Goofs

When Hondo grabs Johnny to throw him in the water he is wearing his Indian necklace. When Hondo picks him up and throws him he no longer has it on.

Most of the Indians are bare legged and some of the extras have noticeably light-skinned legs, particularly after getting caught in the rain and their dark leg makeup is rinsed off.

When Hondo first beds down in the cabin, his pallet is on the floor, with the table between it and the door. After his ensuing conversation with Mrs. Lowe he once more lies down on his pallet, only now it's where the front door used to be.

The Apaches throw Hondo down in the mud when they return him to Mrs. Lowe's ranch. Mrs. Lowe takes Hondo inside and seats him in a chair. The back of the chair is already wet and mud-stained before Hondo sits down in it.

In the final battle scene at the end of the movie, the wagon being driven by Buffalo Baker has one of its lead horses go down. John Wayne cuts the animal loose and the wagon takes off with three horses pulling it. In the final scene of the movie, after the battle has concluded, the wagon rides off with a full compliment of four horses.

The Indians drop Hondo off into the mud at the house with nothing but the buckskin he is wearing. Next time he has an entirely different outfit on with a pistol and holster as well. The Apache brave throws down Hondo's saddlebags with his belongings as the group turns to ride away.

After Hondo shoots Ed Lowe (0:40:43), he is overwhelmed with guilt so he throws his rifle into the pond. A bit later (0:41:05), as he's riding up the draw, his rifle is back in its scabbard. Hondo throws his rifle behind him away from the water and obviously recovers it. Even if he threw it in anger into the water he would have retrieved it before riding away in hostile Apache territory.

The brim on Hondo's hat changes how it is bent, up or down, from one shot to the next.

His hat is flexible. It flexes, sometimes to shade his eyes, sometimes with the wind and sometimes with the wind of his own motion.

When Hondo, Geraldine Page, and Buffalo Baker are standing in front of her house Lt. Page walks up having just arrived with his army troop. Hondo introduces Page to Geraldine and Baker. If one looks carefully at the far ridge in the distance there is a tall broadcast tower faintly visible...~90 years before its time.

Looking even more carefully at the far ridge in the distance, another tower can be seen, indicating as series of possibly power lines, telephone lines, or within the context of the movie, maybe telegraph lines.

The film is set in 1870, yet Hondo carries a Colt Model P with a 5.25 inch barrel, a model that was not available until after 1875.

In the confrontation between Mrs Lowe and Hondo in the cabin, she points a Colt revolver with the Richards conversion at him. The film is set in 1870, but this revolver with the Richards conversion was not produced by Colt until 1873.

The sound of sharpening continues after Hondo has lifted the ax from the grind stone.

When Hondo runs up a small rise to jump on a horse, the white shirt of the person holding the horse can be seen briefly at the left.

When Hondo is taming the bucking horse, the reason for bucking can be seen at 0:06:50 - the bucking strap (makes a horse buck).

In most of the ranch scenes the surrounding countryside is arid, with few, no trees in sight. Mrs. Lowe has to her dip water from a well. Yet, in other scenes there is a large creek nearby with plenty of water, shaded by tall trees, and apparently well-stocked with fish. The shaded creek doesn't match with the apparent aridness of the ranch.

When Hondo first encounters Ed Lowe, the shadow of a boom mic is visible in the tent.

When Mrs. Lane points her pistol at Hondo and pulls the trigger he tells her that she shouldn't point it at someone with an empty chamber under the hammer because you can see it plain as day. Since the pistol was already cocked the empty chamber would have rotated out of the way and a loaded chamber would be in firing position.

(0:40:57) Despite his bragging up the amazing scenting powers of the dog and his own ability to smell Indians, neither of them detected the score of Apaches they were riding toward, even though the wind was from them to him (as can be seen by the dust cloud).

When Hondo is breaking the bronco he mounts the horse wearing his gun belt. No experienced rider would risk the extra pummeling this would entail.

No experienced plainsman would allow the risk of a pummeling to prevent him from having his pistol handy while there are hostile people around who would cheerfully kill and scalp him.