Film Stories From The Book:
Hollywood of the Rockies

By: Frederic B. Wildfang

The Searchers

1956 — Warner — produced by Merian C. Cooper — written by Frank S. Nugent (based on a novel by Alan le May), directed by John Ford, photography by Winton C. Hoch, music by Max Steiner — starring John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Natalie Wood, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, and Harry Carey, Jr.

The Searchers also stars John Wayne — this time as Ethan Edwards, an ex-confederate soldier come home to search for his niece who has been captured by Indians. The Searchers has been been ranked among such great westerns as Stagecoach, High Noon, and Shane. Harry Carey Jr. — who plays a supporting role in the movie as Brad Jorgensen, son of a pioneer woman played by his own mom, Olive Carey — believes this is “the finest film John Ford ever directed.” “The fact I am most proud of in my professional life,” says Dobe, “is that I had the good fortune to be in it”:

One of the best scenes I ever did for Uncle Jack was is this movie. Ford had motioned for Duke, Jeff, and met to sit on a mound of red sandstone. Then he said to me, ‘Kid, go back there about forty yards. When I yell, come running in here like hell, and sit down on Duke’s left, and pull your boots on. You’ll be pulling them on during the dialogue. You’ve taken them off so you could sneak up on the Indian camp and not be heard....

We shot the scene, and Uncle Jack said those magic words, ‘Right! Print It!’

There was silence. Duke put his hand on my shoulder but

didn’t say a thing. He didn’t have to. Those are the great moments for an actor.

‘When Duke died,’ continues Dobe, ‘it was that scene the networks showed most often when they reviewed his career. It makes me very proud.’