Ricky Nelson‘s performance in Rio Bravo isn’t half bad. He more or less holds his own. I just have problems with that smooth, casually unbothered, almost feminine sounding voice of his.
Nelson sounds like a Hollywood kid who’s game to play the part of a semi-fabled gunslinger and cowhand (a variation upon John Ireland’s Cherry Valance), but unable to do much more than behave cool and slinky as he goes through the motions. He’s playing himself in a hall-of-mirrors situation. An 18 year-old kid with pretty eyes, a guy who’s been playing himself on a TV series since he was eight or nine (and is therefore highly experienced after a fashion) getting to play himself in old-west garb. No change or switch-off…same basic deal.
So Nelson makes it through the film unscathed and certainly doesn’t get in the way, but there’s no forgetting that he’s essentially bringing his usual Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet game with a little buckaroo sauce, and that he’s no Clift or Dean or Brando.
You know what really gets me when I watch him play “Colorado”? Nelson’s tragic death at age 45.