I hope you enjoyed our picture.
In just a moment, I'm taking you behind the cameras...
...to meet a screen personality...
...who's paying us a very special visit...
...from his home studio of Twentieth Century Fox.
He's a man whom you've been reading about...
...in this motion-picture fan magazines.
And in our business...
...when an actor starts getting big double-page spreads...
...and feature articles in volume like this...
...it's a sure sign of rising stardom.
Which is precisely the case with our very talented guest, Jeffrey Hunter.
I'll be right back, and he'll be with me.
In Hollywood, we call this portrait I'm holding an 8-by-10 glossy.
Like the amount of fan mail an actor receives...
...or the number of popularity polls he wins...
...the number of fans who write in for a picture like this...
...is another way a studio can spot a rising star.
Such as Jeffrey Hunter.
Hello, ladies and gentlemen.
And thanks for the kind words, Gig.
Well, there are cold facts to prove them.
I think after our audience sees you...
...in the new John Wayne picture, The Searchers...
...you'll need a couple of caddies just to carry around your press book.
Which reminds me, give me a hand, will you, Jeff?
Sure.
Jeffrey brought these over to us.
Six reels of film. Almost enough for an entire picture.
Seven reels. We've already put the seventh on the projector, remember?
- Right. - And it is an entire picture.
About the making of the picture.
You see, when John Ford was directing The Searchers...
...he put a camera to work behind the camera.
He got a record on film of everything that happened.
From the time ground was broken...
...for the first setup in Monument Valley, Utah...
...to the time the last scene was wrapped up.
And during the next few weeks here on Warner Bros. Presents...
...you're gonna see this film. For example:
You'll not only see the cast at work...
...against one of America's most spectacular scenic backgrounds...
...but you'll relive an even larger story of how The Searchers company...
...brought roads into a wilderness where roads have never existed.
Into the farthest reaches of Monument Valley.
Outdoor country for a great outdoor story.
You'll see how pioneers from Hollywood brought electricity...
...into the trackless Navajo country to light a complete city.
With facilities for feeding and housing almost 300 people.
Up goes the wardrobe tent, and now it's shooting time.
A grip levels the tracks for the camera dolly...
...a mammoth piece of precision machinery.
And here it is, pacing John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter as they ride by.
You'll learn some of the tricks of the stuntman's trade.
And you'll watch as they work out shots that will leave you breathless.
Calculated risks that sometimes end in injury...
...but are sure to provide a picture with its thrills.
You'll stand beside director John Ford as he gives star John Wayne...
...his final instructions for a key scene.
You'll visit with Monument Valley's friendly Navajos.
You'll see them turned into bloodthirsty Comanche Indians by our makeup men.
You'll meet the ladies of the cast...
...Vera Miles, Natalie Wood and Olive Carey.
You'll be there riding the camera car through the Indian village...
...as the searchers attack the wild Comanche...
...to get back their stolen women.
The climax of a scene...
...that is also the climax of the months of planning and building...
...that go into the production of a picture like The Searchers.
That certainly is an exciting sample, Jeff.
Yes, it's actually a diary of a motion picture.
The first of its kind, so far as I know.
And I think when you see it in full at our next meeting...
...you'll agree that it's no more to be missed than The Searchers itself...
...which Warner Bros. will soon be presenting at your local theater...
...in VistaVision and Technicolor.
Thank you very much, Jeff, for letting us have these...
...and bringing them personally.
My pleasure, Gig. So long. Goodbye.
So make a point of being with us when we show you the first chapter...
...in the story of the making of The Searchers.
I'll be back in a moment, but first a word...
...about next week's television presentation.
I hope you enjoyed our picture.
I know I'm going to enjoy the pictures I'm taking...
...for this is Monument Valley...
...one of the most beautiful scenic spots in America.
And today it should be doubly interesting...
...for we have man-made sights to add to nature's circus.
Director John Ford is shooting some exciting scenes for his new picture...
...The Searchers, starring John Wayne.
The company's just down the road, so let's drive over and watch.
Welcome once again to the land of the Navajo.
This is an especially happy time here in Monument Valley.
Yet it has nothing to do with the ancient tribal laws or customs of the Navajo.
The current excitement stems from a visit to the valley...
...by director John Ford...
...whom the Navajos have adopted into their tribe and named Natani Nez...
...which means "the tall leader.“
The man next to him in the uniform is the star of The Searchers, John Wayne.
In the past weeks, we've shown you some of the difficulties and hazards...
...in shooting a picture here.
You've seen roads built and a city erected, to transport and house...
...the hundreds of people that comprise the cast and crew.
Well, today most of those difficulties are behind us.
The roads, such as they are, are finished.
The buildings up.
And the advantages of filming in Monument Valley begin to accrue to us.
In addition to the great scenic wonders...
...we have an endless supply of real Indians.
Indians who get their clothes from the Hollywood Wardrobe Department...
...after slight alterations.
For the grime and dust of the valley must be ground into...
...both the costumes and the men.
The Navajo braves are magnificent horsemen, but still director Ford...
...could not ask them to take the falls...
...that he will require in many of the sequences.
So for the dangerous spills, he hired professionals, Hollywood stunt riders.
And while these men are brave, they are not foolhardy.
They minimize the chances of being hurt, not only for themselves...
...but for their horses as well...
...for the personal safety of each depends on the other.
These men, who can take a nasty spill without getting hurt...
...have trained their horses to do the same.
And now that men and horses are fit and ready...
...the next step consists of converting these pleasant young men...
...into fierce, bloodthirsty Comanches.
Over to one side, the cameraman is getting ready to perform his job.
A job that is normally not dangerous...
...but which today involves some element of risk.
He will photograph the riders leaping a barrier...
...from the point of view of a worm.
Let's watch.
Well...
That was a little too close. The camera got in the way of a flying hoof.
But it's all in a day's work.
And the Hollywood crews never lose their sense of humor.
But despite the spills and hazards the work must go on.
The hot and tedious work of shooting a picture on location.
The dangerous work of filming an action picture...
...where even the camera crew must join the stuntmen in an Indian raid.
After much hard riding, the shot is completed...
...and the men return for a well-deserved rest.
It may seem a bit odd from this type of work...
...it is their feet that hurt them the most.
But for all the excitement of the chase...
...and for all the beauty of the great outdoors...
...The Searchers tells a tense personal story of two men...
...played by John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter.
Two men thrust together by their hatred of a common enemy...
...but torn apart by the angry passions within them.
What do you mean, you don't have any blood kin?
- Why, Debbie's your blood kin! - Not no more, she ain't.
Well, you can keep your will!
I don't want any of your property!
I ain't forgetting you was getting all set to shoot her yourself.
- What kind of a man are you'? - She's been living with a buck!
- She's nothing but a-- - Shut your dirty mouth!
I hope you die.
That'll be the day.
And while the scene between John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter...
...was being photographed...
...a second unit has been rehearsing another sequence...
...for just as in the picture where the search goes on...
...despite innumerable handicaps...
...here on location the work goes on...
...despite the sun, the sand and just plain fatigue.
They're taking advantage of the daylight to carefully plan and rehearse a scene...
...which will be shot at night.
And here's how you'll see it in The Searchers.
The cliff overlooks the village of Scar, renegade Comanche chief.
Jeff Hunter has asked the Rangers to be allowed to slip into the village...
...in advance of the attack.
Debbie.
Debbie. Don't say anything, Debbie! It's your brother Marty, Debbie.
I'm gonna take you away. I'm gonna get you out of here, Debbie.
Yes, Many. Oh, yes, Many.
Yes, I think it's an exciting story, a tender story.
And when you see C.V. Whitney's The Searchers...
...in your local theater in VistaVision and Technicolor...
...I think you'll agree that's also a beautiful picture.
I'll be back in a moment. First, a word...
...about next week's television presentation.
The monuments which rise proud and straight from the desert floor...
...were carved by thousands of years of erosion.
But the years mean little here.
Although surrounded by twentieth century America...
...this land is barely touched by the civilization around it.
Almost untouched by time itself.
For this is home of the Navajo...
...the largest Indian reservation in America.
Here the people live almost precisely as their ancestors did 100 years ago.
The Navajo Indian was once the fiercest raider of them all.
But with their defeat at the hands of Kit Carson in 1862...
...they turned to peaceful pursuits.
Being a highly adaptable people, they borrowed the idea of weaving...
...from their neighbors, the Pueblo Indians.
And improved upon it by using wool instead the then hard-to-get cotton.
Just as it was a century ago, the staff of life of the Navajo is still corn.
Still being ground into meal by the same process...
...that has been used for generations.
Nor has the Navajo accepted the advances of modern medicine.
Here, under the watchful eye of Fats Holiday...
...the head medicine man of the tribe...
...a sand painting is being completed.
The Navajo still puts his faith...
...in the healing powers of these mystic symbols.
Into this land that time forgot, John Ford brought men and equipment...
...to film The Searchers.
To capture the color, tradition and echoes of the past.
The danger and excitement of the days when the fierce Comanche Indians...
...cut a bloody trail through the West.
The now peaceful Navajo have a warlike history of their own...
...and even today are considered the finest horsemen in the world.
So all it took was a little warpaint...
...to convert them into hard-riding, bloodthirsty Comanches.
And here comes one of the prettiest little Comanches of them all:
Miss Natalie Wood.
Hello, Gig, welcome to the reservation.
Thank you. it's nice being here. Congratulations, Natalie...
...on your recent Academy Award nomination for Rebel Without a Cause.
Well, thank you very much.
You're very versatile. We've just enjoyed your performance as Maid Marian...
...and now here you are as a Comanche...
...but despite the costume you don't really play...
...an Indian in the picture, do you?
No, that's right. I play a white girl who is captured...
...and brought up by a fierce Comanche tribe.
Oh, I see. And how do you get along with the Indians?
Well, in the picture, fine. But here on location...
...I think I sort of amazed them.
You see, the Navajo keep covered from head to foot...
...and they regard my sunbathing in a swimsuit as rather immodest.
They've become over-civilized.
Their forefathers used to run around in considerably less than a bathing suit...
...and they were considerably less friendly too.
Yes, that's right. The raids of the renegade tribes...
...were the greatest dangers that faced the frontier people.
And it is on just such a raid that I get captured as a child.
John Wayne and a company of Rangers are searching for Scar...
...the warrior-chieftain who has captured me.
But Scar doubles back on their trail...
...and suddenly the hunters become the hunted.
Keep moving. Keep moving.
Well, Reverend, looks like you got yourself surrounded.
Yeah, and I figure on getting myself un-surrounded.
When I holler, I want you to move out of here like Billy B. Jigger.
Let's go!
That's certainly an exciting scene, but does John Wayne ever find you'?
Well, he was always on Scar's trail and one day he caught up with him...
...and found me, only to lose me again.
In this scene, I have come to warn Jeffrey Hunter and John Wayne.
Debbie?
Debbie. Debbie, don't you remember? I'm Martin.
Remember?
Debbie, remember back.
Do you remember how I used to let you ride my horse?
And tell you stories'?
Don't you remember me, Debbie?
I remember.
From always.
At first, I prayed to you:
"Come and get me...
...take me home."
You didn't come.
But I've come now, Debbie.
These are my people.
Go. Go, Martin. Please.
Stand aside, Martin.
No, you don't, Ethan.
Ethan! No, you don't!
Stand aside!
You're the prettiest reason for joining the Comanche army I ever saw.
Thank you very much, Natalie Wood, for being with us.
Well, thank you, Gig.
We hope that when you see The Searchers in your local theater...
...in Technicolor and VistaVision...
...the bit of Indian life we have shown you...
...will contribute to your enjoyment of the picture.
I'll be back in a moment, but first a word...
...about next week's television presentation.
I hope you enjoyed our picture.
While you've been watching it, I've been here planning a trip.
A guided tour...
...arranged by one of the world's most experienced travel bureaus:
The Warner Bros. Location Department.
Specializing in short trips to faraway places.
I'll be right back to start us on our way.
You know, about this time of the year, people all over the country...
...are consulting a travel bureau much like this one.
Planning their summer vacations.
They count their money and their time, and quite often...
...they ask the man behind the counter for something impossible.
For example, they'd like to go from the heart of old England...
...from Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood country...
...to the sands of the mysterious Sahara.
And en route to the Austrian Alps...
...they'd like a look-see into the jungles of India...
...and please get them home in two weeks.
Impossible? Well, for a travel bureau, maybe.
But for a Location Department of a major studio, it's a cinch.
Because, you see, for motion-picture purposes...
...there are sections of Southern California...
...that look exactly like all these famous places.
And they're all within a leisurely three-hour drive of Hollywood.
In fact, one of the reasons why the pioneer filmmakers...
...selected Southern California as the film capital of the world...
...is that strangely, this area masquerades as many different locales.
Stranger still, if we picture people of the Far West...
...want to find Western scenery with sweep and grandeur like this:
We must travel a thousand miles to the northeast.
And the cast and crew of the new John Wayne picture, The Searchers...
...did exactly that.
In order to locate a natural Western setting...
...big enough for the story they had to tell.
They journeyed here to Monument Valley, Utah.
A thousand square-mile domain of the yucca, the cactus...
...and of the bones of earlier pioneers...
...who had died searching this land for its fabled treasure of Indian silver.
Navajo country. A land practically untouched by civilization.
The director of The Searchers, John Ford...
...transplanted a bit of Hollywood into the Utah wilds.
Work started while last year's winter rains...
...were still turning the approaches to Monument Valley into seas of red mud.
The problem:
To produce a motion picture 175 miles from the nearest town.
Everything had to be trucked in over terrain...
...which the geologists tell us is the dried-up bed of an ancient ocean.
Just getting into Monument Valley...
...was almost as big a job as shooting the picture itself.
The first thing brought in was water.
Measured by the gallon into Lister Bags like the Army uses.
Then came this heavy-duty pump to service the primitive Indian well.
With their water supply guaranteed, the other services moved in.
Electricity to power not only the new water pump...
...but modem building tools to speed construction...
...both at the base camp and the sets needed for the picture.
Here's one of them. A settler's home...
...complete to its stone chimney, just as it might've appeared in the year 1863...
...when the story of The Searchers takes place.
And here's another house that will appear in the picture.
During the action, you'll see this one...
...entirely destroyed by fire in an Indian raid,
So an entire town, with a population of 258 cast and crew members...
...were set down in the middle of a brooding wilderness.
Now, as the shooting day draws near, the pace picks up.
And so do the spring winds hurtling across the valley.
Up goes the wardrobe tent with costumes for hundreds of Indians.
They live here, but the costumes they wear in the picture...
...came from Hollywood.
So do these mattresses,.
One each for Hollywood tenderfeet...
...who aren't used to sleeping on the desert floor.
Plus equipment for the mess hall.
And ceremonial lances for the battle scenes.
And now, it's A-Day.
A for "action" on one of the greatest outdoor pictures ever made.
Camera platforms are carried out into San Juan River.
Here is the very spot where a scene from a story like The Searchers...
...might have occurred in real life.
Director John Ford orders "action."
Scene one, take one.
John Wayne and his party of Rangers cross the river...
...pursued by the savage Comanche.
In the picture, Wayne's gunfire slows down the chase...
...giving the Rangers time to prepare a hasty defense.
And here, as hero of the story...
...he and his men find themselves face to face...
...with an enemy who holds their women hostage.
Hallelujah!
Dag blast it!
Watch it. it's loaded.
No, Ethan. Leave them carry off their hurt and dead.
Well, Reverend, that tears it!
From now on, you stay out of this, all of you.
I don't want you with me.
I don't need you for what I gotta do.
And what he had to do was go on in his search for stolen women.
There was also a search for his own soul.
We'll be returning soon to Monument Valley...
...to visit again with stars John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles.
At that time Natalie Wood will show us around...
...the valley's famous Navajo reservation.
Meanwhile, I want to thank Mr. C.V. Whitney...
...producer Meflan C. Cooper...
...and director John Ford, who made the behind-the-cameras trip possible.
And remind you that all the wonders of Monument Valley...
...along with a thrilling story, are yours when you see The Searchers...
...at your local theater in VistaVision and Technicolor.
I'll be right back, but first a word about next week's television presentation.