Last night we viewed Brothers latest addition, The Classic 1949 John Wayne Western Red River directed by Howard Hawks.

While John Ford westerns are always a good viewing, my Brother view is that Howard Hawks westerns are better. This print has a few light black lines to the left for the early part of reel one but this soon clears to show an almost perfect print. I have no idea how old this print is but it is printed on Agfa Gevaert b/w stock.
It is very sharp with good sound. I did notice that in three places, but only for literally a split second there is a buzz on the soundtrack which coincides with what i assume were original reel changes, this happens once near the end of each reel but is of no concern at all. There was only one single splice throughout the whole film.
With the music by Dimitri Tiomkin, it was easy to hear a little bit of The Guns of Navarone within the some of the music, but i guess as this film was released in 1948 it should be, When we watch Guns of Navarone we can hear a bit of Red River .

with the help of wiki,
Red River is an American Western 1948 film, directed and produced by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne and Montgomery Clift, giving a fictional account of the first cattle drive from Texas to Kansas along the Chisholm Trail. The dramatic tension stems from a growing feud over the management of the drive, between the Texas rancher who initiated it (Wayne) and his adopted adult son (Clift).
The film's supporting cast features Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru, Coleen Gray, Harry Carey, John Ireland, Hank Worden, Noah Beery Jr., Harry Carey Jr. and Paul Fix. Borden Chase and Charles Schnee wrote the screenplay, based on Chase's original story (which was first serialized in The Saturday Evening Post in 1946 as "Blazing Guns on the Chisholm Trail").
Upon its release, Red River was both a commercial and a critical success and was nominated for two Academy Awards.[4] In 1990, Red River was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Red River was selected by the American Film Institute as the 5th greatest Western of all time in the AFI's 10 Top 10 list in 2008.

Tom,
Nice job on getting this film!
A great B&W movie and a definite bonus to have this on polyester stock...Sometimes I do wonder what this would have been like if it had been made in color. One of those questions that can never be answered though.

Looks a lovely print. Well done on getting a copy of this classic film.

Great film ,great print you have there Tom,do like JW .
A classic western one can watch over and over and being black and white I don’t think detracts in any way in fact it enhances the film as in The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance both films directed by great directors Hawks /Ford.
Very nice.

Originally a b/w film, i wonder why it wasn't one the technicolour movies, it would have looked good with all the open vista's, rivers and cattle.

That is what I was wondering too. I don't have any problems with B&W films--many are better in black and white than if they were in color--"M" with Peter Lorre (1931, pre-color era mainly anyway) comes to mind, same with Psycho from 1960 (could have been colour, but more creepy in B&W), and Schindler's List (which for the most part was in B&W anyway).

I recently watched 'MacKenna's Gold' and the scenery from one of the filming locations (Glen Canyon Arizona) was really something to see in color. These westerns with scenic vistas can really shine in color.

Looks absolutely gorgeous. Nice title