A Classically done western!

This western quite vividly mocked Rio Bravo however, because of the great combination in casting, it came off as another great Wayne flick. And who would have believed that Robert Mitchum could have come off as such a great drunk? He was superb.
Interesting addition to the movie was young James Caan. His reciting the poem, "El Dorado" gave aa certain flair to his part.
Although John Ford seemed to claim most of John Wayne's favor, Howard Hawks always delivered a great western from Wayne.
El Dorado has a lot of great little touches, like killing off young Johnny Crawford, and how Wayne really felt bad about doing such a thing, we sympathize with the old cowboy.
Mitchum surprised us all in his performance which matched Dean's in Rio Bravo. Not that Mitchum isn't a great actor, but we never expected to see him as a drunk.
The love interest could have been left out of this one for Wayne and we wouldn't have missed it. He was getting older and this one wasn't as well matched.
The blacksmith in this movie did the paintings which were terrific. Loved the music too.