Review of Hondo (1953) by Allan C — 21 Jun 2015

Routine John Wayne western about The Duke as a cavalry scout who helps a single mother and son living on their own in the midsts of an Apashe uprising. Like a lot of cavalry westerns, the depiction of Native Americans is pretty offensive and one sided.

If you can get past that, there are a some positives to the film, mainly a nice relationship that slowly developed between Wayne and the single mother, Geraldine Page I her film debut (who was reportedly horrified by the conservative political views of co-stars Wayne, Ward Bond, James Arness and director John Farrow).

There's also some enjoyable scenes where Wayne teaches the boy to "be a man." John Ford reportedly did uncredited director work on the film's final battle scenes, which is good, although most of the film's action is quite good.

Originally filmed in 3-D, the film does feature quite a few silly moments of spears, horses, dirt , wagons and actors lunging at the camera, but it's not as bad watching it in 2-D as some 3-D films.

Overall, the Shane-like short between Wayne, Page and her son (based on a Louis L'Amour novel) is enough to overcome the offensive and routine cavalry portion of the picture. And look fast for Leonard Nimoy as an Apache on the left side of the screen just prior to Wayne killing the latest chief.