The 1959 film "Rio Bravo" is a Western film set in Texas in the 1880's. Several coins of the period appear in the film including silver dollars and the unusual fifty dollar gold piece. John Wayne is the sheriff of Presidio County, located in southwest Texas along the Rio Bravo river which forms the border with Mexico. The Rio Bravo is also known as the Rio Grande, the title of an earlier John Wayne film. There is mining in the area as evidenced by assayers' offices and and supply stores. Sheriff John Chance arrests Joe Burdette, a nasty member of a local wealthy family, for murder. Chance has to hold Joe for a week until a US Marshall arrives. Joe's rancher brother Nathan assembles a group of gunmen to free Joe from the jail. Sheriff Chance has helping him Dude, a former deputy, Stumpy, an elderly man, and Colorado, a young man. In the town is Feathers, a young woman with whom Chance forms a relationship. All know that there will be a showdown between Nathan's men and the Sheriff's men.

Dude, a former deputy and currently the town drunk, wanders into a bar. Joe Burdette, the brother of a wealthy rancher, sarcastically offers Dude a dollar.

The coin is no doubt a prop coin. US silver dollar and Mexican pesos (eight reales) coins circulated in Texas then. Joe throws the dollar into a spittoon, and Dude starts to retrieve it.

Sheriff John Chance arrives.

Joe pulls a gun, shoots another man who dies, and expects to get away with it. Sheriff Chance arrests him and takes him to the town jail. Chance has to keep Joe for a week until a US Marshal arrives to hold Joe for a trial. Chance has two assistants, Dude, who stops drinking, and Stumpy, an elderly man. Stumpy remains at the jail as a guard and housekeeper. When Dude is around, Joe still taunts him.

Dude refuses the dollar. In town, Chance checks on a new arrival, Feathers, a young woman suspected in other places of cheating at cards. He first orders her to leave but then relents. Feathers is soon at work dealing cards.

The framed print on the wall is "Charge of Arab Cavalry" by German artist Adolf Schreyer. It was published by Harper's Magazine around 1882.

Feathers is joined by Colorado, a young man who arrived with a shipment of dynamite. Some prop bills and coins are on the table.

The bills are standard Mexican Revolution motion picture stage or prop bills. For more information on these bills please visit: Mexican Revolution Currency Notes.

Colorado notices something funny about the play.

Feathers, now cleared of cheating, forms a relationship with the sheriff. Dude, now a deputy, pursues a gunman into the saloon hangout of Burdette's hired men. Again, a gunmen offers Dude a dollar coin to buy a drink.

Dude refuses, the sheriff arrives, and Dude locates and kills the wanted gunman. A search of the gunman's pockets finds an unusual object.

It is a fifty-dollar gold piece, an unusual gold coin not made by United States mints. Some were privately made in San Francisco in the 1850's before the city's US mint was opened. This is a lot of money for a hired man to have and indicates how much Burdette is paying for help. Back at the jail the lawmen "roll their own."

Stumpy goes to look outside.

The wanted poster is for a "Nixon Carr, alias Humble Nick" who is wanted for armed robbery. The name appears to be fictional. Colorado arrives to join the lawmen and Dude is lured to a building and kidnapped by Burdette's men. Sheriff Chance waits outside the jail.

The notice reads: "NOTICE! The Carrying of FIREARMS upon the streets is PROHIBITED." Some of Burdette's men ride into town and there is a shootout resulting in several dead outlaws. The undertaker shows the sheriff what he has found in an outlaw's pocket.

The undertaker shows the sheriff two fifty-dollar gold coins taken from an outlaw's pocket. Sheriff Chance remarks that "The price has gone up." Nathan Burdette offers to exchange Dude for his brother Joe. The exchange is to take place at a warehouse.

The exchange starts but then a gunfight erupts between the lawmen and the gunmen. Chance and Stumpy use the dynamite brought into town earlier to blast the house.

After several explosions, the gunmen surrender, allowing Chance to head back to town. And to Feathers.

John Wayne as Sheriff John T. Chance
Dean Martin as Dude
Ricky Nelson as Colorado Ryan
Angie Dickinson as Feathers
Walter Brennan as Stumpy
Claude Akins as Joe Burdette
Director: Howard Hawks
Writers: Jules Furthman, Leigh Brackett, B. H. McCampbell