> Howard Hawks, one of the greatest American directors of the classic studio system, was successful in a number of different film genres. He helped create the gangster genre with Scarface (1932), made such key War pictures as The Dawn Patrol (1930) and Sergeant York (1941), explored Film Noir with The Big Sleep (1946), and helped define the Screwball Comedy with films like Twentieth Century (1934) and Bringing Up Baby (1938).

> One of the hallmarks of a Hawks picture was a certain code of honor and heroism, and he was disturbed when that characteristic was lacking in a western sheriff played by Gary Cooper in a polar film from 1952. Hawks flatly told interviewer Joseph McBride (in Hawks on Hawks), "Rio Bravo was made because I didn't like a picture called High Noon... I didn't think a good sheriff was going to go running around town like a chicken with his head off asking for help, and finally his Quaker wife had to save him. That isn't my idea of a good western sheriff."

> The real pull of Rio Bravo (as with so many Hawks films) is the natural camaraderie amongst the characters, which draws the audience into the story. Often the humanity comes through in small details and bits of business rather than through dialogue. For example, Hawks told McBride, "...the relationship between Wayne and Dean Martin... worked out best with Martin trying to roll a cigarette and Wayne watching him and rolling it for him because Martin's fingers were shaking. Then because that worked good, why, we did it a couple of more times in the picture."

> Hawks, in fact, may have helped draw out the best performance of Dean Martin's career. As he told McBride, "Dean's a damn good actor, but he is also a fellow who floats through life. He has to be urged. He has to get some kind of a hint, something going, otherwise, hell, he won't even rehearse in some of his shows." As an example of his prompting, Hawks suggested that for a hangover scene Dean keep in mind a guy that Hawks knew "...who'd pound his leg trying to hurt himself to try and get some feeling in it." Dean replied, "OK. I know that kind of guy. I can do it."

> Toward the end of his career, Hawks teamed again with actor Wayne and writer Leigh Brackett for two other westerns which, with Rio Bravo, form an informal trilogy: El Dorado (1966) and Rio Lobo (1970).