Editing Red River (1948 film) (section)

=== Alternate versions ===
During the production and while the film was still being shot, Hawks was not satisfied with the editing and asked Christian Nyby to take over cutting duties. Nyby worked for about a year on the project. After production, the pre-release version was 133 minutes and included book-style transitions. This version was briefly available for television in the 1970s, but was believed to be lost. It was rediscovered after a long search as a [[Cinémathèque Française]] 35&nbsp;mm print, and released by [[the Criterion Collection]].<ref name=":2">''Red River'' commemorative booklet, 2014, p. 27. Included as part of the Criterion Edition release.</ref>

Before the film could be released, Howard Hughes sued Hawks, claiming that the climactic scene between Dunson and Matt was too similar to the film ''[[The Outlaw]]'' (1943), which both Hawks and Hughes had worked on.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=O'Brien|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey O'Brien|date=May 27, 2014|title=Red River: The Longest Drive|url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3176-red-river-the-longest-drive|access-date=2021-12-20|website=The Criterion Collection|language=en}}</ref> Hughes prepared a new 127-minute cut, which replaced the book inserts with spoken [[narration]] by Walter Brennan.<ref name=":0" /> Nyby salvaged the film by editing in some reaction shots, which resulted in the original theatrical version.<ref name=":0" /> This version was lost, and the 133-minute pre-release version was seen on television broadcasts and home video releases. The original theatrical cut was reassembled by [[Janus Films]] (in co-operation with UA parent company MGM) for their Criterion Collection Blu-ray/DVD release on May 27, 2014.<ref name=":2" />

Film historian [[Peter Bogdanovich]] interviewed Hawks in 1972, and he was led to believe that the narrated theatrical version was the director's preferred cut.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Schlesinger|first=Michael|title=Red River|url=https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/red%20_river.pdf|access-date=2021-12-20|website=Library of Congress}}</ref> This view was upheld by [[Geoffrey O'Brien]] in his 2014 essay for the Criterion release.<ref name=":1"/> Contrarily, some, including film historian [[Gerald Mast]], argue that Hawks preferred the 133-minute version.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mast|first=Gerald|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/8114578|title=Howard Hawks, Storyteller|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1982|isbn=0-19-503091-5|location=New York|language=en|oclc=8114578}}</ref> Mast points out that this is told from an objective [[Third-person narrative|third-person point of view]], while the shorter cut has Brennan's character narrating scenes he could not have witnessed.<ref name=":0"/> Filmmaker/historian Michael Schlesinger, in his essay on the film for the [[Library of Congress]]' [[National Film Registry]], argues that when Bogdanovich interviewed Hawks, the director "was 76 and in declining health", when he was prone to telling [[tall tale]]s. Schlesinger also points out that Hughes's shortened version was prepared for overseas distribution because it is easier to replace narration than printed text.<ref name=":0" />