Both films were directed by Howard Hawks, screenwritten by Leigh Brackett, starred John Wayne, had similar plots, featured an old man with an itchy trigger finger on a shot gun, and almost identical ending sequences, although the opening sequences are a bit different. Rio Lobo was the third Hawks film varying the idea of a sheriff defending his office against belligerent outlaw elements in the town, with each including a prisoner trade, after Rio Bravo (1959) and El Dorado (1966). Hawks and Brackett denied that the latter two films were remakes at the time.