Howards Hawks' Rio Lobo on Blu-ray from Eureka in November
12 September 2025
Eureka Entertainment has announced it will be releasing Rio Lobo (1970), a classic tale of courage, betrayal, and redemption from Howard Hawks, starring John Wayne. Presented on Blu-ray as part of The Masters of Cinema Series. Available in November, this edition is strictly limited to 2,000 copies and comes housed in an O-card slipcase with a collector's booklet.
Rio Lobo is the last film by Howard Hawks, a titan of American cinema and the director of a litany of undisputed classics, including Scarface, Only Angels Have Wings, The Big Sleep and Monkey Business. Like his previous films Red River, The Big Sky and Rio Bravo, it is an ode to the Old West – a staunchly traditionalist tale of the frontier led by the genre's biggest star, John Wayne.
Wayne stars as Colonel Cord McNally of the Union army, who loses a close friend during a raid on a Union payroll train carried out by a group of Confederates under the leadership of Captain Pierre Cordana (Jorge Rivero) and Sergeant Tuscarora Phillips (Christopher Mitchum). McNally suspects that he and his men were betrayed by traitors within the Union, setting in motion a quest for revenge that will continue even after the Civil War is over – and which will bring McNally into a bitter conflict with ruthless landowner Ketcham (Victor French) and "Blue Tom" Hendricks (Mike Henry), the corrupt sheriff of Rio Lobo, Texas.
By 1970, the Western genre was rapidly changing. In America, Revisionist Westerns – typified by the likes of The Wild Bunch, Little Big Man and Soldier Blue – were questioning the established mythology of the West, while Italy's morally grey Spaghetti Westerns were at the height of their international popularity. Meanwhile, Rio Lobo stood firm in tradition as Hawks' final Western – and now joins the Masters of Cinema series.
Rio Lobo will e released on Limited Edition Blu-ray by Eureka Entertainment as part of the Masters of Cinema series on 17 November 2025 at the RRP of £22.99.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:
Limited edition of 2,000 copies
Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork Colin Murdoch
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on Rio Lobo by Richard Combs
1080p HD presentation from a restoration by Paramount Pictures
Original English mono audio
Optional DTS HD-MA 5.1 audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Back to the Old West – new interview on Rio Lobo with Western scholar Austin Fisher, author of Radical Frontiers in the Spaghetti Western
New interview with film historian Sheldon Hall on the career of director Howard Hawks
