The Searchers The Searchers The Searchers is a 1956 American Technicolor VistaVision Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, set during the Texas–Indian wars, and starring John Wayne as a middle-aged Civil War veteran who spends years looking for his abducted niece (Natalie Wood), accompanied by his adoptive nephew (Jeffrey Hunter). Critic Roger Ebert found Wayne's character, Ethan Edwards, "one of the most compelling characters Ford and Wayne ever created". The film was a commercial success. Since its release it has come to be considered a masterpiece and one of the greatest and most
John Wayne filmography Monogram, and Republic. Wayne kept on friendly terms with John Ford who, as a result, gave Wayne a career boost with "Stagecoach" (1939). John Wayne had achieved stardom in motion pictures by 1941 and, by the end of the decade, was one of the cinema's top ten box office attractions. During the latter half of the 1940s Wayne starred in what many film fans and critics regard as being among his finest work, notably the "cavalry trilogy" "(Fort Apache", "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon", and "Rio Grande)" for director John Ford, "3 Godfathers", also for Ford, and "Red River" for