What John Wayne Let Happen on The Searchers Set Still Pisses People Off
By the mid-1950s, John Wayne and John Ford were one of Hollywood's most bankable teams, having delivered Westerns like She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Their crowning achievement was The Searchers (1956) — now regarded as one of the greatest American films ever made — but behind the camera, the production carried a story that still grates on fans: Ford's legendary temper went unchecked, even by Wayne himself, when a co-star sabotaged one of the Duke's finest takes.
The Searchers' box office and budget:
- Production budget: $3.75 million (Warner Bros.)
- Domestic box office: approx. $4.8 million in original run (modest profit for its time)
- Later reissues and TV syndication cemented its status as a classic rather than an initial smash hit.
Ford's Monument Valley kingdom
The shoot took place in Ford's beloved Monument Valley, straddling the Arizona–Utah border on Navajo land, where daytime highs could reach 120°F (49°C). Wayne and co-star Jeffrey Hunter often drove teenage Natalie Wood — still in high school — to set. Ford ran his production with a mix of eccentric rituals and strict discipline: gnawing on handkerchiefs while smoking his pipe, banning foul language around women, and stopping for Earl Grey tea in the afternoons.
Maureen O'Hara, who made five films with him, summed it up years later:
"He was a genius. He was the finest director any of us ever worked with… We realised that he was bad-tempered and awful, but we accepted it and forgave him… He was abusive if it suited him and what he was after. I used to watch him and think, 'Oh, he's after something.'"
The take that never made it
One day, Wayne delivered a pivotal monologue about finding and burying Lucy — a scene he nailed in a single take. Ford was delighted. Then the camera inexplicably stopped rolling. Power was restored, the scene was redone, but that perfect original take was lost forever.
The culprit was Ward Bond, playing Reverend Captain Clayton. Bond had unplugged the set's power to run his electric razor, right in the middle of Wayne's performance. Bond, known for his habit of strolling nude in his motel room with the curtains open (possibly to get co-star Vera Miles' attention), kept quiet along with the crew, all terrified of Ford's wrath.
Wayne didn't intervene — and Ford never knew until it was too late
Wayne and Ford had a close enough relationship that the Duke could have stepped in to protect Bond or defuse the situation — but he didn't. The truth didn't reach Ford until years later, at a Hollywood party, when cinematographer Winton C. Hoch finally told him. By then, Bond had died of a heart attack in 1960.
Ford's reaction was immediate and visible.
According to Hoch, "Ford's face turned white. He was uncharacteristically speechless because he didn't have his favourite horse's ass to kick around anymore."
The Searchers may be a cinematic masterpiece, but for those who know what happened on set, it's also a reminder that not even John Wayne would step between John Ford and his temper — and that one of the Duke's best takes is gone forever because of an electric razor.