Hondo Lane, a cavalry dispatch rider, arrives at a remote homestead where Angie Lowe lives with her young son, Johnny. Angie insists her husband will be back any day, though he has been gone for a long time. Hondo, who once lived among the Apache, warns that a broken treaty has put the region in danger and urges her to ride with him to the fort. Angie, sure that her friendship with the local Apache will keep her safe, refuses. As distrust slowly gives way to a forced and growing closeness, a new conflict forces everyone to make hard choices.

How it was made

The project began in 1952, when Wayne's newly formed company, Wayne-Fellows Productions, later renamed Batjac, bought the rights to Louis L'Amour's short story The Gift of Cochise. Wayne's longtime collaborator James Edward Grant wrote the adaptation, expanding the original tale, adding characters and a cavalry subplot. Shooting was planned for summer 1953 in the San Francisco de Conchos area of Chihuahua, Mexico. Wayne and producer Robert Fellows wanted to shoot in 3D, and Warner Bros. supplied its new All-Media Camera. The bulky rigs broke down in wind and sand and slowed the work in remote desert locations, while the crew was still learning the equipment. The shoot ran over schedule, and director John Farrow had to leave because of a prior contractual obligation. Wayne asked John Ford to finish the film. Ford directed the closing Apache attack on the circled wagons, but he was never credited.

Reception and legacy

The film earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Geraldine Page, the main recognition noted in the sources consulted. L'Amour's novelization of the story became a bestseller after the film's release. Hondo is remembered mainly as a John Wayne Western and as one of the early attempts to bring stereoscopic 3D to the genre, though its critical reception is less thoroughly documented.