The Comancheros (1961)

It's 1843. In New Orleans, gambler Paul Regret (Stuart Whitman) is in a pistol duo over allegations of cheating. He kills the other guy who turns out to be a son of a judge. He becomes a wanted man. Texas Ranger Jake Cutter (John Wayne) captures the fugitive intent on returning him to Louisiana. While Cutter is burying friends killed by Comanche, Regret escapes. The Comancheros are renegades headed by a former Confederate officer who smuggle guns to the Comanche Indians. Cutter tries to infiltrate by befriending gunrunner Tully Crow (Lee Marvin). He ends up killing Crow in a card game but he recaptures Regret.The story is a mess of anachronisms. This is simply cowboy (Texas Rangers) and Indians. It's a lot of shoot em up action. John Wayne is John Wayne. There are stunts galore. It doesn't make it a good story but this is old fashion action western.

The Comancheros, in this highly improbable yarn, are a bunch of Americans, who are headquartered in a longstanding secrete village in an obscure Texas canyon land, and who supply the rampaging Comanche with firearms, ammo, whisky, etc., and who frequently make up part of their raiding parties on American settlers. ... Well, the real Comancheros were mostly mestizos, operating out of the Santa Fe region of New Mexico. They had been very important as trading partners with the Comanche since 1780, after the brilliant Spanish governor of New Mexico: Don Anza, included the latter in a grand alliance of several important tribes with the Spanish against the thieving Apaches of New Mexico and nearby regions. They continued to be the main middlemen for Comanche trade(mostly stolen animals and other items) into the mid 1870s, when the last Comanche finally surrendered to reservation life.The yarn begins with a couple of French New Orleans dandies, supposedly in 1843, dueling over the rights to continue dating a woman. Professional gambler Paul Regret is the winner, but faces a murder charge. He flees on a luxurious river streamer, bound for Galveston , Texas, which happens to include Texas ranger Jake Cutter, on the lookout to arrest Regret and take him to the Louisiana border(Why would a ranger be so interested in him??). Well, Galveston is a coastal city, with no river connection with New Orleans. Thus, the riverboat trip makes no sense! Instead of returning with Regret on the ship, Cutter horse rides with him toward the Louisiana border, and happens to pass by his former cattle ranch. His successors have just been murdered, apparently by Comanche, reminding us of "The Searchers". Inexplicably, the countryside looks like the canyonlands of the Colorado Plateau, rather than the piney woods of coastal Texas(because we are actually in eastern Utah). Also, inexplicably, Cutter has removed Regret's handcuffs, seemingly taking a liking to the young man, although he continues to insist that he is not his friend. With Cutter's back turned, Regret deals him what should have been a skull-shattering blow with a shovel, and rides off. Cutter miraculously recovers in a downpour, and eventually meets Regret, rearrests him, and they resume their horse journey toward Louisiana, which includes a visit to another cattle ranch friend. Unfortunately, a combo of Comanche and Comancheros attack while they are there, shortly after a ranger patrol left. During the battle, Regret rides, initially to flee, but returns with the rangers, who beat off the attackers. Regret is now sort of a hero, thus Cutter gives up his mission. They then visit another ranch run by a beautiful widow friend of Cutter, who seems to be waiting for Cutter to ask to marry her.Later, Cutter and Regret partner as undercover gun runners, hoping to discover the secrete location of the Comanchero's village. Comanche appear and, seeing that they are carrying revolutionary lever action repeating rifles(not produced until Civil War times, at earliest), escort them to the Comanchero's village. Initially, they are not welcomed, being hung by their wrists. Their unlikely savior is the daughter of the headman, Pilar, who had a brief affair with Regret on that steamboat(how convenient!). However, she deduces that Cutter is actually a ranger and hints this to her father. Things go back and forth in an uneasy period., as a large party of Comanche arrives for a victory celebration(Some wear the traditional feathered war bonnets of many plains tribes. But the Comanche of this era mostly wore bison hide bonnets with 2 horns). As Cutter, Regret, and Pilar are about to leave in their wagon, a shootout begins, and they are chased by a huge party, who should have easily dispatched them!! A ranger patrol then arrives in the nick of time(How did they know where to go??), dispersing the pursuers and burning the village. Cutter departs with the rangers, leaving Regret and Pilar to pursue their plan to flee to Mexico.Among the positives is the background music, composed by Elmer(not Leonard) Bernstein. Also, the spectacular eastern Utah canyonland scenery, sometimes including the isolated La Sal mountains in the background. John Ford previously discovered the virtues of this region for some of his later westerns. It does rather resemble some of the canyon landscape of the Texas panhandle region, which was the heart of Comancheland during the mid 19th century, and which contained a secrete wagon-livestock trail extending to the Santa Fe region, much used by the Comanche and Comancheros.Wayne's character was occasionally called 'Big Jake', which was the title of one of Wayne's lesser late westerns, released a decade later. Wayne managed to include son Patrick and his young daughter in minor parts.Yes, there are a superabundance of falling horses and Indians in the several battles, courtesy of the futuristic repeating rifles and pistols. The main characters seem totally immune to the legendary marksmanship of mounted Comanche warriors. Featured chief Iron Shirt was a real, much feared, Comanche chief during this era, who wore Spanish armor under his shirt to deflect arrows and most bullets of this era, finally killed by large caliber buffalo gun bullets.Famous director Michael Curtiz's last film, as he was dying of cancer.

I first saw this film with my dad when it first hit the films. I've probably seen it 25 or 30 times but bought the VHS and then the DVD anyway and I still keep watching it. The Comancheros is quintessential Hollywood. It's entertaining. Elmer Bernstein's music is catchy, the story is interesting (if wildly inaccurate, historically), it has a beautiful and interesting woman in Ina Balin who plays a little more then a damsel in distress, it has a well played bad guys (Nehemiah Persoff, Lee Marvin, Michael Ansara), plenty of terrific western character actors doing their thing, and a bunch of likable good guys (John Wayne and Stuart Whitman play off each other very well). It's pretty obvious that everyone had a grand time making this. The film moves along at a good clip and there's never a dull moment. It's one of those films that could have been 30 minutes longer because the study is dense and there are so many story arcs on going.If you like westerns, if you like John Wayne, this film won't disappoint. Just don't expect anything like The Searchers, Stagecoach, Red River, or Rio Grande. It's not great John Wayne but it will do!

(6.5/10) I have Mixed feelings about this movie. It had great cinematography but poor period detail. Movie had some great action scenes and humor between Duke and Mon-SEWER, but also wore on when the film got off track such as the brief scene with Wayne's love interest who surprisingly never surfaced again after a small scene developing Wayne's backstory. Lee Marvin had a great cameo but Stuart Whitman and Ina Balin didn't do much to impress me. Well made but nothing too memorable to take away after a viewing. Decent but unspectacular entry in John Wayne and Michael Curtiz's filmographies. Good editing and writing with another amazing Elmer Bernstein score.