The Leather Boys

El Dorado. The heavyweight crown in boxing may be up for grabs, but in the movies it is still firmly planted on the balding head of John Wayne. In El Dorado, though his lope may be a bit arthritic, the Duke still greets the opposition on a fist-come, fist-served basis, and the wrongo who tries to outdraw him still winds up feeling kind of shot.

Wayne this time plays an indestructible loner hired by a greedy cattle baron to gun down the drunken but law-abiding sheriff of El Dorado, Texas. When the Duke discovers that the intended victim is actually his tough old sidekick (Robert Mitchum), he and his horse head for the hills, and for a series of picaresque encounters with some memorable bit players, including a snake-eyed reptile of a gunslinger (Edward Asner) and a garrulous old Injun fighter (Arthur Hunnicutt). The cattleman hires the gunman to knock off Mitchum, and Wayne comes roaring back to town to help the good guys. From then on, the film becomes one gun ploy after another as the stars combine to free the town of varmints.

As the liquor-laden lawman, Mitchum is a perfect foil for Wayne, although only the lopsided length of their roles keeps Arthur Hunnicutt, one of the best character actors in Hollywood, from stealing the film. In a script full of raucous frontier humor, the most amusing scene slyly comments on the state of the western today. At the fadeout, Wayne has been pinked in the knee, Mitchum in the thigh. With crutches as swagger sticks, they limp triumphantly past the camera--two old pros demonstrating that they are better on one good leg apiece than most of the younger stars on two.

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