Hondo

Hondo Lane is a dispatch rider for the U.S. cavalry, working in New Mexico territory in 1874 amid rising conflict between the army and the Apache. He comes upon an isolated ranch where Angie Lowe lives with her young son, Johnny, while her husband has been absent for a long time. Lane stays on to help the struggling family, becoming a father figure to the boy and growing close to Angie, who refuses to abandon the ranch even as the danger of an Apache attack draws nearer. Lane's own past and a journey to the army post bring further complications, and his attachment to the family puts him at odds with those around him.

The film was directed by John Farrow, the fifth in the chronological list of his features that begins with Two Years Before the Mast in 1946 and includes Red, Hot and Blue, Copper Canyon and His Kind of Woman. James Edward Grant wrote the screenplay, and John Wayne and Robert Fellows produced through Batjac and Wayne-Fellows Productions with Warner Bros. Pictures. Wayne stars as Lane, with Geraldine Page as Angie, Ward Bond as Buffalo Baker, Michael Pate as Vittorio, James Arness as Lennie and Rodolfo Acosta as Silva.

On IMDb, the 1953 western holds a rating of 7 out of 10 from around 14,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 6.5 out of 10 from roughly 256 votes. A critics' rating of 7.3 out of 10 from 10 reviews places it slightly above audience scores on IMDb.