The Searchers (1956)

Director:

John Ford

Writers:

Frank S. Nugent (screenplay)
Alan Le May (novel)

Release Date:

13 March 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Western

Tagline:

The story that sweeps from the great Southwest to the Canadian border in VistaVision.

Plot:

As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable.

Plot Keywords:

Hatred | Texas | Civil War Veteran | Raid | Rescue

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

John Wayne	...	Ethan Edwards
Jeffrey Hunter	...	Martin Pawley
Vera Miles	...	Laurie Jorgensen
Ward Bond	...	Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton
Natalie Wood	...	Debbie Edwards (older)
John Qualen	...	Lars Jorgensen
Olive Carey	...	Mrs. Jorgensen
Henry Brandon	...	Chief Cicatrice (Scar)
Ken Curtis	...	Charlie McCorry
Harry Carey Jr.	...	Brad Jorgensen
Antonio Moreno	...	Emilio Gabriel Fernandez y Figueroa
Hank Worden	...	Mose Harper
Beulah Archuletta	...	Wild Goose Flying in the Night Sky (Look)
Walter Coy	...	Aaron Edwards
Dorothy Jordan	...	Martha Edwards

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Cherokee | Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Canada:F (Ontario) | Canada:G (British Columbia/Nova Scotia/Quebec) | Canada:G (Manitoba) | Portugal:M/12 | Iceland:L | West Germany:12 (nf) | USA:Approved (certificate #17787) | South Korea:12 (2003) | Brazil:12 | Australia:G | Finland:K-12 | Norway:12 | Sweden:15 | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Aspen, Colorado, USA

Company:

C.V. Whitney Pictures

Trivia:

Natalie Wood was still a student in high school when this film was being made, and on several occasions both John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter had to pick her up at school on days when she was required on the set. This caused a good deal of excitement among Wood's female classmates.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Marty's knife hilt seems to be a Ka-Bar knife, designed in WWII.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[seeing a horseman in the distance]
Aaron Edwards: Ethan?
Debbie Edwards: Hush, Prince.
Lucy Edwards: That's your Uncle Ethan!
Martha Edwards: [he approaches] Welcome home, Ethan!

Movie Connections:

Featured in 100 Years of John Wayne (2007) (TV)

Soundtrack:

The Searchers

"We Be Texicans"

If John Wayne was ever cornered about what his favorite movie role was he'd be answering Ethan Edwards in The Searchers. Proof of that is obvious, he named his son by his third marriage John Ethan Wayne.

Ethan Edwards takes his time in returning home to Texas from the Civil War to the home of his brother and his family. But soon after he does the family is massacred in an Indian raid. The two young daughters are taken prisoner and Wayne with Jeffrey Hunter and Harry Carey, Jr. go off in search of them. Carey is killed early on, but Wayne and Hunter go on for years, both driven men for different reasons.

Ethan Edwards is probably the most racist man Wayne ever portrayed on the screen, yet we feel sympathy for him at the same time. It's been a hard and bitter life on the frontier for him. Just as it's been for the Indians as well. Chief Scar, played by Henry Brandon, is Wayne's opposite number and he makes clear what he thinks of whites. Two of his sons were killed and he's going to take many white scalps in reprisal.

My guess is that Ethan Edwards war service involved him seeing the war of desolation waged by William T. Sherman in the deep South. Small wonder he goes out and starts killing buffalo with a maniacal intensity that Wayne never showed before or since in film. Not an aspect that is normally brought out by reviewers.

Wayne's relationship with Jeffrey Hunter is a strange one. He found Hunter as a toddler during a raid on a wagon train. Hunter is a distant cousin of the Edwards family and one eighth Cherokee. But to Wayne he's an Indian. He gains a grudging respect for him on the trail though.

But Hunter's there to stop him. The oldest Edwards daughter is discovered dead early on. That by the way is an intense scene where Wayne's facial expressions register more than pages of dialog. Wayne had one of the great faces for close-ups and John Ford well knew it.

The younger daughter has grown up and is played grown up by Natalie Wood. Wayne feels he has to avenge some family code of honor because Wood's been taken as a bride by Henry Brandon. Hunter just wants his cousin back on any terms.

John Ford as he always does, gets some good comedy relief of the broad kind in the film. Jeffrey Hunter and Vera Miles who is Harry Carey's sister have a thing going, but when she doesn't hear from him she almost ups and marries Ken Curtis. Hunter and Curtis's confrontation is pretty funny.

Ford also probably made his best use of Monument Valley in this film. Though Stagecoach and Fort Apache are also among his best photographed films, The Searchers being in color is in a class by itself. Proof of that is the scene at the Edwards home at twilight just before the Indian raid. Beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

Ward Bond has a great role as Reverend/Captain Samuel Clayton, parson and Texas Ranger at the same time. A difficult job for some to reconcile, but I'm sure Bond believes that conversion of the Indians is not uppermost on his mind. Bond also has some great blustering comic moments with Patrick Wayne who plays an earnest young army lieutenant.

The Searchers is usually found on just about every top ten list of best westerns ever made and it surely belongs there.