Cinema: The New Pictures, Apr. 6, 1959

Rio Bravo (Armada; Warner) is a major ($3,000,000) attempt by Hollywood to outgun the six-gunslingers who have recently been pumping the TV audience full of lead (TIME, March 30). The trouble is, Producer-Director Howard Hawks has put too many shooting irons in the fire. The picture has not one but three heroes (John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson); they divide the sympathies and overpopulate the screen. For another thing, the film lasts almost as long (2 hr. 21 min.) as five TV westerns laid end to end—and it makes about as little consecutive sense.

Still, the trigger-happy actors flash their hardware with...