Editing Red River (1948 film) (section)

=="Red River D" belt buckles==
To commemorate their work on the film, director Howard Hawks had special Western belt buckles made up for certain members of the cast and crew of ''Red River''. The solid silver belt buckles had a twisted silver wire rope edge, the Dunson brand in gold in the center, the words "Red River" in gold wire in the upper left and lower right corners, the initials of the recipients in the lower left corner, and the date "1946" in cut gold numerals in the upper right corner. Hawks gave full-sized (men's) buckles to John Wayne, his son David Hawks, Montgomery Clift, Walter Brennan, assistant director Arthur Rosson, cinematographer Russell Harlan, and John Ireland. Joanna Dru and Hawks' daughter Barbara were given smaller (ladies') versions of the buckle. According to David Hawks, other men's and women's buckles were distributed, but he can only confirm the family members and members of the cast and production team listed above received Red River D buckles.

Wayne and Hawks exchanged buckles as a token of their mutual respect. Wayne wore the Red River D belt buckle with the initials "HWH" in nine other movies: ''[[Rio Bravo (film)|Rio Bravo]]'' (1959), ''[[North to Alaska]]'' (1960), ''[[Hatari!]]'' (1962), ''[[McLintock!]]'' (1963), ''[[Circus World (film)|Circus World]]'' (1964), ''[[The Sons of Katie Elder]]'' (1965), ''[[El Dorado (1966 film)|El Dorado]]'' (1966), ''[[The War Wagon]]'' (1967) and ''[[Rio Lobo]]'' (1970). The actor did this even when he wasn't filming under the direction of Howard Hawks, with one known exception: Apparently John Wayne didn't wear the Red River belt buckle in films of [[John Ford]].

In 1981, John Wayne's son, Michael, sent the buckle to a silversmith, in order to have duplicates made for all of Wayne's children. While in the silversmith's care, it was stolen and has not been seen since. Red River D buckles, made by a number of sources, are among the most popular and sought after icons of John Wayne fans.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://redriverdbeltbuckle.com/|title=Red River D Belt Buckle – The History|website=redriverdbeltbuckle.com}}</ref>