The Western is one of America’s unique cultural gifts and no one personified that genre better than John Wayne — not Gary Cooper, not Clint Eastwood. In a career that spanned four decades, Wayne, with the considerable help of directors like John Ford and Howard Hawks, cemented the Western’s hold on the American psyche. Many of his Western films are regarded as classics: Stagecoach, Ford’s Cavalry trilogy, Fort Apache, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande and of course, The Searchers, arguably the greatest Western ever made.

A case can be made that another film, Hondo (1953) constitutes a neglected Wayne masterpiece, on a par with his best cowboy films. Having just finished another underrated film, Island in the Sky, directed by William Wellman, which was well received and made a profit, Wayne decided to return to his forte, the Western. He had come across a short story in Colliers, “The Gift of Cochise,” by Western author, Louis L’Amour, who was just beginning to establish his reputation as one of the best tellers of Western tales. (READ MORE: Cancel John Wayne? That’ll Be the Day)

The story appealed to Wayne. It was another tale of a relationship between a loner who comes to the aid of a pioneer woman, played by Broadway actress Geraldine Page, in a complex struggle with the Apache. The heroine was as much a major character and as fully developed as the hero. The Apache, and their chief, Vittorio, were portrayed more positively than was typical of the cowboy films of that time. Wayne may have been attracted to the story because it gave him an opportunity to show the native American not as a villain but in more complex terms. He had made a stab at that in the last of Ford’s Cavalry trilogy, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon. Vittorio’s anger at the white settlers was justified. They had killed his sons and had betrayed the Apache again and again. Wayne has a line late in the film where he points out that the Apache have no word for lie, telling Page that the Apache life was a good one. Wayne later said that he was proud of the way the Apache were portrayed in Hondo. “My Indian in Hondo,” he later said, “was a great guy.” He preferred to believe that “the Indians know that I have a great deal of respect for them.”

Neither Ford nor Hawks was available at the time so John Farrow, a more traditional director, was signed up to direct the picture. It didn’t matter to Wayne as one of his favorite script writers, James Edward Grant, was hired to do the screenplay. He had written Angel and the Badman (1947), one of Wayne’s favorite films and Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) which earned Wayne his first Academy Award nomination. The film that emerged also owed a great debt to Grant’s revision of L’Amour’s story and the camera work of Robert Burks, who would go on to film two of Alfred Hitchcock’s better films of the 1950s: Vertigo and Rear Window.

The cast for Hondo was less spectacular than that for the Westerns he did with Ford. A few of the Ford-Wayne company were added: Ward Bond as a fellow scout and a young James Arness, a few years before his breakthrough with the television series, Gunsmoke. The key part of the Apache chief, Vittorio was played by the Australian actor, Michael Pate. Pate would specialize in Indian parts for the next decade, including a reprisal of Vittorio in the television series Hondo. 

His leading lady Geraldine Page was coming off a Drama Desk Award for her role in Tennessee Williams’ play Summer and Smoke. Her choice was considered odd. She had not appeared in any films, and she lacked the glamour and beauty of some of Wayne’s other female partners: Maureen O’Hara, Gail Russell, Lauren Bacall, Angie Dickinson. But it turned out to be inspired casting. They played off each other perfectly and her plain looks gave an authenticity to the role of a hard-working rancher’s wife. Wayne would ridicule method acting techniques to her face but when she would begin to protest, he would say “Ah Geraldine, you’re not mad at old Duke, are you?” She later said he was a dream to act with, “a charmer, a terribly honest man.” 

The story line was simple enough. Wayne as Hondo Lane, an Army scout, arrives at the ranch of the young woman played by Page and her young son played by television actor, Lee Acker. Acker sees a shadow in the distance and watches as Wayne gradually emerges carrying his saddle. His horse had died, and he was on his way back to the Army post. The opening scene is reminiscent of the opening of Lawrence of Arabia and was used the same year as Hondo in Alan Ladd’s first appearance in Shane.

Fearful of Hondo, Page tells him her husband is out looking for lost cattle. In a scene that first establishes their relationship, Hondo gradually draws out from her that she has been abandoned. What makes this key scene so impressive is that Wayne carries on this dialogue with method actress Page while actually shoeing a horse. 

The story line follows two tracts: the relationship between Page and the Apache and the growing attraction between Hondo and Page. Vittorio adopts Acker when he defends his mother, warning Page to get a husband or he would provide an Apache one for her. In the meantime, Hondo has a fight with a stranger who then tries to ambush him. Hondo kills him only to discover that it is Page’s missing husband. When Hondo returns to Page’s ranch, he can’t bring himself to tell her the truth. 

Hondo is captured by the Apache and tortured until Vittorio discovers a photo he is carrying of Page, believing him to be her husband. He returns Hondo to Page. In a climatic scene where he finally tells Page of killing her husband, her reaction is simple: “I love you.” Vittorio arrives at the ranch and tells them that his Apache will attack and demands Hondo tell the Army a lie about his attack. “This I will not do.” Hondo replies. “You have good man,” Vittorio then says to Page, “cherish him.” Hondo tells Page that the Apache have no word for lie and that Vittorio was testing him.

The clash between the Army and the Apache in a running battle ends the film. Vittorio is killed and Hondo and Page head for his farm in the west. The final scenes were directed as a favor to Wayne from John Ford as Farrow had another directorial commitment he had to honor.

Hondo was a success at the box office, earning $4,100,000 against a cost of three million dollars. Page was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting role and L’Amour for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story. Given how L’Amour’s story was revised the latter award is a joke. Wayne was sensitive on that point. He told the press that the film was really his. ”Jesus Christ, don’t you people give me credit for anything.” (READ MORE: John Wayne Rides Again)

Hondo remained one of Wayne’s favorites and some of the characters he developed in his later Westerns bear a close resemblance to the quiet loner, Hondo Lane.

John P. Rossi is Professor Emeritus of History at La Salle University in Philadelphia.