John Ford directed the climactic battle scenes at the end of the movie, according to a special feature on the 2005 DVD release. Apparently director John Farrow had to leave to start another film commitment and Ford took over. His work was uncredited.
John Wayne attributed the film's moderate performance at the box office to its similarity with Shane.
John Wayne was originally to be only the producer for his Batjac company, and wanted Glenn Ford for the title role. But Ford had such an unpleasant working experience with director John Farrow on their previous collaboration, Plunder of the Sun, that he turned down the offer. Wayne then took on the role himself.
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.
According to TCM, John Wayne won the well-trained dog Sam from his owner/trainer in a poker game after the movie wrapped.
After viewing the finished film at a private screening, John Wayne jokingly said, "I'll be damned if I'm not the stuff men are made of!"
Film debut of Geraldine Page.
In the Married with Children episode "Assault and Batteries," Al Bundy says that Hondo is his favorite movie of all time, and he spends the entire episode trying to watch it in peace.
Originally filmed in 3-D.
Pal, the dog that played Sam, was the son of Lassie. In the movie, he is supposed to be vicious and ill-tempered, but the temperatures during filming were so hot, he simply panted instead of snarling when on camera. In order to overcome this, he was kept in a special air-conditioned crate while on set and was only brought out for his shots.