John Wayne and John Ford had an iconic Hollywood collaboration spanning decades.
The actor and director made some of the Golden Era’s best-loved Westerns, from She Wore a Yellow Ribbon to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Yet their greatest triumph is often considered to be 1956’s The Searchers, in which Duke played a Civil War veteran who spends years searching for his abducted niece.
Shot in Ford’s favoured Monument Valley, part of the Navajo territory on the Arizona/Utah state line, temperatures could reach 49°C (120°F).
Although the movie is considered a masterpiece, there was one aspect of the picture that Wayne didn’t like, and he confessed it in a private letter to Ford after the shoot.
As shared by the John Wayne archive, Duke wrote to Ford who he called “Pappy”: “First: I think The Searchers is just plain wonderful. … I don’t think the music is great, but I think it’s all right… It’s just a wonderful picture. You got great performances out of everyone, and it has a raw brutalness without any pettiness or meanness. All I can say is – Thanks again, Coach. Your everloving, Duke.”
