The Searchers was the first production from "distinguished turfman" C. V. Whitney; it was directed by John Ford and distributed by Warner Bros. While the film was primarily set in the staked plains (Llano Estacado) of northwestern Texas, it was actually filmed in Monument Valley, Arizona/Utah. Additional scenes were filmed in Mexican Hat, Utah, in Bronson Canyon in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, and in Elk Island National Park. The film was shot in the VistaVision widescreen process. Ford originally wanted to cast Fess Parker, whose performance as Davy Crockett on television had helped spark a national craze, in the Jeffrey Hunter role, but Walt Disney, to whom Parker was under contract, refused to allow it and did not tell Parker about the offer, according to Parker's videotaped interview for the Archive of American Television. Parker has said retrospectively that this was easily his worst career reversal.
The Searchers
(1956)1
" The story that sweeps from the great Southwest to the Canadian border in VistaVision."
Country | |
Runtime | 1 hr 59 min |
Budget | $3 750 000 |
Premiere: World | $1071 May 26, 1956 |
Box Office – Budget | – $3 748 929 |
Premiere: USA | May 16, 1956 |
Digital: World | October 24, 2008 |
Production Companies | |