Release date: March 13, 1956, 119 minutes
Director: John Ford
Cast Includes:
Synopsis:
Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) has come to the Texas ranch he owns with his brother. He is warmly greeted by the family, and the next day they are joined by a band of Texas Rangers led by the Rev. Sam Clayton (Ward Bond), who are looking for cattle rustlers. Believing Indians responsible for the rustling, Ethan persuades his brother (Walter Coy) to remain with the family and he joins the posse with Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter), a ward of the Edwards' since the massacre of his family by the Comanches. Finding that the Comanches had stolen the cattle only to draw the Rangers away from their homes, Ethan and Martin race back to the ranch. They find the family filled by Chief Scar's (Henry Brandon) raiders and realising the youngest child, Debbie (Natalie Wood), and teenage Lucy (Pippa Scott) have been carried off. Ethan, Martin and Brad Jorgensen (Harry Carey, Jnr), Lucy's boyfriend, set out after the Indians. Days later Ethan finds the body of Lucy. At the news of her death Brad goes berserk with grief and single-handedly attacks the Comanche village where he is killed. Ethan and Martin continue in search of the girl until the snows of winter force them to turn back to the Jorgensen ranch where Laurie (Vera Miles) openly declares her love for Martin. She tries to stop him joining the determined Ethan in his search for Debbie, but he will not stop. The two searchers start out once more and though the months turn into years the two men continue to track the Comanches.
Friends and enemies alike offer information to Ethan but five years slip by before his first contact is made with the bloodthirsty Chief Scar.
In the New Mexican territory Ethan and Martin are led to the Indian's camp as traders. They find Debbie only to learn that she has grown to young womanhood as an Indian. Scar recognises the two men and in the fight that follows, Ethan is badly wounded, and Martin takes him home. The scene they come upon is the marriage of Laurie to a young rancher (Ken Curtis), which Martin promptly breaks up in a rough-and-tumble fight. The fight is interrupted by Lt.Greenhill (Pat Wayne) of the cavalry who wants the Rangers to join them in action against Scar's band of Comanches. Ethan sees a change to kill Debbie, whom he feels has disgraced the family by becoming a Comanche and volunteers to lead the Rangers. Martin slips into the Indian camp and kills Scar, but in the cavalry charge the Indians are routed and Ethan corners his niece. Faced with the prospect of killing the last of his own family, he relents and takes the child back to be raised by the Jorgensens.
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