Directed by Henry Hathaway. Written by Margueritte Roberts, based on the novel by Charles Portis.

Mattie Ross

• I won't rest until Tom Chaney is barking in Hell.

• If I smelled as bad as you I wouldn't live near people.

• If in four months I could not find Tom Chaney, with a mark on his face like banished Cain, I would not advise others how to do so.

• I also notice that the men of Texas gouge their mounts with great brutal spurs and cultivate their hair like lettuce!

• I want Tom Chaney hanged for killing my father! It's little to me how many dogs and senators he's killed in Texas.

• Those horses can't outrun Little Blackie! They're loaded down with fat men and iron!

• I'm going! And it's not because you say I can't, and it's not because you say I can. I paid good cash money to be here, and I'm on my own business! Now, we'll have no more talk about it.

• My name is Mattie Ross, of Near Dardanelle in Yell County. My family owns property, and I don't know why I'm being treated like this!

• Rooster Cogburn is no good friend of mine! He led us straight into your hands, and now he has left me with a gang of cut-throats! Is that what they call "grit" in Fort Smith? We call it something else in Yell County.

• Papa's marker is not what was ordered. I will make that wool-hatted fool of a stone man change it.

"Rooster" Cogburn

• Mr. Rat, I have a writ here that says you are to stop eating Chen Lee's cornmeal forthwith. Now, It's a rat writ, writ for a rat, and this is lawful service of same! [to Mattie] See? He doesn't pay any attention to me. [shoots the rat] You can't serve papers on a rat, baby sister. You either kill him or let him be.

• Baby sister, I was born game, and I mean to go out that way.

• General Price don't belong to me. He just rooms with me. Cats don't belong to nobody. 'Course, I depend on him.

• A fella that carries a big-bore Sharps carbine might come in handy… if we get jumped by elephants, or buffalo, or something.

• By God! That girl reminds me o' me!

• LaBoeuf, if you get crosswise of me you'll think a ton of brick had fell on you! You'll wisht you was back at the Alamo with Travis!

• It's a shame, a kid like Moon losing his leg. He's too young to be hoppin' around on a raw peg. Loves to dance too much, and sport!

• DAMN a man that whistles!

• Young fella, if you're looking for trouble, I'll accommodate you. Otherwise, leave it alone.

• Ned doesn't go around killing people for no reason. Had he a reason, he'd kill them.

• I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned. Or see you hanged in Fort Smith at Judge Parker's convenience. Which'll it be?

• Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!

• Damn that Texican! When you need him, he's dead.

• We've got to get you to a doctor or you'll be deader than he is!

Ranger La Boeuf

• The French is 'La Bourf'. I say 'La Beef'.

• I only take one step at a time. That's why I was given two feet.

• You can't take men by watching them run away!

• I served under General Kirby Smith. And I don't have to hang my head when I say it.

• I ain't dead yet, you bushwhacker!

• She draws him like a gun! [referring to Mattie's constant invocation of her lawyer's name]

Ned Pepper

• I never busted a cap on a woman or anybody much under sixteen. But it's enough that you know that I'll do what I have to do.

• Most girls like little play-pretties. But you like guns, don't you?

• All the Parmalees is touched, but Harold's the worst… no, their Ma's the worst, then comes Harold's brother Farrell… but they're all good shots.

• If that girl don't stay healthy, you don't neither, understand? And you don't get paid!

• I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!

Others

• Tom Chaney: A gun will say a whole lot quick!

• Tom Chaney: Everything happens to me, and now I'm shot by a child!

• Colonel Stonehill: Most people around here know of Rooster Cogburn and some people live to regret it. I would not be surprised to learn that he is a relative of yours.

• Colonel Stonehill: I just received word that a young girl fell head first down a fifty foot well on the Towson Road. I thought perhaps it was you.

• Moon: He never played me false until he killed me.

• Mexican Bob: My wounds healed by themselves - from the inside!

Dialogue

[Marshal Cogburn is cross-examined by a defense attorney]

Attorney: How many men have you shot since you became a marshal, Mr. Cogburn?

Rooster: I never shot nobody I didn't have to.

Attorney: That was not the question. How many?

Rooster: Uh, shot, or killed?

Attorney: Oh, let us restrict it to killed, so that we may have a manageable figure!

Rooster: Well, twelve to fifteen, stopping men in flight and defending myself.

Attorney: Twelve to fifteen? So many that you cannot keep an accurate count! I have examined the record, Mr. Cogburn. A much more accurate figure is available. Come now — how many?

Rooster: Counting them two Whartons… twenty-three.

Attorney: Twenty-three men in four years. That makes about six men a year!

Rooster: It's a dangerous business.

[Moon & Emmett Quincy were arrested in previous scene; Moon was shot in the leg during their capture]

Moon: Oh, my leg hurts!

Rooster: I'll bet it do, sonny-boy. Now you just sit right still so it don't bleed so much.

...

Quincy: I don't know any Ned Pepper. What's he look like?

Rooster: Short, feisty fella. He's got a messed-up lower lip. I shot him in it.

Quincy: In the lip? What was you aiming at?

Rooster: His upper lip.

Rooster: What we want to do is get them inside that dugout. I'll shoot the last man through the door, and then we'll have 'em over a barrel!

La Boeuf: You'll shoot them without a call?

Rooster: Well, it'll give 'em to know our intentions is serious! [La Boeuf & Mattie give him disapproving glares] Aw, well, I'll holler down after I shoot and see if any of 'em want to be taken alive — but when they won't, we'll shoot 'em as they come out the door.

Mattie: [drinking water from river near camp] That tastes like iron!

La Boeuf: You're lucky to be where water's so handy. I've seen the time I've drank out of a filthy hoofprint and I was glad to get it.

Rooster: If ever I meet one of you Texas waddies who ain't drunk from a hoofprint, I think I'll… I'll shake their hand, or buy them a Daniel Webster cigar! [he looks over La Boeuf's horse] How long you boys down there been mounted on sheep?

La Boeuf: Go ahead and have your little joke. But I'll tell you one thing: that little fella there will still be running when that big American stud of yours is winded and collapsed.

Rooster: Ha — sheep! Heh, heh…

[Rooster brings four dead outlaws to Indian Police outpost.]

Rooster: Boots, I got Hayes and some youngster outside, along with Moon and Quincy. I want you to bury 'em.

Boots: They're dead?

Rooster: Well, I wouldn't want you to bury 'em if they wasn't!

Mattie: I'm here to take you back to Fort Smith and hang!

Chaney: And I think I will not go. Now how do you like that?

Mattie: Well, there's a posse of officers up the hill who'll force you to go!

Chaney: How many officers?

Mattie: I'd say right around fifty — and they mean business! So you just walk up that hill right in front of me.

Chaney: I believe I'll oblige those officers to come after me.

[Ned Pepper, Mexican Bob, and the Parmalee brothers meet Rooster Cogburn blocking the road.]

Rooster: Where's the girl, Ned?

Ned: She was in wonderful health when last I saw her. I can't answer for her now.

Rooster: You'll answer for her now! Where is she?

La Boeuf: [from far off, in outlaw camp] Rooster, make a run for it! I've got Mattie! Chaney too!

Ned: Well, Rooster, will you give us the road? I have business elsewhere.

Rooster: Farrell, you and your brother stand clear. I've got no interest in you today. Stand clear and you won't get hurt.

Harold: Cock-a-doodle-doo! [other outlaws laugh]

Ned: What's your intention, Rooster? You think one on four is a dog-fall?

Rooster: I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned, or see you hanged at Fort Smith at Judge Parker's convenience. Which'll it be?

Ned: I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!

Rooster: Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!

[In a scuffle with Chaney, Mattie falls into a rattlesnake pit.]

Mattie: Help me! Please help me! I'm in the pit! There's a snake down here, and skeletons!

Chaney: [leaning head over edge of pit] I warrant there'll be another one before long — a little, spindly one! How do you like it?

Mattie: [sobbing hysterically] Oh, help me, help me… please, HELP ME!

Chaney: You say you don't like it?

Taglines

• The strangest trio ever to track a killer.

• The strangest trio ever to track a killer. A fearless, one-eyed U.S. marshal who never knew a dry day in his life... a Texas ranger thirsty for bounty money... and a girl still wet behind the ears who didn't care what they were or who they were as long as they had true grit.

• A Brand New Brand Of American Frontier Story

Cast

John Wayne - Marshal Reuben J. ("Rooster") Cogburn

Kim Darby - Mattie Ross

Glen Campbell - La Boeuf

Jeff Corey - Tom Chaney

Strother Martin - Colonel Stonehill

Robert Duvall - "Lucky" Ned Pepper

Dennis Hopper - Moon

Ron Soble - "Boots" Finch

John Fiedler - Lawyer J. Noble Daggett