The Comancheros

Starring:Michael Ansara, Phil Arnold, Ina Balin, Don Brodie, Edgar Buchanan, Bruce Cabot, Henry Daniell, Richard Devon, Ilana Dowding, Jack Elam, Lee Marvin, Roger Mobley, Joan O'Brien, Gregg Palmer, Nehemiah Persoff, Ralph Volkie, Patrick Wayne, Stuart Whitman
Director: Michael Curtiz
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Nobody made a fuss about The Comancheros when it came out, yet it has proved to be among the most enduringly entertaining of John Wayne's later Westerns. The Duke, just beginning to crease and thicken toward Rooster Cogburn proportions, plays a veteran Texas Ranger named Jake Cutter. When we first see him (in a tongue-in-cheek delayed entrance), he's catching up with a New Orleans dandy (Stuart Whitman) who killed a judge's son in a duel just after that gentlemanly practice was banned. Monsieur Paul Regret--or "Mon-sooor," as Jake insists on calling him--is not a bad fellow, let alone a badman, and it only follows that, after the requisite number of misunderstandings, he and Jake will join forces to subdue rampaging Indians and the evil white men behind their uprising.

Amazon.com

Nobody made a fuss about The Comancheros when it came out, yet it has proved to be among the most enduringly entertaining of John Wayne's later Westerns. The Duke, just beginning to crease and thicken toward Rooster Cogburn proportions, plays a veteran Texas Ranger named Jake Cutter. When we first see him (in a tongue-in-cheek delayed entrance), he's catching up with a New Orleans dandy (Stuart Whitman) who killed a judge's son in a duel just after that gentlemanly practice was banned. Monsieur Paul Regret--or "Mon-sooor," as Jake insists on calling him--is not a bad fellow, let alone a badman, and it only follows that, after the requisite number of misunderstandings, he and Jake will join forces to subdue rampaging Indians and the evil white men behind their uprising.

The Comancheros was the last credit for Michael Curtiz, who, ravaged by cancer, ceded much of the direction to Wayne (uncredited) and action specialist Cliff Lyons. With support from Wayne stalwarts James Edward Grant (coscreenplay) and William Clothier (camera), the first of many rousing Elmer Bernstein scores for a Wayne picture, and a big, flavorful cast including Lee Marvin (the once and future Liberty Valance), Nehemiah Persoff, Bruce Cabot, and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (in his last movie), they made a broad, cheerfully bloodthirsty adventure movie for red-meat-eating audiences of all ages. Even the liberal-pinko Time magazine had to second the salute from leading lady Ina Balin at film's end: "Take care of yourself, Big Jake ... we've sort of gotten used to you." --Richard T. Jameson

Description

John Wayne is Capt. Jake Cutter, a Texas Ranger determined to crush a powerful outlaw gang that's selling guns to the Indians. Cutter is also trying to bring in gambler Paul Regret (Whitman), who's wanted for murder. Both missions get entangled when Cut

Customer Reviews:

Comuncheros.......2007-01-11

I am a John Wayne fan so it goes with out Quwstion that this was another great movie.

I'M GONNA GO OUT WEST AND WRESTLE ME A GRIZZLY BEAR.......2006-12-24

Texas Ranger, (John Wayne) enlists the aid of wanted fugitive, (Stuart Whitman), to bust gunrunning operation. Everything you can expect from a Wayne western, with eye-popping Cinerama,(or whatever they called it in 1961), rousing musical theme that becomes a little less so by the fourth or fifth ride into the sunset, dancing skirt sashaying senioritas, (hoochie-koochie, anyone?), standard western stunts, (falling horses, especially), and a still cloudy distinction of the American Indian as being either 'wild', (bloodthirsty scalpers of white people), or 'tame', (sell their soul for a cheap bottle of whiskey and a good cigar). Love interest Ina Bolin, (dark, mysterious, like you can picture a whip in her hand), adds some Mexican zing to the mix, but man, those are some nasty wigs she wears.

Comancheros editing.......2006-11-16

Good action buddy movie. If you buy the movie, be forewarned that editing takes out some scenes. This version from foxhome video does not show John Wayne coming aboard the steamboat, but is referenced later on. The version shown on AMC-TV channel is a different full version. Just be aware there is an edited version.

A cheerful and solid action - buddy film with Wayne and Whitman filling the screen.......2006-05-18

This is a kind of movie that is not made any more. It is an action movie with a gentle heart and a happy spirit. Even the bad guys are somehow awful, but we don't hate them. One interesting thing about this movie is John Wayne's role in the movie. Yes, he is the star, whenever he is on screen anywhere he dominates it, but the story is really more about Paul Regret (wonderfully played by Stuart Whitman) and Pilar Graile (glowingly done by Ina Balin). John Wayne's role, while central, isn't the guy who gets the girl, and plays more as the protector and guide to Paul Regret, who ends up saving Jake more than once. Jake's a widower and more than friends with the widow of his best friend. Not too subtly, Melinda Marshall (the beautiful Joan O'Brien) has fences that need mending, and Paul Regret asks Jake for a good reason why he doesn't marry her.

How Paul and Jake meet each other and how they become friends is a big part of the movie and a very enjoyable part. In fact, this is really a buddy film and a darn good one, even with the wiseacre line when they are hanging by their arms and helpless in the bad guy camp, "I wonder if they know how much trouble they are in."

The head bad guy and leader of the Commancheros is Pilar's father who is also a paraplegic (superbly done by Nehemiah Persoff) and he rules his society of ne'er do wells with intelligence and a great political sense. It is his right hand henchman, Amelung, who is the most sinister character in the movie and played to a turn by Michael Ansara.

This is a movie with a plot that chugs along like the cheery Elmer Bernstein score that supports it. It has its interesting moments, but mostly it is a lot of fun. If you enjoy John Wayne, and I do, you get a good story for him with all the fine performances of the other stars plus some fire, Indian battles, and even a duel.

Not great, but a very worthwhile entertainment.

Wow, This is a Bad Western.......2006-01-17

The Comancheros follows the typical early John Wayne western formula, a big bawdy rollicking western full of colorful good old boy western characters. Unfortunately that formula also includes a severely fractured, incoherent plot, a rambling-babbling pointless story, factual errors, and Native Americans portrayed by Caucasians and stereotyped as inhuman idiots and drunks. The Comancheros starts out with John Wayne, a Texas Ranger, apprehending Stuart Whitman (Regret) somewhere between New Orleans and Texas (but looks a lot like Utah or Arizona). It seems as though the point of the story will be the return of Whitman (Regret) to Louisiana to stand trial for murder, but that initial plot is long forgotten about halfway through the movie when The Comancheros takes on multiple, disjointed and disconnected subplots, pointless fight scenes, and aimless shootouts with indians that have little or nothing to do with the original theme established in the movie's opening scenes. The best thing about The Comancheros is the stirring opening theme music by Elmer Bernstein. John Wayne's best western is the Cowboys, take time to watch it instead of the god awful Comancheros.

John Wayne Collection ( North To Alaska / Comancheros / The Undefeated )

Average customer rating:

OLDIES BUT GOODIES
Three 60s Wayne Westerns Are a Treat!

John Wayne Collection ( North To Alaska / Comancheros / The Undefeated )
Starring: John Wayne
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Westerns | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Westerns | Genres | DVD | Video

( J ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

All Titles | John Wayne Store | Stores | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00008OTUD
Release Date: 2003-05-20

Description

Disc 1: *Comancheros

Disc 2: *North To Alaska

Disc 3: *The Undefeated

Customer Reviews:

OLDIES BUT GOODIES.......2007-06-27

Love westerns, & John Wayne's movies have always been entertaining. Films are good wet weather viewing, & acting has always been fairly consistent.

Three 60s Wayne Westerns Are a Treat!.......2006-03-16

By the 1960s, John Wayne's westerns had become as familiar as a well-worn beloved Stetson, and Wayne, himself, had settled into a patriarchal role that suited both his age and screen presence. This DVD collection offers the Duke in three of his most entertaining films of the period, and is well-worth owning!

"North to Alaska" (1960), Wayne's follow-up to "The Alamo", is a brawling, lusty saga of two Alaskan prospectors (Duke and Stewart Granger), and the reformed prostitute (Capucine), who complicates their lives. Wayne consciously tried to 'broaden' his westerns with this film, introducing more comedy and family-friendly action (culminating in 1963's classic, "McLintock!"), and, despite being too long, the film has a lot of charm. Worth noting is an excellent cast, including Ernie Kovacs (in one of his last film roles), as the smarmy villain, young Fabian, as Granger's over-sexed younger brother, and Mickey Shaughnessy, hilarious as the 'dim bulb' drunken prospector who becomes a key player in Kovacs' plan to steal the Wayne/Granger goldmine.

Entertaining light fare!

"The Commancheros" (1961), Wayne's next film after "North to Alaska", is even better (and the best of this trilogy), with the Duke, as a crusty Texas Ranger, sharing the screen with an excellent Stuart Whitman, portraying fugitive New Orleans gambler, Paul Regret. The final film directed by legendary Michael Curtiz (with unbilled help by Wayne, as the director was in poor health), the tale is a light-hearted adventure of Duke and Whitman gradually becoming friends, as Wayne attempts to thwart a gun-running scheme involving the notorious band of outlaws of the film's title. Very much a 'family' western (with Wayne's son, Patrick, daughter Aissa, and long-time friend Bruce Cabot, in key roles), the film offers glamorous Ina Balin as Regret's mysterious lover, Nehemiah Persoff as her father, the gregarious leader of the Commancheros, and, best of all, Lee Marvin, in a small but showy role as Tully Crow, a half-breed gunrunner (Marvin's chemistry with Wayne was so potent that John Ford would soon team them in two of his own productions, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", and "Donovan's Reef").

Great fun, and great Wayne!

The final entry, "The Undefeated" (1969), is the weakest of the trilogy, yet offers some very entertaining moments. Filmed after Wayne's bout with lung cancer, he looks far older and more haggard, but still carries a commanding presence, as an ex-Union officer driving a large herd of horses south, forced to team up with an unrepentent Confederate officer (mustached Rock Hudson, in his only film with the Duke), and his wagon train of refugees, hoping to rebuild their fortunes in Mexico. While many of Wayne's friends have roles (Ben Johnson, Harry Carey, Jr., Bruce Cabot, and Pedro Armendariz Jr.), the novelty casting of football stars Roman Gabriel and Merlin Olsen in key roles received the most attention when the film was released (Olsen was surprisingly good, and went on to a successful career on television). Wayne and Hudson are a lot of fun in their scenes together, and the underlying plot (of the Mexican struggle to rid itself of French 'puppet' Emperor Maximilian) never interferes with the broader comic 'edge' of the film. While Wayne looks a bit strange in muttonchop sideburns, all in all, the movie is a last fond look at the Duke's '60s western 'persona'. The westerns of the last decade of his life would be, generally, far darker, and more brutal.

This is certainly a Wayne trilogy worth owning!

Comancheros, the / Big Trail, the [Double Feature][2-DVD SET]

Average customer rating:

Comancheros, the / Big Trail, the [Double Feature][2-DVD SET]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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