Restored "The Searchers" To Debut In Hollywood

Above, John Wayne's tribute to Harry Carey at the end of The Searchers.

If I were still living in California, I would have made it a point to attend the screening of The Searchers (1956) at the TCM Classic Film Festival.

While I have a DVD of the movie, the festival will be debuting the newly-restored version.

According to JohnWayne.com:

That bastion of oldie but goodie film fare, TCM (Turner Classic Movies), is marking its 30th anniversary year with a full slate of new programming for cinephiles, from the Warner Bros./TCM studio tour, TCM Classic Cruise and Talking Pictures: A Movie Memories Podcast, to the granddaddy of all events, the TCM Classic Film Festival, held April 18-21, 2024, in the heart of Hollywood.

Along with screenings of other classics, such as On the Waterfront (1954) and Rear Window (1954), this year’s festival will debut the world-premiere restoration of John Ford’s opus The Searchers (1956). Ranked #1 on AFI’s Top 10 Westerns, The Searchers screening comes hot on the heels of Warner Bros.’ restoration of another Duke dandy, Rio Bravo (1959), which delighted festival audiences in 2023. Will the sequel be better than the original? Almost never, but in this case… maybe. 

Shown in all its arresting glory, the new cut of The Searchers fits the festival theme “Most Wanted: Crime and Justice in Film” to a T. John Wayne die-hards need no introduction to the film, of course, nor to the character Duke portrayed, Ethan “That’ll be the day” Edwards, a man on an obsessive quest who at the end of the film is famously framed alone in a doorway—a stunning shot by Ford that is seared into the collective memory of moviegoers for all time. As fans, we’d know it anywhere. 

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