.
That's Spanish for-- WHEELER: -I know.
He told me.
CHANCE: So, for two years he's been drinking...all he could buy, or somebody would buy
for him until last night. WHEELER: And how long do you think that'll last?
CHANCE: I don't know.
WHEELER: So in the meantime,
you have to take care of him.
CHANCE: He's been doing a pretty good job
of taking care of me.
WHEELER: I'm supposed to be your friend, too. Why don't you let me help you? Why don't you deal me in... CHANCE: You're not good enough.
WHEELER: I don't know! I'm as good-- CHANCE: If you're so good,
why did you have to hire Colorado?
CHANCE:
No thanks, you keep out of it. WHEELER: That's an idea.
CHANCE:What? WHEELER: Ryan. "Colorado," you call him.
He's young, Chance, but he's good.
Real good.
CHANCE: I could use him if he's good.
But that's up to him. WHEELER: We'll see what he says.
He goes to the table, speaks to Colorado, and comes back with him.
COLORADO: Good evening, Sheriff. CHANCE: Any luck, kid? COLORADO: It's a pretty fast game.
WHEELER: Son, l...asked you over here
because the Sheriff's a friend of mine.
He's got trouble. He can use a good man.
COLORADO: To go against the Burdettes, Sheriff?
CHANCE: That's right. WHEELER: I told him you were one of the best.
COLORADO: Well...
COLORADO: I'll tell you what I'm a lot better at,
Mr. Wheeler.
That's minding my own business.
COLORADO:
No offense, Sheriff.
CHANCE: No offense.
WHEELER: I never expected that. CHANCE: He showed good sense.
I'd like to have him. WHEELER: I don't see why you--
CHANCE: Quit stewing, Pat. You tried.
I appreciate it.
WHEELER: If you don't want me,
I'll round up my men...and get set for an early start
in the morning.
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