Hired gunman Cole Thornton (John Wayne) turns down a job with Bart Jason (Edward Asner) as it would mean having to fight an old sheriff friend (Robert Mitchum). Some months later, he finds out the lawman is on the bottle and a top gunfighter …
Cole Thornton (John Wayne), the gunslinger for hire with the lightning-fast right hand, rides into the dusty town of El Dorado Texas to work for the ruthless local landowner, Bart Jason (Edward Asner).
Cole Thornton, a gunfighter for hire, joins forces with an old friend, Sheriff J.P. Harrah. Together with a fighter and a gambler, they help a rancher and his family fight a rival rancher that is trying to steal their water.
“El Dorado” is a tightly directed, humorous, altogether successful Western, turned out almost effortlessly, it would seem, by three old pros: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum and director Howard Hawks. You could call it, of course a “John Wayne Western.”