CREDITS THE SEARCHERS, 1956 dir: John Ford John Wayne Jeffrey Hunter Natalie Wood

“You wanna quit Ethan?”
“That'll be the day. ”

Arguably John Wayne’s best role, as the tormented Ethan Edwards, obsessively tracking down the niece abducted by Comanche.

The opening title, ‘Texas 1868’, is blatantly belied by a view of Ford’s beloved Monument Valley, Arizona, where much of the film was shot. The spectacular columns, by which Ethan Edwards finally catches up
with Scar, are the Twelve Dancers.

There's also filming in Utah, on the San Juan River at Mexican Hat, several miles to the north.

Second unit filming, capturing snow scenes and buffalo herds, took place all over the West, including Aspen and southwestern Colorado.

The dusty climax, where Edwards finally meets up, and accepts, with his kidnapped niece Debbie (Natalie Wood), is actually Griffith Park, in Los Angeles.

HARD COPY: For the details of the filming locations of 1,600 of your favourite movies, check out The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations. 464 pages of fascinating facts, illustrated with over 1,000 original photographs.