Hondo is so "perfect" a John Ford western that many people assume it was directed by John Ford--or at the very least, Andrew McLaglen. Actually the director was suspense expert John Farrow, who worked with the "Duke" only twice in his career (the second film was an oddball war drama, The Sea Chase [55]). In Hondo, John Wayne plays a hard-bitten cavalry scout who is humanized by frontierswoman Geraldine Page and her young son (Lee Aaker, star of TV's Rin Tin Tin). Try as he might, Wayne can't convince Page to move off her ...
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Hondo is so "perfect" a John Ford western that many people assume it was directed by John Ford--or at the very least, Andrew McLaglen. Actually the director was suspense expert John Farrow, who worked with the "Duke" only twice in his career (the second film was an oddball war drama, The Sea Chase [55]). In Hondo, John Wayne plays a hard-bitten cavalry scout who is humanized by frontierswoman Geraldine Page and her young son (Lee Aaker, star of TV's Rin Tin Tin). Try as he might, Wayne can't convince Page to move off her land in anticipation of an Apache attack. He leaves her ranch, only to be ambushed by desperado Leo Gordon--who happens to be Page's long-absent husband. Having killed Gordon, Hondo returns to the ranch to protect Page from the Indians, and to rekindle the woman's hesitant love for him. The climactic attack sequence is enhanced by Hondo's 3-D photography, one of the few truly effective utilizations of this much-maligned process. Long unavailable thanks to the labyrinthine legal tangles of the John Wayne estate, Hondo was finally released to videotape in the early 1990s. Hal Erickson, Rovi
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Add this copy of Hondo to cart. $10.99, new condition, Sold by St. Vinnie's Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Eugene, OR, UNITED STATES, published 1994.
Arrived on time in excellent condition. Thoroughly enjoyed it!!
mehaul
Apr 27, 2010
The 1st Louis L'Amour Movie
TITLE: Hondo
GENRE: Western Indian/Cavalry Conflict in 3-D
CAST: John Wayne. Geraldine Page, Ward Bond, Michael Pate and James Arness
PLOT: A cavalry retiree, who has some Indian ancestry, meets and befriends an abandoned frontier woman and her son. They fall in love. The indians go on a justified rampage. Hondo packs the mother and son up and sets off to California through the throng of Indians.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT: 8 of 10; When they tried to use the novel technique of 3-D cinematography on this movie, they ended up bringing a lot more of the color of the American South West onto the screen. This movie has some different parts for Wayne to play. A first L'Amour character, he is captured and tortured by the Indians and he runs away to fight another day.
DVD BONUS: A "Making of..." feature; an introduction by L. Maltin and commentary dubbed by him, historian F Thompson and the actor who played the boy, Lee Aaker; interview outakes from Michael Pate, the British actor who, through this movie, began a career portraying Native American Indians; production stills and more
ADDED NOTES: Though Wayne and Bond seem to always be together in every Western, this is the first major roles for Page and Arness. After watching Pate play the Indian, it is stunning to hear his very proper British accent in the interviews. This film was shot in Mexico, so I should have referred to the North American South West Landscape and all its beauty was done in 3-D.
![Hondo [Blu-ray]](https://www2.alibris-static.com/hondo-blu-ray/cover/v34303egkud.jpg)
![Hondo [Special Collector's Edition]](https://www2.alibris-static.com/hondo-special-collectors-edition/cover/t67972tl56o.jpg)
![Hondo [Special Edition]](https://www3.alibris-static.com/hondo-special-edition/cover/u38870jxm98.jpg)
