Hondo (1953)

Hondo Lane: How is he?
Buffalo Baker: He'll make out. Don't know much. Led us into an ambush. But I ain't ashamed of him nohow. Bullet holes are in the front of him.
Hondo Lane: All those youngsters from the Point are like that.
Buffalo Baker: Well, they gotta learn.
Hondo Lane: Partly they learn, partly they die. But I gotta float my stick same as you, I never saw one of 'em I had to be ashamed of.

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Hondo Lane: Destarti. You remind me of her some.
Angie Lowe: Of an Indian girl? Was she fair?
Hondo Lane: Her hair was black as ten feet down. Did you ever see a crow's wing, how black and gleaming it is?
Angie Lowe: Yes.
Hondo Lane: That's the way her hair shined. I'd like to pay you for that rope. Ridin' dispatch, I have the right to give you a script.
Angie Lowe: You loved her?
Hondo Lane: I don't know. I needed her.
Angie Lowe: But if she was dark and I'm fair...
Hondo Lane: Why you reminded me of her?
Angie Lowe: Yes
Hondo Lane: I don't know. I've thought about it. You don't look anything like her.
Angie Lowe: I am fully aware that I am a homely woman, Mr. Lane.
Hondo Lane: I didn't mean that. I got a bad habit of tellin' the truth, but being pretty isn't much. I know a lot of pretty people I wouldn't trust with a busted nickle-plated watch. But some others, somethin' comes outa the inside of 'em and you know you can trust 'em. Destarti had that. And you've got it too.
[he kisses her]
Angie Lowe: I'm a married woman.
Hondo Lane: I thought about that, too. I guess I kissed you because you remind me of Destarti. Or maybe it's because I hate to think of your hair hangin' from the center pole of an Apache wickiup. But a long time ago, I made me a rule. I let people do what they want to do.
Angie Lowe: You're a strange man, Mr. Lane.
Hondo Lane: I don't know about that. Bye, Mrs. Lowe.

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Hondo Lane: Everybody gets dead. It was his turn.

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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.
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.
Film debut of Geraldine Page.
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