Joanne Dru being annoying in Red River

Joanne Dru was actually a good actress but her "over-acting" in this movie nearly killed the movie. I've often wondered if there were ever a way to completely edit her character out of this movie. It would make it a better picture.
Everytime I watch this move - and I love it - (one of my favorites) I get annoyed with Dru's mouthiness and simply wish she would shut up.

> The only reason to put her in there was
> because she was married to John Ireland

Not until several years after "Red River" she wasn't. At the time of "RR"'s shooting, she was married to singer Dick Haymes.

It appears that Ireland was step-brother to Joanne Dru's brother's showbiz partner. IMDB tells me Dru was sister of Peter Marshall.

Her part in RR is quirky, and so is her acting. But the one overpowering reason to have her in the film was likely that she was so drop-dead gorgeous that little else mattered.

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Yes, actually I read recently that Hawks was annoyed with her performance as well. In fact hawks (who stubbornly and incorrectly defended the goofy ending) believed that it was Dru's performance that made the scene "not work". Hawks first choice for the role was the lady who went on to play the lead in 1951's "the Thing".

clw---

Joanne Dru married Ireland AFTER this movie was finiished.

You are very wrong to imply that John Ireland controlled the making of this movie.

Howard Hawks did.

Hawks cut as much of Ireland's character Cherry Valance's scenes as he could in anger at the fact that Dru, whom he had an interest in, went for Ireland instead during the filming of the movie.

Ireland and Dru were married after the movie.

As for the need for Dru in the movie,

her character tied up a number of vital points in the story,

including

the passing on of the bracelet originally on Collen Gray's wrist at the very beginning of the movie

her questioning of Wayne about the woman in Wayne's past who now reappeared in the form of Dru in Wayne's adopted son's life

giving Wayne an opportunity to make comments which tied together the whole long story.

For the sake of holding together the whole long, sprawling story, her character was vital.

She passes, in my opinion, until that LAST SCENE, where she is "angry". That makes me cringe. Her acting in that scene was just...yikes. But only until that scene was I like, hey Joanne Dru, you...did not do a good job. Still, Red River is one of, if not, my favorite movies so I try not to think of how annoying she is.

I think Jaonne Dru provided a much needed counterpoint to the macho fest in "Red River." Her character was not shy and retiring. She was her own woman...she knew what and whom she wanted...and was sexy as hell. That scene when she received the arrow in her shoulder was priceless.

Check out Jean Arthur in "Only Angels Have Wings" or Angie Dickinson in "Rio Bravo". Ms. Dru fits in with the Hawksian women - tough shelled, soft centred and prone to run off at the mouth. It's not the actress, it's the director.





"It's as red as The Daily Worker and just as sore."