I had heard that Howard Hawks wanted Gary Cooper to play the lead in red river, but Cooper didn't want to play a character that dark so he played in this instead. That would of been cool to see Cooper play John Wayne's part in Red River. This movie has a great cast like Cooper, Ward Bond, Boris Karloff and directed by Cecil B. DeMille. This movie has been compared to Northwest Passage but i think this one is better. Cooper is good as usual and so is the rest of the cast.