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In the rugged Southwest of 1874, U.S. Cavalry dispatch rider
Hondo Lane seeks refuge for himself and his dog Sam at Angie Lowe's ranch,
after losing his horse in a battle with Apache Indians. While offering
Hondo her hospitality and a horse, Angie tells him that she and her young
son Johnny are expecting her husband Ed to return home at any moment.
However, Hondo sees through her lie, and she later admits that Ed deserted
her in the aftermath of an Indian uprising.
After telling Angie that
Apache Chief Vittoro has called a war council, Hondo tries to persuade Angie
to leave the ranch before the next raid, but she refuses, insisting that the
Apaches are friendly.
Shortly after Hondo leaves Angie, Apaches surround her ranch
and menace her. When Johnny tries to protect his mother by firing a
gun at one of the Indians, Vittoro commends the boy's bravery and makes him
a blood brother. Before leaving, Vittoro promises Angie that no harm
will come to her now that Johnny is his blood brother.
Meanwhile at the frontier post, Hondo is challenged to a
fistfight by a poker player, who he later learns is Ed Lowe. Vittoro,
who believes that Angie's husband is dead, returns to the Lowe ranch and
demands that Angie choose one of his braves to be her new husband.
Angie protests Vittoro's order, but the chief is determined to see Angie
marry an Apache if her husband does not turn up.
While Hondo makes his way back to the Lowe ranch, he
discovers that Ed is following him. Hondo later saves Ed's life when
they come under attack by the brother of Indian sub-chief Silva.
However, Hondo kills Ed when he tries to shoot him in the back. Hondo
then resumes his journey, but not before taking a tintype of Johnny from the
dead man.
Back on the trail, Hondo is captured by the Indians, and is
tortured by Silva. When Vittoro discovers the tintype, he believes
that Hondo is Johnny's father and orders a halt to the torture. Before
freeing Hondo, though, Vittoro orders that he engage Silva in a knife fight
to give Silva the opportunity to avenge the killing of his brother.
Hondo is injured in the fight, but is delivered to Angie, who tells the
chief that he is her husband. Before leaving the Lowe ranch, Silva
exacts his revenge on Hondo by killing Sam.
When a Cavalry unit
arrives at the Lowe ranch, Hondo keeps his promise to Vittoro and refuses to
help the men save the remaining settlers. Vittoro is killed in a
battle with the Cavalry; afterward, Silva becomes the new Apache chief.
After killing Silva, Hondo takes Angie and Johnny to his ranch in California
to begin a new life.
Notes
The film is based on the short story "The Gift of Cochise" by Louis
L'Amour in Collier's (July 5, 1952). Louis L'Amour's short story was
also published in a 1954 collection entitled Bar 3; Round-up of Best
Western Stories. A novelization of the film, titled Hondo , was
published in 1953 and released simultaneously with the picture.
Information contained in the AMPAS Library file
on the film indicates that the picture was nominated for an Academy Award
for Best Motion Picture Story, but that the nomination was disqualified by
L'Amour, who asserted that his short story was not an original motion
picture story. This picture marked the first starring role of Broadway
actress Geraldine Page (1924 - 1987). Although reviews claim that Page
made her motion picture debut in Hondo, she had appeared in small
parts in two previous films. Warner Bros. publicity materials note
that John Ford directed second unit battle scenes. According to the
HR review, some filming took place in Camargo, Mexico.
Although their appearance in the film has not
been confirmed, HR news items add to the cast Martin Diaz, Jay Scott,
and Margaret Fellows, who was the daughter of producer Robert Fellows.
Modern sources add Chuck Roberson to the cast. Page was nominated for
an Academy Award in the category of Best Supporting Actress.
Hondo was televised in 1989 on a syndicated
network as part of a benefit honoring the National Easter Seal Society's
75th anniversary. The film was shown in 3-D, with money from the sale
of special 3-D glasses donated to the Easter Seal Society. In 1991, a
similar television airing of the film benefited the Leukemia Society of
America. In 1967, MGM made a television pilot inspired by L'Amour's
story, titled Hondo and the Apaches. The pilot, which was
directed by Lee H. Katzin and starred Ralph Taeger and Kathie Browne, never
aired on American television, but was released theatrically overseas.
Taeger and Browne also starred in Hondo, a television series based on
L'Amour's story, which ran from September 8 - December 29, 1967 and aired on
the ABC network. |
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