The Comancheros ** (1961, John Wayne, Stuart Whitman, Nehemiah Persoff, Lee Marvin, Ina Balin, Bruce Cabot, Michael Ansara, Joan O’Brien) – Classic Movie Review 6,436

John Wayne stars as a hard-bitten Texas Ranger Captain in the rough and tough 1961 American CinemaScope Western film The Comancheros, directed by the legendary Michael Curtiz in his last movie.

John Wayne stars as the hard-bitten Texas Ranger Captain Jake Cutter who joins up with his roguish gambler prisoner Paul Regret (Stuart Whitman) to clean up a gang of Comanchero renegade arms merchants and thieves, in the rough and tough 1961 American CinemaScope Western film The Comancheros.

It directed by the legendary Michael Curtiz, making his last movie, but he was often ill during production and John Wayne took over the directing.

The reliable work from Wayne and a flamboyant appearance from Lee Marvin as a loud-mouthed killer called Tully Crow make up for Whitman’s overblown acting and an insipid performance from Ina Balin as the Indian chief’s daughter, Pilar Graile.

The film’s tongue-in-cheek first half abruptly gives way to a brutal finale, but overall the problem is that James Edward Grant and Clair Huffaker’s screenplay for this large-scale, action-packed 20th Century Fox production is in the second rank. The screenplay is based on a 1952 novel by Paul Wellman,

Also in the cast are Nehemiah Persoff, Bruce Cabot, Michael Ansara, Patrick Wayne, Joan O’Brien, Jack Elam, Edgar Buchanan, Henry Daniell and Richard Devon.

Western-film veterans Bob Steele, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams and Harry Carey Jr are featured in uncredited support roles.

The Comancheros runs 107 minutes, is shot in colour and widescreen by William H Clothier, is produced by George Sherman, and is scored by Elmer Bernstein.

Wayne took over as uncredited director when illness prevented Curtiz from finishing the film. Curtiz died shortly after it was shot.

Joan Marie O’Brien (February 14, 1936 – May 5, 2025) 

Joan O’Brien enjoyed a brief but successful career on TV and film in the 1950s to the mid-1960s. She stars with Cary Grant and Tony Curtis in the 1959 film Operation Petticoat and stars as Elvis Presley’s girlfriend in the 1963 It Happened at the World’s Fair. She plays survivor Susanna Dickinson in John Wayne’s 1960 epic The Alamo, and in 1961 plays his love interest in The Comancheros.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6,436

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com