The Comancheros

Infobox_Film
name = The Comancheros


imdb_id = 0054757
producer = George Sherman
director = Michael Curtiz
John Wayne (uncredited)
writer = Paul I. Wellman (novel)
James Edward Grant
Clair Huffaker (screenplay)
starring = John Wayne
Stuart Whitman
Lee Marvin
Jack Elam
Edgar Buchanan

music = Elmer Bernstein
cinematography = William H. Clothier
editing = Louis Loeffler
distributor = 20th Century Fox
released = October 30, 1961
runtime = 105 min.
language = English

"The Comancheros" is a 1961 western film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring John Wayne and Stuart Whitman. When health troubles prevented Curtiz from finishing the film, Wayne directed the remainder of the movie, though his role remained uncredited. Curtiz died shortly after the film was completed. Featured are western film veterans Bob Steele (actor), Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, and Harry Carey, Jr. in uncredited supporting roles.

Plot

Roguish gambler Paul Regret (Stuart Whitman) escapes a death penalty after winning a duel with the son of a Louisiana judge (and he claimed that he would have only wounded him if he hadn't sidestepped). He is captured by Texas Ranger Jake Cutter (John Wayne) after a tryst with a mysterious lady, Pilar Graile (Ina Balin). But Regret manages to escape, but is soon recaptured after a chance encounter with Cutter in a saloon.

In the process of returning Regret to Louisiana, Cutter is forced to join forces with the condemned to fight the "Comancheros;" white men who smuggle guns and whiskey to the Comanche indians and incite violence. Regret shows his worth by escaping an attack and returning with the other Texas Rangers.

Eventually they infiltrate the self-sufficient Comanchero community at the bottom of a valley in the desert. Pilar reappears as the daughter of the crippled but ruthless leader (Nehemiah Persoff). After Cutter and the other Texas Rangers defeat both the Comanches and Comancheros, Regret and Pilar leave together for Mexico.

Cast

Trivia

* Although set in 1843 Texas, the characters all use Winchester lever action rifles and Colt Peacemaker pistols, which were not available until 1866 and 1873 respectively. The Guinn Williams character is said have stolen rifles from the army base at Fort Sill and to have served a sentence in the Yuma Territorial Prison, neither of which became operational until after the Civil War 1869 and 1876 respectively.

* John Wayne and Stuart Whitman leave Galveston bound for the Louisiana border and immediately find themselves in desert-like surroundings with sandstone bluffs in the background. From Galveston to Louisiana the only thing they would have seen is canebrakes, grass prairies, live oak groves and piney woods.

* Budd Boetticher was the first choice for director of the film but turned it down as he had previously worked for John Wayne's Batjac on "Seven Men From Now" and "The Bullfighter and the Lady".

* Elmer Bernstein's theme music is heard in the "Apocalypse Cow" episode of "The Simpsons" when Bart drives a farm tractor.

External links

*imdb title|id=0054757|title=The Comancheros