MovieChat Forums > Rio Bravo (1959) Discussion > The Duke was robbing the cradle

The Duke was robbing the cradle


He was 52 at the time, and Angie Dickenson was 18. I thought she was young. But not that young.

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You mean she was 28, right?

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28 and so, so fine. Could you blame him?

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Oh, to be the Duke in this film....

Plus, the OP forgets that it wasn't 52 year old John Wayne who was romancing Feathers, it was Sheriff John C. Chance. Chance's age is never mentioned, but I'd guess 40-45 tops. Wayne was playing a character younger than his own actual age. A man in his 40s and a 28 year old woman isn't a huge stretch.

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Wrong by ten years, she was 28, born September 30. 1931

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I'm pretty sure her character was 22 though, right? Didn't she say that at some point?

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That's what her age would have been when the handbil was printed. But that easily could have been three - four old back then. The internet wasn't around yet...

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She's a middle-aged widow. They have zero chemistry, but that's about the best she could get

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If I was 70, I'd wanna lay a smooch on Angie when she was 28.

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Yes, she was young, but not 18 - she was 28. Because her character was so young, the script was actually written with her pursuing him. If you noticed Feathers really was the one doing the pursuing of John T., not so much John T persuing Feathers until right at the end of the movie.

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My mom and I watched Rio Bravo tonight. I thought Feathers would more likely have been interested in Dude, instead of Chance. But that's just my opinion.

I'd like to leave you with one simple thought: the best is yet to
come.-Whit-Adventures In Odyssey

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Well there's another movie made the same year. North By Northwest.

Cary Grant: 55 (Probably playing a guy who was 40)
Eva Marie Saint: 35 but she was playing a character who was 26.

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Even better- anything with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart. He was 25 years her senior, and they made their first romantic movie when she was 19 and he 44.

..Joe

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Back then age difference wasn't a big thing. Many older men sent away for mail order brides, who were usually much younger. It was early internet dating I guess.

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If I remember correctly Angie Dickinson said that Duke was uncomfortable with the age difference between the two of them, but that she didn't give it much thought and never though it was an odd pairing.

---
I own 111 of 150 John Wayne movies on DVD!

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Bogie was 29 years older than Audrey Hepburn in "Sabrina", and no one thought that was strange.

Young women frequently find older men attractive, strange as it may seem.







Absurdity: A Statement or belief inconsistent with my opinion.

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As I said in other thread. It's a pity Clint Eastwood didn't start getting famous until 1959 in Rawhide. If he had made a bigger impression a year or two earlier, I think he would have been outstanding playing John T.

Could you imagine Rio Bravo as his first starring role?

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Clint Eastwood as John T?

Could you imagine Rio Bravo as his first starring role?

No fvcking way!

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Hawks addressed this subject in an interview. He said that audiences didn't want to see a man Wayne's age chasing after a young girl in her 20s. But flip the situation to where the girl is chasing after the guy and the audience will accept it--and he had a good point. Stanley Donen did the same thing in CHARADE with 32 year old Audrey Hepburn chasing after 59 year old Cary Grant the whole movie.


"Who's running this airline?!"

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More interested in Dude? At 22, she should have been more interested in Colorado.




I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

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More interested in Dude? At 22, she should have been more interested in Colorado.


Maybe she went for older men. I think a woman, even a young woman, who had been around a little (she was a widow who was married to a gambler), might be more interested in a man with more life experience and a greater maturity.

"Forget reality, give me a picture"-Remington Steele

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Colorado was still a boy. Ricky Nelson turned 18 on the set. Many young women go for older men, even much older. I had an affair with a woman of 23 going on 24 when I was 56. We are all still good friends.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.

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More interested in Dude? Yeah, because a smelly drunk with no money and no prospects is a great catch, right?

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When's the last time you saw a 28 year old woman in a cradle?

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