In the 1956 film “The Searchers,” Jeffrey Hunter plays Martin Pawley.
Martin is an adopted nephew of Ethan Edwards, the Civil War veteran played by John Wayne. After Comanches abduct Martin’s adopted sister Debbie, Ethan and Martin spend years pursuing the raiders across the Texas frontier. Their search drives the film’s epic structure and exposes the tension between Ethan’s obsessive prejudice and Martin’s more compassionate outlook.
John Ford directed the film from a screenplay by Frank S. Nugent, adapted from Alan Le May’s 1954 novel. The cast also includes Vera Miles as Laurie Jorgensen, Ward Bond as Reverend Captain Samuel Clayton, Natalie Wood as the adult Debbie, and Henry Brandon as Chief Scar.
The wrong options name other characters: Charlie McCorry is played by Ken Curtis, Brad Jorgensen by Harry Carey Jr., and Ethan Edwards by John Wayne. Hunter’s performance as Martin helped revive his career, and the film later became one of the most influential westerns in American cinema. Its Monument Valley imagery and morally unsettled treatment of its hero remain especially celebrated.