Somewhere in Sonora (1933)

John Wayne made six films under the Four Star Westerns banner, a unit of the Warners Studio, this was the fifth. I'd been on the lookout for all of them when they suddenly showed up on Turner Classics a couple weeks ago and they were shown one right after another in the order of original release date. Sometimes it pays to be patient.This one plays out like a preview for Wayne's stint as a member of the Three Mesquiteers, a series of flicks made by Republic during the 1938/1939 season. Wayne's character is John Bishop, and he's got a couple of partners going by Shorty (Billy Franey) and Riley (Frank Rice). The pair have a feuding gimmick of sorts, and they run a neat little scam on deputy sheriff Buzz (Pat Harmon) to break Bishop out of the local hoosegow when he was arrested on 'no charge' by the sheriff. It looked like Bishop might have had a stagecoach wheel tampered with to win a race, but that business got cleared up later on in the story.The picture also has a couple of female characters, a bit unusual for these early oaters since the story usually required only one female lead for the hero's attention. In this one, Bishop gets off on the wrong foot with the gals with that sabotaged stagecoach business, but eventually Mary Burton (Shirley Palmer) warms up to him and takes over the romantic lead. I'd have to say John Wayne's character pulled a pretty slick move teaching Mary how to handle the reins of a buckboard. In a way unusual story element, Wayne gets to kiss the girl well before the story's over, and not once but twice! In virtually every other B Western Wayne appeared in, he had to wait until the end of the picture to close out with a smooch.This might be the earliest picture in which I've seen Paul Fix, probably best remembered as the Sheriff of North Fork in the 'Rifleman' TV series. Fix's character is part of a gang operating south of the border, who was framed for a murder a couple years earlier. Since he's the son of Bob Leadly, the ranch owner Bishop works for, Bishop takes it upon himself to rescue Bart from the Monte Black (J.P. McGowan) operation before it's too late. See if you agree, Fix here looked a bit like a cross between Stan Laurel and Victor Jory.In all these Four Star films, Wayne rode a white horse named Duke, and the one downside to this picture was that he didn't have much to do. Duke was pretty talented but all he did here was pull on a warning bell letting the citizens of Paloma know that the bad guys were on the way. That did the trick well enough, as Bishop hooked up with the Mexican rurales to put away Black and his bad guys for good. For his trouble, he got one more kiss to close out the picture.

Remake of 1927 silent western has a young John Wayne (riding his horse Duke) repaying a favor to a friend (Henry B. Walthall) by going across the border to Sonora, Mexico to locate the man's son (Paul Fix). To find him he has to go undercover in the gang of notorious outlaw Monte Black, a perfect name for a western bad guy. Some nice rodeo stock footage. It's apparently pronounced "ro-day-o" as one character admonishes another. Wayne's accompanied by two comic relief sidekicks, played by Frank Rice and Bill Franey. They are responsible for most of the movie's best parts. There's also two annoying girls who keep popping up and seem to share one brain cell. Pretty routine '30s B western.

Somewhere in Sonora (1933) ** 1/2 (out of 4) This was one of six early films John Wayne made before Warner shortly before he would enter "B" movie kingdom until finding fame six years later in John Ford's STAGECOACH. The plot here is pure "B" stuff but has Wayne playing a good-hearted cowboy who is accused of fixing a stagecoach race, which nearly kills a man during an accident. Thanks to a father (Henry B. Walthall) he is eventually proved innocent and to repay the man he heads down to Mexico to try and save his son who has fallen in with some bad guys. When one watches a "B" Western it's best not to put too much thought into it because more often than not the screenwriter put even less thought into it. As you'd expect this movie features a plot that never really makes too much sense but then again each scene is just put together quickly so that the next one can get the film closer to the 58-minute mark so that THE END will pop up. The film has action, wannabe drama, laughable romance and some really bad comedy but all of this is what you'd expect to find (once again). I think the most annoying thing about this movie are two female characters, one will go onto be the love interest and the other is her annoying friend. The two are constantly accusing Wayne of murder and it's obvious that the producers were trying to make these two out to be a watered-down version of Tood and Kelly. The woman are extremely annoying here and the one's romance with Wayne is extremely forced and laughable. As for Wayne, he certainly hadn't gotten his acting chops down yet as there are many scenes here where he comes off rather poorly. The action scenes are the ones he does the best in as even at this early stage of his career he knows how to throw a punch and make for a fun hero. Where he doesn't do well at is the romance and drama. Just take a look at the scenes where he tries to play serious, which he does by simply lowering his voice. The lowering of the voice effect never works and in the end just comes off as being silly. Frank Rice and Billy Franey give the comic relief as Wayne's sidekicks who are constantly fighting with one another. Their humor isn't all that funny but at the same time the two actors are good enough to keep you entertained. Walthall appears very briefly in the film but easily gives the best performance. He gets second-billing but doesn't have that much to do. I'm sure those willing to sit down and what this film know what they're going to get. If it's cheap entertainment you're after then you'll find it here but there's no question this is for Wayne die-hards only.

After an old man helps John Wayne in the face of a rodeo accident frame-up, he travels to Mexico and town of the title, to find the man's long-lost (also framed) son, in order to tell him that he'd been exonerated. However, the young man is part of a gang of gringo bandits that only allow members to quit feet first.One of six B-movies the Duke made for Warner Brothers' Four Star Westerns, this isn't quite as memorable as other films in the series. It is okay though and really looks good, with some nice location photography.The action is a little weak this time around, but Somewhere In Sonora picks up a bit when Wayne infiltrates the gang, leading to a climax featuring stock-footage from one of Ken Maynard's old silent vehicles, possibly the 1927 of the same film.