Main Cast: John Wayne, Geraldine Page, Ward Bond, Michael Pate, James Arness
Release Year: 1953
Country: US
Run Time: 84 minutes
Plot
Hondo is so "perfect" a John Ford western that many people assume it was directed by John Ford--or at the very least, Andrew McLaglen. Actually the director was suspense expert John Farrow, who worked with the "Duke" only twice in his career (the second film was an oddball war drama, The Sea Chase [55]). In Hondo, John Wayne plays a hard-bitten cavalry scout who is humanized by frontierswoman Geraldine Page and her young son (Lee Aaker, star of TV's Rin Tin Tin). Try as he might, Wayne can't convince Page to move off her land in anticipation of an Apache attack. He leaves her ranch, only to be ambushed by desperado Leo Gordon--who happens to be Page's long-absent husband. Having killed Gordon, Hondo returns to the ranch to protect Page from the Indians, and to rekindle the woman's hesitant love for him. The climactic attack sequence is enhanced by Hondo's 3-D photography, one of the few truly effective utilizations of this much-maligned process. Long unavailable thanks to the labyrinthine legal tangles of the John Wayne estate, Hondo was finally released to videotape in the early 1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Hondo is one of John Wayne's best films. Unfortunately, for many years it was not easily available, so that, while Wayne's John Ford epics became canonized, Hondo was largely forgotten. Wayne's performance is outstanding, matched in intensity by love interest Geraldine Page, in her screen debut. Page would receive an Oscar nomination for her work, and then make no major film appearances for another eight years. Her Oscar, for The Trip to Bountiful, would come 32 years after her first nomination. Hondo is rarely seen today in its original, partial 3-D format, but that change has little effect on its central qualities: a classic Louis L'Amour story, fine supporting performances, and Wayne. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide
Hondo is a 1953 western film starring John Wayne. It is somewhat a retelling of Hamlet, in that Hondo kills a young boy's father, marries the boy's mother, and becomes a father figure for the boy. The screenplay is based on the novel by the same name by Louis L'Amour.
The story tells the adventures of a cavalry scout and his relation with a frontier woman and her son at an isolated ranch. Geraldine Page played Mrs. Lowe and Ward Bond played Wayne's sidekick. The main story line tells of Hondo Lane, a cavalry rider, who is captured by the Apache Indians under Chief Vittorio. Hondo escapes and comes to Lowe's rescue in her time of need.
The script focuses on psychological descriptions and the drama of the Native Americans from New Mexico. The action scenes and the 3-D photography are also highpoints of the film.
John Farrow, who was an Australian, directed the movie.
Film footage from Hondo was later incorporated into the opening sequence of Wayne's last film, The Shootist, to illustrate the backstory of Wayne's character.
This film marked one of the first appearances of Geraldine Page, who had been a popular stage actress.
