John Wayne

Stuart Whitman

Ina Balin

Nehemiah Persoff

Lee Marvin

Michael Ansara

Patrick Wayne

Bruce Cabot

Joan O'Brien

Jack Elam

Edgar Buchanan

Henry Daniell

Richard Devon

Guinn "Big Boy" Williams

Phil Arnold

Anne Barton

Steve Baylor

Danny Borzage

Don Brodie

Alan Carney

Iphigenie Castiglioni

Dennis Cole

Booth Colman

Jackie Cubat

Gabriel Curtiz

John Dierkes

Ilana Dowding

William Fawcett

Eric Feldary

Joe Gray

Lenmana Guerin

Claude Hall

Tom Hennesy

Tom Hernández

Joseph La Cava

George J. Lewis

Jon Lormer

Roger Mobley

Bob Steele

James Edward Grant

Paul Wellman

William H. Clothier

George Sherman

Clair Huffaker

Elmer Bernstein

Louis R. Loeffler

Jack Martin Smith

Michael Curtiz

Alfred Ybarra

Robert Priestley

Walter M. Scott

Marjorie Best

Larry Shaw

Western

Action

The Comancheros

20th Century Fox

United States of America

English

texas ranger

renegade

gambler

Just like your first rattler. One look and you'll know.

After winning a duel with a prominent and connected New Orleans man, gambler Paul Regret (Stuart Whitman) has to flee on account of impending arrest for murder. But he is soon captured by Texas Ranger, Jake Cutter (John Wayne), who sets about returning him to Louisiana to be hanged. However, in spite of their obvious professional differences, the men are forced to come together to fight The Comancheros, renegade white men who smuggle guns and whiskey to the Comanche Indians.

The credentials for The Comancheros are out of the top draw. Directed by Michael Curtiz, starring John Wayne, with support from the likes of Lee Marvin, Henry Daniel, Edgar Buchanan, Ina Balin, Jack Elam & Bruce Cabot. While the score is provided by Elmer Bernstein and cinematography is courtesy of William H. Clothier. It's based on a story by Paul Wellman and although far from being a top tier Duke Wayne Oater, it's an amiable action packed movie that has an old fashioned feel to it. 

This was to be Curtiz's last film as he was to pass away shortly afterwards, he was helped on the direction by Wayne who requested to be uncredited for his work, while Cliff Lyons was on hand for some of the action sequences. The acting is solid and the cast seem to be having fun, though a romantic strand between Whitman's Regret & Balin's Pilar is badly developed, but around them all is the Utah & Arizona locale which is beautifully utilised by the talented Clothier.

An entertaining Oater to pass away a Sunday afternoon with. 6/10

Per Gunnar Jonsson

This movie was directed by both Michael Curtiz and John Wayne himself although the latter was never credited as a director. I so enjoyed myself when watching this movie. It is indeed a classical John Wayne western very far from todays special effects loaded action movies. I guess you must have a bit of a nostalgic attachment to old classics, characters like John Wayne and western movies in order to enjoy this movie.

John Wayne plays his classical slightly grumpy, all honest, tough guy that I really like. I remember one of my greatest disappointments as a kid was when John Wayne played a character that actually turned out to be the bad guy at the end. On top of everything he died at the end! I was so pissed off, almost traumatized.

The story is pretty much what the book blurb says. Nothing fancy. There is a pretty lady thrown in of course although it is not John Wayne who gets her at the end, or even aspires to get her, but the gambler, Paul Regret, who, not surprisingly, turns out to be one of the good guys. The story holds together pretty well and there are of course plenty of opportunities for both fist-fights and gun-fights.

The gun-fight are where it turns a bit silly though. The big fights are mostly a whole bunch of Indians mixed up with some white crooks attacking on horseback riding around shooting wildly until the directors decides that it is time for the next scene and they ride away. A handful of people, sometimes barely that, repeatedly stand against 50 or more bad guys on horseback yet they always come out on top. That is pretty silly to me. It makes for some nice old-fashioned gun-fights but it is still rather silly. More the kind of stuff that would be put in a children's movie today.

Still the movie was really fun for me to watch. The good guys are really good guys and the bad guys are well done. I especially appreciated Lee Marwin's performance as Tully Crow in the bad guy department. Also, as is usual in these oldie movies, the opponents can have a fight (verbal as well as physical) and still communicate fairly intelligently without swearing their heads off.

I would recommend this movie when you are in a nostalgic Western mood looking for some light entertainment.

A Western Divine Comedy.
This Duke Western is a modern day Dante's Inferno, as two protagonists enter a Hell on Earth.
This "Hell" is created by an evil sadist played by Nehemiah Persoff. The two protagonists are Jake, played by John Wayne, and Regret, played by Stuart Whitman.
Jake is a no nonsense Texas ranger with a weakness. He's honest. Regret is a likable lady's man who never looks for trouble, but trouble always finds him.
Ina Balin plays the love interest for Regret. She becomes the "guide" into Hell late into the film. She has two helpers, played by Michael Ansara and Richard Devon. At the time this was made, Ansara was playing honorable characters and Devon less honorable characters, so a "switch" was made on their roles in this film. Ansara plays a sadist even worse than Persoff's devil.
Lee Marvin gets a high billing, but has a role that would normally be about 12th billing.
The wit and charm of this Western really makes it a semi classic. It has the greatest of the famous Duke lines: "Don't make a habit of saying that too often, and once more will be too often". That lines sticks out among the great lines of his films as the coolest.
The protagonists begin with Jake arresting Regret, but Jake has to take Regret through an outskirt of Hell, and Regret finds an opportunity to escape. 
Later, he accidentally finds Regret while working undercover to investigate Crow, played by Lee Marvin. 
The "Divine Comedy" of the West sees different supporting characters in this man made Hell, and how they react. There's McBain, Crow, Esteban, Gordo, and others. Who will reject Hell and who will fight to keep Hell intact?

The Comancheros (1961) ORIGINAL TRAILER

The Comancheros( 1961)

Big Jake the Adventurer... Paul Regret the Gambler... Pilar the Gypsy beauty... Three With a Past... Destined to Cross and Clash... In a Kingdom of Killers!

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A review by John Chard

Written by John Chard on Fri May 09 2014

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