Hondo Overview:

Hondo (1953) was a Action - Drama Film directed by John Farrow and produced by John Wayne and Robert Fellows.

Academy Awards 1953 --- Ceremony Number 26 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Supporting ActressGeraldine PageNominated
Best WritingLouis L'AmourNominated
.

Hondo: BlogHub Articles:

John Wayne in 3D in Hondo!

By Rick29 on May 1, 2023 From Classic Film & TV Cafe

John Wayne as Hondo. With John Wayne's 1953 3D Western Hondo, you actually get two movies in one. The first is an interesting love story between an tough dispatch rider for the U.S. Cavalry and a lonely woman--with a worthless husband--who operates a ranch deep in Apache territory. The second "movi... Read full article


"Hondo"

By Jeremy Carr on Jul 10, 2013 From Studies in Cinema

When John Wayne made Hondo in 1953, his masculine all-American tough guy persona was already well-established. Rumor has it that after a screening of Hondo Wayne himself said, “I’ll be damned if I’m not the stuff men are made of.” Presumably he was joking (he had a great se... Read full article


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Quotes from Hondo:

Hondo Lane: Before I go, I wanna explain somethin'.
Angie Lowe: Yes?
Hondo Lane: It didn't happen in the low way you heard it. I didn't bushwack him
Angie Lowe: I never for a moment thought you did, but you've killed him.
Hondo Lane: I didn't have any choice. He cut loose at me.
Angie Lowe: I should have known that. I should have known you were lying to make me think well of you. Poor Ed. I guess he wasn't the sort of man to die well. Sorry now I hated him so much. I guess he couldn't help being weak and selfish.
Hondo Lane: I just didn't have any choice.
Angie Lowe: I know that.
Hondo Lane: Are you going to feel differently about me?
Angie Lowe: No one has any control over the way they feel. I'm never going to change the way I feel about you. But, well what about him?
Hondo Lane: Yeah. I guess there's some things that just can't... He's gonna be a good man. Good spread to his shoulders. Head works, too. The other night after you went to sleep, he crawled up into my bunk and put his arms around my neck. Made me feel kind of funny, like he was dependent on me. A lot of things I'd rather do than this.
Angie Lowe: You're going to tell him?
Hondo Lane: If I don't, somebody else will. And I got a belly full of lies.
Angie Lowe: No! Your ranch in California: it's too far for gossip to travel. You and your silly ideals. You think truth is the most important thing.
Hondo Lane: It's the measure of a man.
Angie Lowe: Well, not for a woman. A man can afford to have noble sentiments and poses, but a woman only has the man she married. That's her truth. And if he's no good, that's still her truth. I married a man who was a liar, a thief and a coward. He was a drunkard and unfaithful. He only married me to get this ranch and then he deserted Johnny and me for good. And that's your fine truth for you. Could I bring Johnny up on that?
Hondo Lane: Well, I guess you couldn't.
Angie Lowe: And then you come along and you're good and fine and everything that Ed could never hope to be. And now in your vanity, you want to spoil Johnny's chances and mine.
[she starts to cry]
Hondo Lane: Varlabania.
Angie Lowe: What?
Hondo Lane: When the Indians finish up their squaw-seekin' ceremony, they only say one thing: "Varlabania." It means "forever." Forever.


Hondo Lane: Mrs. Lowe, you're a liar. And an almighty poor liar.
Angie Lowe: I don't understand.
Hondo Lane: These horses haven't been shod in a couple of months. It's a cinch that ax hasn't had an edge on it in two months. And your tea can - a five-pound tea can in your house - is empty. Your husband's been gone a long time.
Angie Lowe: Now look here, Mr. Lane, I don't think you have any right to talk...
Hondo Lane: I'm not talkin' about rights, I'm talkin' about lies. Why'd you lie to me, Mrs Lowe? Were you afraid that maybe you wouldn't be safe here with me with your husband away? That it?
Angie Lowe: That's partly it.
Hondo Lane: Women always figure every man comes along wants 'em.


Hondo Lane: Everybody gets dead. It was his turn.


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Facts about Hondo:

Katharine Hepburn was originally planned to have been cast as the female lead, with the idea being that her part and John Wayne's would be roughly equal. However, the female lead role grew less prominent as the script was developed, until it was clearly subservient to Wayne's. Therefore, producer Robert Fellows sent a letter to Hepburn's agent expressing his belief that such a role was beneath a star of Hepburn's stature, and explaining that rather than embarrass her by offering her a part she would be forced to turn down, he decided not to offer it to her at all. The role went to Broadway actress Geraldine Page, instead, while Hepburn and Wayne finally teamed more than twenty years later in Rooster Cogburn.
Geraldine Page, a left wing liberal actress from Broadway, was horrified by the right-wing views of John Wayne, Ward Bond, James Arness and John Farrow.
Originally filmed in 3-D.
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Best Supporting Actress Oscar 1953






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