Ford’s jokey picnic episode is among the best. It plays counter to expectations because the picnic never happens.
The situation is built around a conflict of rivals at an Army cavalry outpost in the 1870s. Miss Olivia Dandridge is flirting with Lt. Pennell and Lt. Cohill, and she signifies this by wearing a yellow ribbon. However, her preferred beau is a secret.
Setting off with Pennell, Dandridge expects a pleasant picnic off the post. She’s packed a basket to have lunch off-post. But Cohill, Pennell’s rival, denies them permission to leave Fort Starke, partly because he’s jealous and partly because there is a threat of combat with the local Native Americans.
Capt. Nathan Brittles settles the picnic argument like King Solomon. At first, Brittles is doubtful that anyone would consider picnicking when there is a threat of violence. But then, aware of the rivalry, he shifts his demeanor and, pretending to be serious, agrees to the picnic–but only for Pennell. Much to her displeasure, Pennell is ordered to picnic, and as Brittles escorts her to quarter, she sticks out her tongue at him.
John Ford. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Joanne Dru and Harry Carey, Jr.
The dialog for this scene is among the funniest in film and picnic lore:
Lt. Cohill: I have denied Mr. Pennell permission to leave the post.
Capt. Brittles: For what purpose did you wish to leave the post, Mr. Pennell?
Lt. Pennell: Picnicking, sir.
Capt. Brittles: Picnicking? Picnicking, Miss Dandridge? Where, in St. Louis?
Lt. Pennell: The waterfall. I’m sorry…
Capt. Brittles: Never apologize. It’s a sign of weakness. Mr. Cohill, I see no reason why Mr. Pennell should not go picnicking.
Lt. Cohill: Very good, sir.
Lt. Pennell: Thank you, captain.
Lt. Cohill: But he was right in denying you permission to leave…
…under the present emergency. So, may I escort you [Miss Dandridge] to your quarters? You may proceed with your picnic, Mr. Pennell. – You may pass Lt. Pennell, sergeant. – Pass Lt. Pennell! Pass Lt. Pennell!
Lt. Cohill: Where are you holding your picnic?
Lt. Pennell: At Delmonico’s in New York in two months with Olivia on my arm! And I won’t be wearing any blue suit either, bub!
There is food in the wicker. Brittles nibbles something, but who cares?
Harry Carey, the actor who played Lt. Pennell, remembered the scene vividly, especially that it left him looking like an “ass.”
*Brittles appears in J.W. Bellah’s “The War Party,” in which he says, “Never apologize. It’s a sign of weakness.” Bellah’s story is about the war between the U.S. and the Native American tribes of the Southwest in 1868. It has no picnic episode.
See John Ford. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949). The screenplay by Frank S. Nugent and Laurence Stalling is based on James Warner Bellah’s short stories “The Big Hunt” and “War Party;” Harry Carey, Jr. Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1994.