Captain St. Jacques

Good point. It's one of the reasons Ford's films have always worked with me . . . his use of a whole cloth with which to make a story. Brushstrokes like the occasional untold background story, making the characters far more three dimensional.

Look at "The Searchers" (to use another example). When Wayne's character of Ethan Edwards first shows up everyone's as jumpy as cats. Why? Was he a wanted criminal? Had there been a scandal? What? The audience never finds out but, as with the business between Yorke and St. Jacques, it makes Edwards more of a real character who happened to step into our perception.

Going back to "Rio Grande", I notice how, in the scene where Wayne shows up in his dress whites to Maureen O'Hara, he seems to bristle (again) at the sight of St. Jacques. Since his character claimed to be still in love with his wife there certainly can't have been an incident where St. Jacques and Yorke had competed for the attention of the same woman. Or was there something in St. Jacques character which made Yorke uncomfortable at seeing the other officer around a "decent" woman? Again a brushstroke which added to the overall story.

"I'm not reckless . . . I'm skillful!"

I've also wondered what St. Jacques whispered. I suspect that, whatever it was, it wasn't meant for polite society.


"I'm not reckless . . . I'm skillful!"

No one who fought for the Confederacy could be commissioned an officer in the US Army. Not until the Spanish-American war did a former Confederate receive a commission. That was Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler, former Confederate general. So St. Jacques could not have been a former Confederate. Perhaps he was a former officer in the French Foreign Legion who left when Emperor Maximilian was executed, and crossed the border into the USA.

"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's LIVING!"
Captain Augustus McCrae

Wow! I'm surprised Ford didn't make a movie about him. Thanks for sending this along.

"I'm not reckless . . . I'm skillful!"

[deleted]

First off I'd like to extend some appreciation to all the people who've been not only contributing to this topic, but making some rather good responses.

A nice summation of the situation, Stokes. And an interesting point raised in your final paragraph. Among all his other talents Ford (and James Warner Bellah) recognized that relations between officers and subordinates were not always smooth.


"I'm not reckless . . . I'm skillful!"

Hundreds of actors have played heroes in movies and television shows, yet never were in the military or any war. It's not a big deal, but far too much has been made of it in the case of John Wayne. He was too good of an actor to let any private feelings he may have had (but probably didn't) leak through so obviously into his performance. Not only that, but Ford wouldn't have allowed him to. Whatever awkwardness there is between Yorke and St. Jacques was intended by the writers, by Ford, and by Wayne and Ortiz.