THE SEARCHERS (1956)

Directed by: John Ford

Based on the novel by: Alan Le May

Starring: John Wayne, Natalie Wood, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, John Qualen, Olive Carey, Henry Brandon, Ken Curtis, Harry Carey Jr, Antonio Moreno, Hank Worden, Beulah Archuletta, Walter Coy, Dorothy Jordan, Pippa Scott, Patrick Wayne, Lana Wood, Robert Lyden

119 minutes

(NR - adult themes)

PLOT:

After a long three-year absence, the battle-scarred Confederate veteran of the American Civil War, Ethan Edwards turns up on the remote and dusty Texan homestead of his brother, Aaron. In high hopes of finding peace, instead, the taciturn former soldier will embark on a treacherous five-year odyssey of retribution, when the ruthless Chief Scar's murderous Comanche raiding party massacres his family, burns the ranch to the ground, and abducts his nine-year-old niece, Debbie. Driven by hatred of Indians, Ethan and his young companion, Martin Pawley, ride through the unforgiving desert to track down their lost Debbie; however, is the woman they lost and the prisoner in Scar's teepee still the same woman the searchers seek?

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