Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Robert J. Maxwell It carries the mark of Ford. Two young men are competing for the same girl. There is a rambunctious fight in which someone has to knock the wooden chip from his opponent's shoulder. Somebody gets drunk There's a pretty girl in jeans and plaid shirt who emerges as a butterfly at the officer's dance. Two men make a long journey to visit a Comanche camp and bring back white captives.The cast features names like Carey, Carey Jr., Roberson, Hayward, Whitehead, Curtis, Lee, Devine, Bouchey, Brandon, Qualen, Pennick, and Strode. It not only suggests John Ford but it suggests "The Searchers" in particular.It's not "The Searchers" though; it's "Two Rode Together" with James Stewart and Richard Widmark in the leads and Shirley Jones and Linda Crystal as their ladies fair.The first half hour or so is entirely successful as a comic Western. Stewart is a cheerfully corrupt marshal in Tascosa, Texas, and Widmark is a captain in the US Cavalry. The film really depends on Stewart's portrayal of an utter scoundrel and he delivers. He flatly turns down the Army's request to visit the Comanche camp for humane reasons but on his way to the door, the major asks if money would make any difference. Stewart turns thoughtfully around. "Waall, ye -- yes. Yeah, money would make a difference." One of the best scenes has Stewart and Widmark sitting on a log next to a wide and shallow stream. Ford had the camerman and crew set up in icy waters up to their knees to get this long and unvarying shot of the two having a casually hilarious conversation.There are amusing moments later in the film as well, as Stewart tries to suggest ways that Linda Crystal can stop looking like an Indian and get all gussied up for the dance that night. Lamentably, Stewart knows nothing about women's fashions. "Why don't you -- you -- try -- wait a minute." And he takes Crystal's two long thick pigtails and twists them this way and that around her face and head while she stares up at him pitifully.When Ford gets serious, the movie falls apart, a pale shadow of "The Searchers." Confronted by a bare-chested Woody Strode -- a Comanche! -- who has come to reclaim his wife, knife in hand, Stewart whips out a pistol and shoots him to death where he stands. Linda Crystal is at least a docile recaptured captive. The other one they bring back -- a seventeen-year-old boy -- is not only ugly but must be listed among the world's worst actors. Not that he has much to do but kick and scream, but then many of the actors is small parts overact.When it's funny, it's funny. And when it's sad, it's REALLY sad.

wes-connors Whiskey-soaked Texas lawman James Stewart (as Guthrie McCabe) and young Calvary lieutenant Richard Widmark (as Jim Gary) are hired to retrieve White people kidnapped by Native American "Indians". Finding these abducted people is difficult, but even harder is expecting them to revert to their birth culture. Comanche "Indians" assimilate their acquisitions, especially vulnerable young children. Little girls and boys typically grow up to be squaws, rapists and killers. One woman is advised her long-lost relative would probably rape her, or worse...Of the Ford regulars, screen veteran Mae Marsh (as Hanna Clegg) gets one of her better late-career roles...Among the Comanche, Mr. Stewart and Mr. Widmark manage to locate some missing White folk. However, returning them to civilized society is predictably difficult. The film's most interesting storyline involves pretty blonde Shirley Jones (as Marty Purcell) and potential brother David Kent (as "Running Wolf"). She also serves as a romantic interest for Widmark. Less satisfying is watching Stewart hook up with beautiful young Linda Cristal (as Elena de la Madriaga). You begin to wonder how seriously director John Ford took this topic...***** Two Rode Together (7/26/62) John Ford ~ James Stewart, Richard Widmark, Shirley Jones, Linda Cristal

Jeff (actionrating.com) Skip it – Steer clear of this so-called "western." After watching it, I was literally embarrassed for Jimmy Stewart. He probably accepted the role because this movie was directed by John Ford, but this is easily Ford's worst movie. Not to mention just an all around bad western. It has absolutely no action. It attempts to be humorous but fails at that as well. Perhaps this film about white children kidnapped by Comanches was considered profound back when it was originally made. But if that was the case, it has aged horribly. Ford is not known for having heavy action scenes, but usually he can at least weave a great tale. This one has neither. Don't waste your precious time with this one. 0.5 out of 5 action rating.

Spikeopath Two Rode Together is directed by John Ford and adapted to screenplay by Frank Nugent from the novel Comanche Captives written by Will Cook. It stars James Stewart, Richard Widmark, Shirley Jones, Linda Cristal and Andy Devine. Music is scored by George Duning and Eastman Color cinematography is by Charles Lawton Junior.The US Army is under pressure to negotiate the release of Comanche captives and send in a party to ransom for their release. Heading the party are cynical hard drinking Marshal Guthrie McCabe (Stewart) and his pal First Lt. Jim Gary (Widmark). The two men are at odds in how to go about dealing with the problem to hand, but bigger issues are just around the corner.....The Searchers lite it is for sure, Two Rode Together is a mixed bag that hasn't been helped by the quotes attributed by its director. It's well documented that John Ford only did the film out of kindness and a love of money, the great man going on record to say he hated the film, the source and etc. The shoot was far from being a happy one, with the director pitching his two stars against each other whilst grumpily putting his film crew through the mangler. The end result shows the film to be psychitzophrenic in tone and structure, where airy comedy tries to sit alongside some serious themes and fails miserably. When the moral implications of the picture are to be born out, Ford, in his half-hearted approach to the production, comes off as being either clueless, sarcastically mean or going through the motions since he had already made this film as The Searchers. Well clueless is not something you can comfortably say in relation to this particular director....However, film has strengths, not least with Stewart's over the top portrayal of McCabe. The actor is really giving it the full treatment, no doubt prompted by his director, this is a shallow man, motivated by ale and cash. This is non heroic stuff, he calls it as he sees it, he thinks nothing off telling the longing relatives of the missing that their loved ones are now alien to them. It's a clinical thread in the piece, deftly setting the film up for its telling last quarter as the moral questions are raised and the bitter irony leaves its sour taste. It's a mixed bag indeed, but hardly a disaster, though, and in spite of Ford's irreverence towards it, there's a worthy viewpoint in amongst all the causticism. It's just a shame that all the great individual aspects don't make a complete and rewarding whole, the blend of comedy and drama, this time, not making for a great John Ford picture. 6.5/10