Ken Curtis And The Sons Of Pioneers - What Makes A Man To Wander

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Ken Curtis joined the Sons of the Pioneers as a lead singer from 1949 to 1952. Now, for the seemingly ever increasing number of people who are saying, "who were they?", the Sons of the Pioneers were and are the foremost western vocal group in history. Ken's big hits with the group included "Room Full of Roses" and "Riders in the Sky". The Sons also worked in radio and on film soundtracks, including Rio Grande (1950), for director John Ford, who was a big fan.

The Searchers (1956) is considered by many to be a true American masterpiece of filmmaking, and the best, most influential, and perhaps most-admired film of director John Ford.
The opening credits (portrayed in a Playbill fontface) are displayed before a backdrop of an adobe brick wall. The words of the romantic Stan Jones ballad (sung by The Sons of the Pioneers) that play during the credits, What Makes a Man to Wander?, define the central theme of the film - one man's wanderings and obsessive search:
What makes a man to wander?
What makes a man to roam?
What makes a man leave bed and board
And turn his back on home?
Ride away, ride away, ride away.

The Searchers (Der schwarze Falke)tells the emotionally complex story of a perilous, hate-ridden quest and Homeric-style odyssey of self-discovery after a Comanche massacre, while also exploring the themes of racial prejudice and sexism. Its meandering tale examines the inner psychological turmoil of a fiercely independent, crusading man obsessed with revenge and hatred, who searches for his two nieces (Pippa Scott and Natalie Wood) among the "savages" over a five-year period. The film's major tagline echoed the search: "he had to find her...he had to find her."
John Wayne, the "Duke," had already played many major roles in numerous westerns in his career, including The Big Trail (1930), The Spoilers (1942), Howard Hawks' Red River (1948), and The Fighting Kentuckian (1949), and had appeared in five previous Ford westerns, including: Stagecoach (1939), 3 Godfathers (1948), Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and Rio Grande (1950) -- and would appear in a few more, including: The Horse Soldiers (1959) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). In this film, his first anti-heroic role, he was a bigot and racist - a tragic, lonely, morally-ambiguous figure perenially doomed to be an outsider. It was a role that the actor often described as his favorite. It is commonly regarded as Wayne's finest-acted performance - and his ninth starring role in a Ford film. [Wayne's other Ford films, four non-westerns, included: The Long Voyage Home (1940), They Were Expendable (1945), The Quiet Man (1952), and The Wings of Eagles (1957).]