Seventy-eight years ago, on Aug. 26, 1948, Red River held its world premiere, launching a Western that would eventually earn a place alongside the genre’s most celebrated films. The anniversary is ...

John Wayne was already a Western star when a 1948 classic paired him with a newcomer he wasn’t convinced could play a cowboy.

Red River (1948) follows a punishing cattle drive up the Chisholm Trail, with Wayne as the tyrannical rancher Tom Dunson and Montgomery Clift as his adopted son, who eventually takes the herd away ...