Hondo is a 1953 western film directed by John Farrow. The film stars John Wayne and Geraldine Page, and it is based on the short story “The Gift of Cochise” (1952) by Louis L’Amour.
Director: John Farrow
Production Company: Wayne-Fellows Productions (Batjac Productions)
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Cast: John Wayne, Geraldine Page, Ward Bond, Michael Pate, James Arness, Leo Gordon
US Box Office: $10,250,000 ($163,500,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: WarnerColor (shot in 3-D)
Genre: Western
Release Date: November 27, 1953
Plot Summary: US Army cavalry scout Hondo Lane (John Wayne) meets Angie Lowe (Geraldine Page), and her young son Johnny (Lee Aaker) on their ranch. Angie and her son have been alone ever since she was deserted by her treacherous husband Ed (Leo Gordon). The Apaches are preparing to go to war, so Hondo wants to evacuate the family. Angie refuses at first, so Hondo sticks around and eventually forms a close bond with her and Johnny. Tensions escalate when the Apache start to intimidate Angie and their chief Vittorio (Michael Pate) takes an interest in Johnny.
Production: In 1952, the magazine Collier’s published a western short story by Louis L’Amour titled “The Gift of Cochise” (1952). John Wayne had read the story and enjoyed it, so he decided that he wanted to adapt it into a film. Wayne purchased the rights to “The Gift of Cochise” later that year in 1952. Wayne and Robert Fellows produced the film themselves with their recently formed production company Wayne-Fellows Productions (later renamed Batjac Productions). The script for the film was written by James Edward Grant, a friend and frequent collaborator of Wayne, and the film was named Hondo. Grant expanded on the plot of the original short story, and L’Amour was given the rights to create a novelization for Hondo based on Grant’s script. L’Amour wrote his book as the film was in production and he published the novel Hondo in 1953, before the film’s release. John Farrow was chosen to direct Hondo.
Although Fellows first considered casting Glenn Ford in the role of Hondo, the film’s main character, Wayne ultimately decided that he wanted to play the part himself. Wayne thought that L’Amour’s story and character captured the spirit of the Old West that Wayne admired. He later said, “In the man Hondo, I found the very spirit of the old West.” Fellows and Wayne first considered casting Katharine Hepburn in the role of Mrs. Angie Lowe, the film’s leading lady, and they offered her the part before the script was written. However, once the script was completed, Fellows got cold feet about the idea. He realized that the part of Mrs. Lowe was smaller than what was originally envisioned (originally considered to be as prominent as Wayne’s role), so rather than risk her turning down the supporting role, he just retracted the offer. Instead, Fellows and Wayne decided to cast Geraldine Page in the role. Page was a Broadway stage actress who had only appeared in one film prior to Hondo.
Wayne and Fellows wanted to shoot Hondo in the new 3-D film format, which was very popular with audiences at the time. Warner Bros. supplied the production with their newly developed “All-Media Camera” which could shoot in multiple film formats, including 3-D, because it used two lenses that could create the stereoscopic effects necessary for 3-D. However, this presented a number of problems for the production crew. The All-Media Camera was bulky and filming had to be delayed as it was transported to the film’s desert shooting locations. Farrow and cinematographer Robert Burks were unfamiliar with the device and had trouble adjusting to it. Additionally, the camera frequently broke down due the wind blowing sand into its mechanism. In Hondo, Farrow and Wayne primarily used 3-D to increase the depth of expansive wide shots and to amplify characters in the background. 3-D was only occasionally used to show objects coming directly towards the camera (frequently done in other 3-D movies), as they didn’t want to treat the technology as a gimmick.
Production on Hondo went from June to August of 1953. Hondo was primarily shot on location in deserts near the city of Camargo in the Mexican state Chihuahua. All the scenes at the Lowe family ranch were shot at Camargo. Originally the scene where it rains at he Lowe ranch was going to be cut from the film once the crew realized Camargo had been in the middle of a serious drought for the past seven years, but they were fortunately able to shoot the scene during a twelve hour rain storm. The scenes at the cavalry base were shot near a church in the city of San Francisco de Conchos, Chihuahua. Some additional desert shooting was done at several desert towns in southern Arizona near the Mexican border (including Sasabe) and in Tooele County, Utah.
Near the end of production, John Farrow had to leave Hondo before its completion because he was contractually obligated to direct another film. John Ford agreed to direct the scene where the Apache attack the cavalry wagon train (the last scene that needed to be shot) as a favor for his friend John Wayne.
Fun Facts and Trivia: Despite its short length (only 84 minutes) Hondo features an intermission, right after Hondo is captured by the Apaches. Wayne’s later films Rio Lobo (1970) and The Train Robbers (1973) contain subtle references to Hondo. In Rio Lobo a wanted poster for “Hondo Lane” is visible on a wall in the sheriff’s office. In The Train Robbers, the last name of Wayne’s character is “Lane” and the last name of Ann-Margret’s character is “Lowe.” Michael Pate reprised his role as Apache chief Vittorio in the short-lived television series Hondo (1967), the only actor from the film to do so. Pate also played another Native American character with that name in the television series Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958-1961). Andrew V. McLaglen, who was a second unit director on Hondo, later directed Wayne in five films.
Reception: Hondo was released in theaters on November 27, 1953. Despite all the effort that Farrow, Wayne, and the rest of the cast and crew put into shooting Hondo in 3-D, the film was ultimately only given a limited release in that format. By the time Hondo released, public interested in 3-D had greatly waned. Many theaters had either abandoned the format, or never used it to begin with due to its considerable expense and diminishing returns.
Hondo was primarily released in a standard 2-D format, where it quickly became a box office hit. Hondo was one of the top fifteen highest grossing films of the year and managed to make a profit after only eight weeks in theaters, despite its considerable expenses. However, Wayne was still disappointed by the film’s box office results, as he thought that Hondo could have been bigger. Wayne attributed the film’s performance to the release of Shane (1953), another western film with a similar premise, earlier that year. Despite Hondo’s success, Geraldine Page didn’t appear in another film until 1961. She was blacklisted because she was friends with communist acting teacher Uta Hagen, and instead continued to work on stage. Hondo has received largely positive reviews from critics in retrospect. Jeffrey Anderson of the website Combustable Celluloid gave the film a positive review and argued that Hondo was Wayne’s best film to have not been directed by John Ford or Howard Hawks. John J. Puccio of Movie Metropolis praised Hondo for its thrills and its depth.
Oscars: Hondo was nominated for one Academy Awards at the 26th Academy Awards ceremony, Best Supporting Actress (Geraldine Page). Page lost the Oscar to Donna Reed in From Here to Eternity. Hondo was originally nominated for a second Academy Award, Best Story (Louis L’Amour), however the film was disqualified. The opening credits of Hondo only stated that the film’s story was created by L’Amour (but did not specify that it was based on a published story by L’Amour rather than being a story that he wrote specifically for the film). L’Amour informed the Academy that he didn’t create Hondo‘s story explicitly for the film, and the nomination was withdrawn.
Why You Should See It: Hondo is a good classic western film. Farrow and cinematographer Robert Burks did an excellent job photographing Hondo. The film’s locations look beautiful and are very expansive. The cast of Hondo is also very good. Geraldine Page gives a stand-out performance and she definitely deserved her Academy Award nomination. Page brought a lot of depth to the part of Mrs. Lowe and she offered the right combination of sweetness and grit for the role. Wayne also does a good job as the character Hondo, and Ward Bond is memorable in his supporting role as Buffalo Baker.