John Wayne movie set feud that led to the Western’s most iconic scene | Films | Entertainment

Hoch, who based much of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon’s imagery on the cowboy paintings and sculptures of Frederic Remington, won the Best Cinematography Oscar for the movie in 1950. But this came at a cost when the weather turned for the worse while shooting in Monument Valley.

Ford and the DP had already been feuding throughout production, but allegedly none more so when ironically capturing the movie’s best scene. They were filming a line of cavalry riding through the desert when a real thunderstorm appeared upon the horizon.

The story goes that Hoch started packing away his cameras to protect them from the rain, but Ford – who was notoriously bad-tempered and ruthless – ordered the cinematographer to keep shooting. The DP wasn’t happy about this, pointing out there wasn’t enough natural light for filming, but of much more concern was the fact that the cameras could potentially end up as lightning rods that would fry the crew.

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The story goes that Hoch started packing away his cameras to protect them from the rain, but Ford ordered the cinematographer to keep shooting. The DP wasn’t happy about this, pointing out there wasn’t enough natural light for filming, but of much more concern was the fact that the cameras could potentially end up as lightning rods that would fry the crew.