From Warner Bros
Directed by John Ford
Starring
John Wayne
Jeffrey Hunter
Vera Miles
Ward Bond
Natalie Wood
John Qualen
Olive Carey
Ken Curtis
Harry Carey Jr.
Henry Brandon
Hank Worden
Walter Coy
Dorothy Jordan
Patrick Wayne
Scholars of movie westerns tend to put The Searchers at the forefront of the genre. Many who consider the films offered by the mighty Ford-Wayne collaboration say it's their best film... and that means moving aside The Quiet Man and Stagecoach. Regardless of any ranking, it is indisputably one of the finest and most legendary westerns ever made.
In one of the early scenes, a rancher stands out in the red dusk, rifle in hand, wise enough to know that the sudden quiet is too spooky to ignore. I have never forgotten this scene for its stillness, the eerie beauty and that anticipation of doom. He hurries into the house where his family is boarding up windows. Eight-year old Debbie is sent outside to hide in the family graveyard. Shortly after, her family is slaughtered by warring Comanches. Their leader, Scar, spots Debbie and rides off with her.
Ethan Edwards (Wayne), the father's brother, has been visiting the family but he is away at the time of the murders. Before he went off we learn about Ethan as we observe him interacting with the family. Three things pop out about him. One is that he is mysterious. We don't know where he's come from or what he's been doing. We observe that he has a thing for his sister-in-law and she returns the feelings although all is unsaid and not acted upon. And we learn that Ethan hates Indians.
He may not be totally unfeeling but he is hard, bitter, dangerous and always ready to blow. He knows that Debbie has been taken but is not sure by which tribe. He knows he has to find her... she's the only family he has left.
He tells others that he is embarking on a journey to bring Debbie home and some say they will join him. One of them is young, dark and handsome Martin Pawley (Hunter) whom Ethan loathes because he is part Cherokee. As a youngster Martin was found by the family and raised as one of their own, which Ethan refuses to honor. Later when Martin refers to Debbie as his sister, Ethan hisses she's your nuthin'.
The search begins with a group of seven or eight who ultimately return to a neighbor's (Qualen, Carey) home for some R&R before starting out again. Martin and Laurie Jorgensen (Miles) are kind of engaged. Ultimately, Ethan and Martin will go out and return again alone over a five-year period, through various seasons, all without Debbie.
All is not dark and grim. Ford and his favorite writer, Frank Nugent, have fashioned Alan LeMay's novel into a screenplay that has a fair amount of comedy in it. Martin is right in there for most of the comedy scenes. He finds himself surprisingly (and briefly) married to a Comanche woman that gets some laughs. There is a fight with another suitor (Curtis) of Laurie's that is played for laughs. Bond, while gruff, goes for the funny bone as a Texas Ranger who is also a preacher. And Wayne's teenage son, Patrick, is a klutzy army lieutenant with his sword and his naiveté.
As the tale weaves through its final 20 minutes, we are clear that both Ethan and Martin, who have grown to tolerate one another, share a boundless determination to find Debbie. At the same time we are also clear, as Martin is, that Ethan intends to kill Debbie if he finds her. Both men realize that Scar has undoubtedly taken Debbie as one of his wives. Martin overlooks it while Ethan sees Debbie as being sullied and therefore irredeemable.
There are two standoffs between the two men. Martin comes out on top in the first when he shields Debbie from Ethan. The second time Martin is not able to stop Ethan on horseback chasing Debbie on foot. When he captures her, we're not sure what he will do. Let's go home, Debbie, he says with an obvious change of heart.
There is that iconic shot at the close. From inside the Jorgensen home, the camera looks through the open door at Ethan's backside as he scopes out the beautiful Monument Valley.
Ford, who loved making films on American history, in general, and western history, in particular, made the Monument Valley his signature set on his westerns. Has any outdoor location ever been more associated with a director? Even beyond the work, Ford felt a great peace when he was there. Its sandstone buttes and mesas add a backdrop that turns any ordinary western into a work of dramatic beauty. Any location this exciting becomes like another character in the film.
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| What a magnificent scene... at all levels |
Ford liked the versatility of Monument Valley with its desert, plains, mountains and rivers. In my opinion, The Searchers provides some of the director's most dramatic shots. Since the characters were on a trek, Ford kept coming up with more and more shots of the Valley to make his viewers ooh and aah. What a stunning look this film has.
While Ford was always happy to be back, he was among the first to admit the valley's remoteness never made filming very easy. Lodging was a challenge as was transporting equipment to and from various location sites. Since there was nothing to do, cast and crews of Ford films became pretty chummy.
The Searchers was the eighth pairing of Ford and his protegee Wayne and they would go on to make five more films together. They loved one another in a father-son way. They constantly bickered and Ford could be very cruel with his on-set dressing down of his star. The attitude and demeanor we associate with Wayne is how he felt about Ford. From the time they made Stagecoach until long after Wayne became a world-wide star, Ford never let up on him.
Ford's larger company of actors always wanted to work with him again. That didn't mean the old man didn't bully them again. Ward Bond was a special favorite to pick on. He treated his real-life friend Olive Carey very well but she was one of the few. Others who dodged slings and arrows were Harry Carey Jr.; his buddy Ken Curtis, who at the time was Ford's son-in-law; yumpin' yimminy John Qualen and always-spacey Hank Worden. Patrick Wayne would work for Ford several more times, with and without his father.
There was never any doubt that Wayne would be Ethan Edwards and he would be the only actor billed above the title. He had played this type of role before... a loner at odds with society and its ways. Here, however, it was an edgier look into that... Ethan was a darker character and a more flawed one than Wayne usually played. For starters, he is unapologetically racist, willing to kill his own niece because he now saw her as tainted. He was a bully, unreasonable and scary. Even though he didn't kill her, a character like this usually gets bumped off by the fade-out. That didn't happen. Wayne didn't like his heroic characters to check out, although Ethan was not a hero. I found this to be one of Wayne's three best screen performances. No one at the time could have played it better.
Ford needed to look outside his family for an actor to become Martin. It was a much-sought-after role in Hollywood... Lordy, the second male lead in a John Ford western and everyone was chirping about its potential. Jeff Hunter, holed up at 20th Century Fox in so-so films, wanted the role and made the ballsy move to pay Ford an unannounced visit at his WB office. That move impressed Ford who knew that Martin had to be ballsy with Ethan and the young actor had to stand up to Wayne. Ford asked Hunter to remove his shirt but didn't say anything about whether he got the part or not. Ford said he wasn't sure. I'll let you know when I decide. In the meantime, don't cut your hair.
It would be an important film for Jeff Hunter and he is letter-perfect in the role. Despite their hassling characters, in real life Wayne admired Hunter as a person and an actor. He must have impressed
the old man, too, because Ford used Hunter again in The Last Hurrah (1958) and Sergeant Rutledge (1960).
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| Jeff Hunter and Natalie Wood |
Natalie Wood knew she was likely making what would be an acclaimed western but her role was, in truth, small despite her character being what all the hubbub was about. She was excited about working with Wayne but her attention was still on her just-completed first grown-up role in Rebel Without A Cause and the supporting Oscar nomination she received. A condition to her accepting the role in the first place was that her younger sister Lana would play the young Debbie during the opening scenes.
The Searchers was Vera Miles' first shot as leading lady in an A picture. She was a spirited actress (the boss's favorite kind) who rightfully played sassy roles and Laurie is one of those... in a comical way. She had a great scene where she is reading to others a letter she received from Martin. Her reading helped frame the length of the long search as we would see the action in flashbacks. Ford used Miles again most effectively in 1962 opposite Wayne and James Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
The Searchers proved to be an odyssey of obsession, hatred, racism, sexism and self-discovery, told in an emotional way that was likely missed by 1956 audiences. To most of them, it was another John Wayne shoot-'em-up.
It took a lot of hits over the years as a racist movie which I would prefer to lighten by calling it a movie about racism. Nonetheless, Ford took a much softer approach toward Native Americans when he made his last film, Cheyenne Autumn (1964). Regardless of any criticism The Searchers has taken, time has shown it to take its rightful place among the great western masterpieces.
Next posting:
Western character actors
(See how many your recognize)
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