My Romance with Movies: From the 1950s: Hondo

1953 Western
From Warner Bros

Directed by John Farrow

Starring

John Wayne

Geraldine Page

Ward Bond

Lee Aaker

Michael Pate

Rodolfo Acosta

James Arness

Leo Gordon

Tom Irish

Paul Fix

Frank McGrath

As John Wayne westerns go, this one may not stand up quite as tall as Stagecoach, The Searchers, Red River, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Rio Bravo or The Shootist but if those films belong among Wayne's very best, Hondo belongs in there, too. It's still a good western, a very good one.

He wasn't going to be in it when all the talk surrounding taking on the project came about. His new producing company Batjac would oversee things but it was considered Glenn Ford would star. But Ford backed out when he discovered John Farrow would direct. Ford and Farrow just finished making Plunder of the Sun and Ford said it was too soon to work with the director again. It turned out they never worked together again.

Wayne decided to take on the role since he was the producer and could do such things and he hired Farrow. They had never worked together before. Farrow was a good director and a good action director. I expect he came at a reasonable fee because his best days were behind him. He was no touchy-feely director and he certainly had his share of dissenters. Despite that, Wayne thought he could get along with him, knowing all the while the onus was more on Farrow than Wayne.

Wayne then got his favorite writer, James Edward Grant, to fashion a screenplay out of Louis L'Amour's novel. They'd already partnered on five films at this point and would do six more together. What Wayne said in many of his films came from the pen of his good buddy who made it his business to pay good attention to John Wayne who paid him well.

Wayne knew he could play Hondo Lane and he knew Grant would give him the words. Wayne could be a tyrant on a film set but Grant was usually spared any blistering public displays. When they did disagree on a word, an inflection, an attitude when saying it, Grant won more times than Wayne, it has been said. Hmmm.

As the candy-cane credits (that is weird) fade, we see him... Hondo walking across the desert with the unfriendly dog Sam by his side. They quickly establish they're loners. Of course we know it's Wayne because of his walk. And it's not a quick one. Ok, while we're at it, let's realize his walk from behind is photographed for long stretches maybe three or four times. MM must have been jealous.

Hondo is an Army dispatch rider who happens upon a homestead with a woman, Angie Lowe (Page), and her likeable young son, Johnny (Aaker).

She gives her unexpected visitor a horse he's asked for and he works around the property in return. The kid forms an attachment to Hondo while Hondo seems to be falling for Angie and she for him.

Hondo inquires about her husband and she lies saying he's just off collecting some cattle and should be back in no time. He sees the state of things around the place. You're a liar," he says to her. After a couple of no, I'm nots, she confesses he's been gone far too long. Before long they're smooching down by the beautiful lake on the property.

Johnny starts to pet Sam when the dog growls at him and Hondo tells the kid to back off. Trying it a second time and getting growled at again, Hondo says reckon you're jus' gonna have to get bit to learn a lesson.

Hondo stops Angie as she is about to put down a plate of food for Sam. Don't do that, Hondo instructs, and she asks why, He says he has never fed him and never will. It's up to the dog to find its own food and he does so and it keeps him from getting too friendly with people. Hondo wants Sam to protect him in this sometimes-unforgiving country and that won't happen if he looks to anyone for food.

He has bad news for her. The local Apaches are on the warpath because of some unkept promises by the government and he wants her and the boy to come with him to the nearest army base. She refuses because she believes she and the Apaches are on good terms and they will not harm her.

I have so many favorite parts but two of them come up next, While in town Hondo runs afoul with Angie's ill-behaved, loudmouthed husband (Gordon) and the two men fight. Later both happen to show up at the same watering hole in the desert (along with some warring Indians) and Hondo kills the husband in self-defense and then is taken captive.

At the same time, Angie is doing some work around the barn when she suddenly turns around and there is a long line of Apaches on horseback. (It's one of those silly westerns gimmicks that I absolutely eat up.) Suddenly there's Johnny on the front porch with an oversized rifle in his hands. He fires and the big gun knocks him on his butt and the Indians laugh. The leader Vittorio (Pate) shushes them and then goes to the youngster. Vittorio is impressed with the bravery of the new little warrior.

A solid relationship develops between Vittorio and Johnny. When Vittorio asks Angie where her husband is, she tells him her lie and he, too, doesn't

believe her. He gives her husband three days to return; otherwise, she will have to marry one of his warriors, three of whom perform athletic skills to curry her favor.

The Indians have been holding Hondo and at one point a picture of Johnny comes tumbling out of his pocket. He took it when he killed the boy's father but Vittorio is certain that this is Angie's long-lost husband and as a result releases him..

There's a touching scene when Angie learns the truth about her husband and equally touching to see is the love affair between two essentially lonely people.

A funny scene involves Hondo throwing Johnny into the lake after the boy informs him he can't swim. Aaker loved filming it.

A cavalry troop arrives (with scout Bond in tow) and orders the family to leave because the skirmishes are getting out of hand. So off goes the Army, the family and some other families, the latter in covered wagons. The Apaches arrive for the finale and as Wayne westerns go, it's an exciting one.

Wayne's all-time favorite director, John Ford, came aboard to direct that big climax. Farrow was contractually obligated to be on the set of his next project and had to leave. Wayne, by the way, didn't particularly like Farrow either but the sparks didn't fly as much on this film as they would on their 1955 (and final) collaboration, The Sea Chase.

Wayne always found Hondo Lane to be one of his favorite roles, chiefly because the character embodied values that were most important to the actor... honesty, loyalty, bravery, self-reliance and independence. Not to pop his balloon, but there was writer Grant, his good buddy, writing the role to suit Wayne perfectly so why shouldn't he like the role?

The film provided him with numerous romantic scenes. They may be tame but they are unmistakably romantic and are partly why I find this western to be so well written. Westerns don't always plumb romance as tenderly as this movie.

Wayne loved Mexico and was usually very happy while he was there. The Mexican people loved him and he felt the same about them. He especially loved their women and their tequila. He thought the country had the most beautiful skies and he wanted them showcased in Hondo. Camargo, Chihuahua, by the way, stood in for New Mexico. The production was not without its problems and one of them was the frequent 126-degree heat.

It has been said that this was Page's first movie and she is, in fact, given an introducing credit although she had an uncredited part in another film, Taxi, earlier in the year. Nonetheless, this has always been considered an odd choice for the actress, both because of the genre and costarring with Wayne. But I dunno. I thought she was far more realistic looking as a western woman than, say, Maureen O'Hara who was Max Factor-gorgeous in her many westerns. I suspect women of the time looked far more like Page. She even comments to Hondo that she's not very pretty. Frankly, I suspect her looks are exactly why Wayne wanted her in the role.

If he'd known her better or much at all, he may not have chosen her. Did he know she was as dedicated a Democrat as he was a Republican and that she espoused as many liberal causes as he did conservative? Right after completing the film Page was blacklisted in Hollywood because of her associations with several leftists and would not make another film until Summer and Smoke in 1961.

Surely Wayne must have known of the leftist leanings of The Actors Studio to which she belonged. He didn't mention that for any publications but he did think that her approach to acting was odd. Apparently the crew was happy to ignore her because they thought she was a little too high-minded. She said she was horrified overhearing the things she did from her costars and directors. They sure knew how to make a newcomer feel welcome.

Pate said that shortly after meeting her, Page asked when they were going to rehearse. Rehearse? We don't rehearse, he said, we prepare.

It's been said that Wayne found Page's teeth to be too yellow and in serious neglect and due to her many closeups, particularly romantic ones, he discreetly had Batjac pay for them to be fixed.

The actress received her first Oscar nomination for playing Angie. She would have six more of them including one win before she was through.

Katharine Hepburn, by the way, was to have originally costarred with Wayne. But before they sent her a script those at Batjac decided the role wasn't big enough to attract her and Page was hired instead.

One of my favorite things about Hondo is the appearance of 9-year old Lee Aaker as Johnny. His role or billing isn't as prominent as the other boys featured this month but it's a key one. Without his little kid toughness impressing the Indian chief, it would have been a whole different story. They were touching scenes as were his ones with Wayne and Page.

Shortly after making the film and impressing the Hollywood bigwigs, Aaker auditioned for the role of Jeff Miller in TV's mega-popular Lassie. The part, however, went to Aaker's friend, Tommy Rettig, and a mere two weeks later Aaker was signed for the lead in TV's The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. Both boys and their famous dog costars were featured on TV Guide. Aaker just died in April of this year in Mesa, Arizona.

Wayne's good buddy, Bond, has the role of Hondo's good buddy. Due to his many, many films, if Bond wasn't a good representative of the old west, then who was? He certainly defines the term supporting actor. Bond and Wayne made 24 movies together.

Australian character actor Michael Pate is splendid as Vittorio and it is chiefly through him that the Indians are portrayed so decently. This was a pretty progressive approach for 1953. Rodolfo Acosta plays a renegade Apache, Silvio, who engages in the savage fight with Hondo. And Leo Gordon shines in his few scenes as Page's errant husband. Both he and Acosta were always fascinating as villains.

Sam is played by a Lassie... not the gorgeous one of the TV show but we know there were several who were trained to handle specific things. The dog, not remotely vicious except when the cameras were rolling, could not tolerate the excessive heat and was kept in an air-conditioned room when not needed.

Hats off, most certainly, to Archie Stout, the cinematographer of the finale, and Robert Burks, the cinematographer of the rest of the film. Those boys wheeled their Technicolor cameras around to capture the grandeur of the big scenic shots and action scenes. Aerial photography brought an excitement to the great chase scenes.

As those of you familiar with Hondo probably know, it was filmed in 3D. WB loved the gimmick and talked Batjac into using it, excited as they were by all those patrons ducking in their seats to avoid the arrows, lances and fists. But Wayne didn't want it to be overdone and it wasn't. By the time the movie was released, 3D had already pretty much died out. It was only in theaters in the 3D format for a couple of weeks and then shown in 2D. It's still fun to see those arrows, lances and fists coming right for the camera. It was lugging around the cumbersome 3D cameras in that heat that brought a sense of gloom to the production.

The movie was out of circulation for 37 years due to some wrangling with the Wayne estate. It included a few more of the actor's films as well. I remember buying it on the first day it became available. You have not forgotten I'm quite the cowboy, I trust.

It was not a big moneymaker when first released, likely due to the similarly-plotted and superior Shane, released earlier in the year. But it was re-released several times, always with another Wayne picture, and the cash registers jingled. It escaped most critics' vitriol for the simple reason it is a good film with an intelligent story worth telling. It's about family and caring for one another. It's not corny but rather warm. Wayne pushed himself a little to bring Hondo emotionally to life. And his writer pal wrote a part for him (rewrote it from the novel version), with only him in mind. All actors should be so lucky. Bios usually say that Wayne was especially proud of his portrayal of Hondo. I think he had every right to be.

The character itself is a strong one which is why it became the subject of a TV show but, alas, for a mere three months. I caught all 17 episodes because it was a character I liked and because it starred a rugged, handsome, pleasant-enough actor named Ralph Taeger whom I knew from two previous series.

Here's a preview of the movie...