FILM 2188: THE SEARCHERS (1956)

TRIVIA: Natalie Wood was still a student in high school when this film was being made, and on several occasions both John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter had to pick her up at school on days when she was required on the set. This caused a good deal of excitement among Wood's female classmates.

Reportedly this film was seen in a theater in Texas by Buddy Holly and his friends in the summer of 1956. They were so impressed with Ethan's (John Wayne) repeated use of the phrase "That'll be the day" that they used it as the title for their now standard rock song, which they composed soon after.

Considering the part of Ethan Edwards to be the best character that he ever portrayed on-screen and The Searchers (1956) to be his favorite film role, John Wayne named his youngest son Ethan Wayne in homage.

A significant portion of the film's plot is revealed on a throwaway prop that most casual viewers rarely notice. Just before the Indian raid on the Edwards homestead, the tombstone (of Ethan's mother) that Debbie hides next to reveals the source of Ethan's glaring hatred for Comanches. The marker reads: "Here lies Mary Jane Edwards killed by Commanches May 12, 1852. A good wife and mother in her 41st year."

During filming, a Navajo child became seriously ill with pneumonia and needed urgent medical attention. John Wayne had his own airplane on location and had his pilot take the little girl to a hospital. For his deed, the Navajos named him "The Man With The Big Eagle".

Beulah Archuletta (Look) was found crying in one of the tipis by John Wayne in between shooting scenes. When Wayne asked her why she was crying, she responded that she was going to miss her son's wedding because she was filming her scenes at the time. John Wayne stopped production of the film for a few days, and flew her to California so that she could attend the wedding.

Lana Wood went through a "grueling" audition. She was ushered into a room where she was introduced to John Wayne and John Ford. Instead of rehearsing a scene from the script with the two performers, Ford issued one command to Wayne: "Lift her up, please." As Lana recounted in her autobiography, "Mr. Wayne stood up--he seemed to extend further toward the ceiling than anyone I had ever seen in my life--grinned, and rubbed his huge hands together. Then he reached down, picked me up, and never once stopped smiling at me. 'That's fine, no problem at all,' he finally said, putting me down. And that was it."

Lana Wood played young Debbie Edwards and Natalie Wood, who was Lana's older sister by eight years, played teenaged Debbie Edwards.

Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Jean-Luc Godard, John Milius and Paul Schrader regard this as one of the films that have most influenced them and have all paid some form of homage to it in their work.

Vince Gilligan was heavily influenced by the film's ending for when he was bringing his television series Breaking Bad (2008) to an end.

The role of a young cavalry officer, Lieutenant Greenhill, is played by Patrick Wayne, John Wayne's son.

David Lean watched this movie repeatedly while preparing for Lawrence of Arabia (1962) to help give him a sense of how to shoot a landscape.

Walt Disney never told Fess Parker, his Davy Crockett star, that he was in demand by the great John Ford. Parker was horrified when he discovered what an opportunity he had been denied.

In 1963 critic and director Jean-Luc Godard called this film the fourth-greatest American film of the sound era, and once also compared its ending with "Ulysses being reunited with Telemachus".

In the screenplay by Frank S. Nugent, the medal Ethan Edwards gives to Debbie is identified as "a gold medal or medallion" awarded by Emperor Maximilian of Mexico to mercenary soldiers who fought between 1865-67 for the Emperor Maximilian's French forces against Mexican revolutionaries. This medal implies Ethan served in the French Mexican Expedition during his three-year absence and also explains his fluency in Spanish. In reality, the medal being used is the Order of St. Sava, a decoration of the Kingdom of Serbia established in 1883 to recognize civilians for meritorious achievements. John Ford was an admirer of Serbian people and heritage since his war days and probably came in possession of the medal through his friendship with director/actor Peter Bogdanovich, who has Serbian roots.

The film was tied with Rebel Without a Cause (1955) as 1956's 11th top box-office attraction. Natalie Wood starred in both films.

The film is included on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list.

Ethan Edwards was ranked #23 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters.

In the early 1990s, producer Charles Roven announced a remake with Terry Gilliamdirecting Bruce Willis and Johnny Depp. The main difference was that it would have been set in space.

Robert Wagner auditioned for the role of Martin Pawley.

The movie was Peter Fonda's inspiration for Easy Rider. Fonda said the movie would be about the Duke and Jeffrey Hunter looking for Natalie Wood. Fonda would be the Duke and Dennis Hopper would be his Ward Bond;.America would be their Natalie Wood.

Voted, in 2012, the seventh Greatest Film of All Time by the British Film Institute

Included among the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the Top 100 Greatest American Movies.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

I’m making my way through the book "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider. See my blog post about my copy of the book here…

You can buy an updated version (which I will get after I’ve made my way through this edition) here…

I really hope you can come on this journey with me – if you do I’d love to know which films you’ve enjoyed the most!

Watch this here…

This is featured on the podcast Unspooled Episode #34