The Comancheros (1961)

INFORMATION FROM IMDb

Plot Summary
Texas Ranger Jake Cutter arrests gambler Paul Regret,
but soon finds himself teamed with his prisoner in an undercover effort to defeat a band of renegade arms merchants
and thieves known as Comancheros.
Summary written by Jim Beaver

Full Cast
John Wayne .... Ranger Capt. Jake Cutter
Stuart Whitman .... Paul Regret
Ina Balin .... Pilar Graile
Nehemiah Persoff .... Graile
Lee Marvin .... Tully Crow
Michael Ansara .... Amelung
Patrick Wayne .... Tobe (Texas Ranger) (as Pat Wayne)
Bruce Cabot .... Maj. Henry (Ranger CO)
Joan O'Brien .... Melinda Marshall
Jack Elam .... Horseface (Comanchero)
Edgar Buchanan .... Circuit Court Judge Thaddeus Jackson Breen
Henry Daniell .... Gireaux
Richard Devon .... Esteban
Phil Arnold .... Nervous barfly (uncredited)
Anne Barton .... Mrs. Schofield (uncredited)
Steve Baylor .... Comanchero (uncredited)
Don Brodie .... Card Dealer (uncredited)
Alan Carney .... Stillwater bartender (uncredited)
Iphigenie Castiglioni .... Josefina (uncredited)
Dennis Cole .... (uncredited)
Booth Colman .... Hotel clerk (uncredited)
Gabriel Curtiz .... Marsac (uncredited)
John Dierkes .... Ranger Bill Larsen (uncredited)
Ilana Dowding .... Mary Schofield (uncredited)
William Fawcett .... Poker player (uncredited)
Joe Gray .... (uncredited)
George J. Lewis .... Chief Iron Shirt (uncredited)
Jon Lormer .... Elderly man on riverboat (uncredited)
Cliff Lyons .... (uncredited)
Roger Mobley .... Bub Schofield (uncredited)
Gregg Palmer .... Bouvier (opponent in duel) (uncredited)
Michael Ross .... Gordo (Graile's bodyguard) (uncredited)
Leigh Snowden .... Evie (uncredited)
Bob Steele .... Pa Schofield (uncredited)
Lusita Triana .... Spanish dancer (uncredited)
Ralph Volkie .... Riverboat steward (uncredited)
Aissa Wayne .... Bessie Marshall (uncredited)
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams .... Ed McBain (gunrunner) (uncredited)
Henry Wills ... Ranger (uncredited)
Sammy Wolfe ... Poker Player (uncredited)
Kelly Yost ... Indian (uncredited)

Writing Credits
Paul Wellman (novel) (as Paul I. Wellman)
James Edward Grant screenplay
Clair Huffaker screenplay

Music
Elmer Bernstein

Cinematography
William H. Clothier (director of photography)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jack R. Berne .... assistant director
Cliff Lyons .... action sequences director

Stunts
Denny Arnold .... stunts (uncredited)
Jim Burk .... stunts (uncredited)
Joe Canutt .... stunts (uncredited)
Tap Canutt .... stunts (uncredited)
Bill Hart .... stunts (uncredited)
Chuck Hayward .... stunts (uncredited)
Tom Hennesy .... stunts (uncredited)
Cliff Lyons .... stunts (uncredited)
Bob Morgan .... stunts (uncredited)
Boyd 'Red' Morgan .... stunts (uncredited)
Chuck Roberson .... stunts (uncredited)
Dean Smith .... stunts (uncredited)
Bill Williams .... stunts (uncredited)
Jack Williams .... stunts (uncredited)

Trivia
During much of the shooting, director Michael Curtiz was seriously ill (he died of cancer shortly after the film's release). On the days when Curtiz was too ill to work, John Wayne took over direction of the film, and when it was completed he told the studio that he did not want credit as co-director and insisted that Curtiz' name alone appear as director.

The final film directed by Michael Curtiz.

When John Wayne signs the hotel register as "McBain", one of the names in the register is William H. Clothier, the film's director of photography.

Besides the name of William H. Clothier, the film's director of photography, another crew member's name that appears in the hotel registry signed by "Ed McBain" is that of Jack R. Berne, an assistant director on the film.

The last film of veteran cowboy actor Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams, who died shortly after its completion.

John Wayne's character, Ranger Capt. Jake Cutter, is called Big Jake. Wayne later played Jacob McCandles in Big Jake (1971).

Paul Wellman wrote the novel with Cary Grant in mind as Paul Regret. However, by the time the film was made in 1961 Grant was too old for the part, and would never have taken second billing to John Wayne.

Goofs
* Revealing mistakes: After Regret hits Cutter with a shovel, Cutter wakes up when it starts raining. Somehow, the sky is still blue and there are strong shadows. It is only raining about 30 feet from Cutter.

* Anachronisms: Cutter is shown wearing a Texas Ranger Badge. These badges were not introduced until the 1880s, 37 years after the year the movie story takes place (1843).

* Crew or equipment visible: In the final gun battle, when the man in the wagon is shot, instead of seeing his body falling from the wagon, we see someone throwing it out.

* Anachronisms: The guns used in the movie are Colt single action revolvers model 1873, Henry lever action rifle look-alikes model 1860, and Winchester lever action rifles model 1892. The only correct period guns used were the single-shot percussion-cap dueling pistols used in the opening scene.

* Revealing mistakes: During the last battle of the movie, Cutter is shown in a wagon shooting a lever action rifle left-handed. The film is reversed, because the loading port of the rifle is depicted as being on the left (wrong) side of the rifle.

* Continuity: When Pa Schofield goes out of the house with the baby in his arms and calls his friends, the baby is completely covered. So we see the Cutter's hand discovering the baby's face in close-up. Next shot the baby is still completely covered.

* Continuity: Inside the boat, Regret is sleeping on the bed. Suddenly, in the shadow projected on the wall behind the bed, we see the door opens and the image of Cutter appears. The next shot shows Cutter himself and his shadow on the door his left hand.

* Anachronisms: Major Henry mentions that Ed McBain spent 5 years at the Yuma Territorial Prison. In 1843 Arizona was part of Mexico, so there was no Yuma Territorial Prison then. The Mexican-American war, where the US took the SW from Mexico, wasn't won until 1848.

* Continuity: Paul Regret knocks Jake Cutter unconscious with a shovel, throws it on the ground, and escapes. When Jake wakes up later the shovel is laying the opposite way, the handle and business end have exchanged places.

* Continuity: When Regret hits Jake with the shovel, the shovel flexes. It is obviously made out of rubber.

* Revealing mistakes: Obvious use of a dummy in the final escape when Esteban is shot and "falls" out of the wagon.

* Continuity: As Jake and Regret are delivering their wagon-load of guns, they see see Indians on the hilltops. Jake removes a staff with feathers from his side of the wagon, and hands it to Regret, saying 'We'll see if this passport works.' The next two quick camera cuts show the staff first back on the wagon, then again in Regret's hands.

* Errors in geography: Regret and Pilar meet on a Mississippi-style river boat, but the ocean is in the background when they talk on deck. The riverboat lands in Galveston, but no such riverboat navigated the Trinity or San Jacinto Rivers that empty into Galveston Bay. Regret and Cutter ride from Galveston into the desert. The nearest desert to Galveston is at least 400 miles, and nothing in Texas looks like the desert in the film.

* Revealing mistakes: In the final battle scene Amelung falls from the wagon with his hands tied behind his back. As he falls he places his hands in front to catch himself then quickly places them behind him again as others rush to assist him.

* Continuity: In the bar scene: Tully Crow (Lee Marvin) asks the bartender for a bottle of "the good stuff." The bartender holds up a bottle of whiskey with his right hand. Crow, not believing that it really is "the good stuff," gets mad and shoots the bottle and breaks it. The camera view then changes to a stuffed deer head on the wall, which Crow also shoots. Then the camera goes back to the bartender, but he is standing there with the same bottle of whiskey in his right hand - bottle is intact and unbroken.

* Continuity: In the Marshall's farm-yard: when Jake Cutter (John Wayne) introduces Paul Regret to Bessie Marshall, the sunlight on Regret's face - as well as on the horse behind him - instantly changes to overcast between shots.

* Continuity: During Jake's and Regret's visit to the Schofield farmstead: the angle of sunlight and lengths of shadows cast by men and horses change markedly between shots. For example, one minute Jake Cutter is talking to Major Henry in what appears to be nearly midday sunlight. The camera angle changes, and we see Jake watching Major Henry lead off the mounted team of Rangers, but now they are all casting fairly long shadows. Then the action goes back to Paul Regret, but now the sunlight indicates somewhere close to mid-day. This random shifting of sunlight and shadow lengths repeats throughout the Schofield scene.

* Anachronisms: When McBain is interrogated Major Henry states that McBain's guns had been stolen from Fort Sill and that McBain had served five years in Yuma Territorial Prison. As the film is supposedly set before 1848, neither is possible. Yuma Territorial Prison was opened in 1876, while Fort Sill was first established in 1869. Both occurred after Texas lost its independence and became a state.

* Revealing mistakes: When Capt. Cutter handcuffs Paul Regret in his bed on the boat after as he wakes him up, one end of the handcuffs is simply resting around the narrowing end of the bedpost with nothing holding it there. To make matters worse, at the end of the scene when Capt. Cutter gives Paul Regret his suit to Don, he takes out his key to undo the cuffs as though they just can't be pulled right off the top of the bedpost.

Memorable Quotes

Filming Locations
Dead Horse Point State Park - State Highway 313, Moab, Utah, USA
Fisher Towers, Moab, Utah, USA
Kings Bottom, Utah, USA
La Sal Mountains, La Sal, Utah, USA
Professor Valley, Moab, Utah, USA
Red Rock Crossing, Sedona, Arizona, USA
(credits sequence)

Watch the Trailer:-

[youtube]bMR9Lj33acY[/youtube]

Previous discussion:-
The Comancheros

The Comancheros is a 1961 Western Deluxe CinemaScope color film
directed by Michael Curtiz and John Wayne
based on a 1952 novel of the same name by Paul Wellman.
The film starred John Wayne and Stuart Whitman

One of my favourites, and I really enjoy this film.
It's great entertainment full of fun, and lots of action.
Duke more convincing in his authorative type role,
made a great Texas Ranger.
This was the start of him having no love interest,and establishing a pattern
for later films.
He was now 54, his hair had grown thin, and he was having trouble controlling his weight.
Duke's screen image, was now shifting to that, of a mature hero, one of enduring strength,
who observed younger mens, love affair, with understanding and a touch of humour.
The chemistry between, Duke and Stuart Whitman was obvious,
apart from The Longest Day, it's a pity they didn't make a another feature, together.
Lee Marvin, was cast brilliantly as 'Crow', and it's a shame
he was only on the screen, for about 10 minutes.
Jack Elam, added his usual, character part.
It is also interesting in the Stunts section,
to see the Canutt family, so involved.

Over all a pleasant, undemanding, watchable bit of fun,

User Review

Quote

Author: haristas from USA from IMDb
I really enjoy this film, though it's more about how much I love the sights in the American Southwest,
and William Clothier's Cinemascope photography of locals in Utah and Arizona is simply stunning here,
and the wonderful Elmer Bernstein score, and less to do with the conventions of the Western genre in general
and John Wayne movies in particular. Both had become pretty stale by the time this picture was made.
As a 'serious' Western it can be dismissed; it's about as historically accurate as "Blazing Saddles"
and I don't know what's supposed to look worse, the scalped head make-up Lee Marvin (who practically steals the film)
wears or the wig-pieces Wayne sports
. However, this forty-year-old movie plays as better entertainment than most movies made today.
It's hardly cynical, tries to reinforce ideas of right and wrong, and knows it's not to be taken seriously anyway.
You can also tell that everyone seems to be having a very good time making this movie.
It's also the last of more than 150 films directed by Michael Curtiz (though Wayne had to direct a lot of it himself when
Curtiz fell ill [Curtiz died shortly after filming ended]). A beautiful letterboxed transfer of this movie was done for laserdisc in 1993.
It also featured commentary by stars Stuart Whitman, Patrick Wayne,
Michael Ansara and Nehemiah Persoff, as well as production stills, script pages,
posters and lobby cards. Somebody at Fox at the time thought the movie deserved this 'Collector's Edition' treatment,
so I can only hope that person is still there and that this will be replicated on DVD soon.

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Hi,
I have been researching all the threads, back to the startt of the JWMB,
looking for previous discussion, relating to the movies.
I have found the following, comments, and have copied them here,
so that they are now under one forum:-

The Comancheros, and the John Wayne Tree

Quote

General Sterling Price
post Feb 14 2004, 04:50 AM

Tonight my wife and I watched The Comancheros, and it seems that each time I see it, it goes up a few notches on my list of favorites. The dialog between Wayne and "Paul Regret" all the way through is great. It was filmed back in early 60s in Moab, Utah. My wife lived there for a year in the mid-80s, and she and her family went hiking in the La Sal mountains just east of Moab. Locals there directed them to what is known as the John Wayne tree, so they went for a look-see. Sure enough there was an apsen with the name John Wayne carved into it. They were told that JW carved it during a film shoot...and we have determined that it must have been Comancheros. So if you are ever in Moab, UT, just ask the locals and they will direct you to it.

Does anyone else share my particular fondness for this film? I think in many ways, it captures the pure essence of JW in a western film.

GSP

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Quote

Hondo Duke Lane
post Feb 14 2004, 05:07 AM

This is the first film that Duke did after his production of The Alamo. Duke almost went broke making that movie, and needed a lift after disappionting release of it. The Comancheros did the trick and help Duke out of a financial diaster in 1961. The Alamo brought him a little money back, but it caused him a lot of heartache.

Cheers, Hondo B)

Quote

itdo
post Feb 14 2004, 09:48 AM

I have been to Moab, mainly of course to find the locations of JW pictures. The scenery is just wonderful. But I must have missed out the tree! Too bad. The first one JW did in that area is Rio Grande and I tried - unsuccessfully - to find the spot where they build the adobe town for the big shoot-out. I was in the right area, but not in the exact right spot which is a private area.
Where Ford placed the fort in "Rio Grande" is at the Colorado river, and that's a private owned ranch as well (he also filmed a fort sequence of "Cheyenne Autumn" there).
I found the spot where they filmed the fording of the Colorado, doubling for the Rio Grande (where JW meets Mexican officials) and he himself named a characteristic stone "locomotive" spot.
Not far from there is Devil's Tower, where The Comancheros had their camp - there's no trace of that left. Anyway, people get there for hiking, not for location scouting. If you'd like to know more, there's a good book: "Where God put the West", that'll tell you all about films made in that area. One motel in town claims to be the one "where JW slept".

Hondo, the first film released after Alamo was North to Alaska, the first of his new deal with Fox,
which included Comancheros, that came right after that one. But the first one he went filming (actually when Alamo was still to be released) was Hatari!

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Quote

arthurarnell
post Feb 14 2004, 02:40 PM

Hi,

One of the reasons I love certain films is the sound track.
Von Korngolds stirring music of the thirties and forties in Robin Hood and the Sea Hawks equally matched Errol Flynns stirring deed of daring and carried the audience along.

So it is with John Wayn westerns and in his case he had some fabulous composers compose some fabulous music. Apart from the Alamo and Red River. two films I particularly like, and both for different reasons are The Sons of Katie Elder and The Comancheros. The first because it is stirring throughout, the second because it seems to have many moods and in certain passages evokes a great deal of sadness.

it was probably no coincidence that Michael Curtiz directed Errol Flynn and The Comancheros.

With the aid of the music the film had vitality, motion and bounce. Westerns more than any other genre benefit from stirring music Bernsteins music in The Comancheros became as equally important to the film as the script, forcing itself to the forefront than than in some films remaining un-prtentious like in the background. When Wayne and Marvin drive the wagon at speed the music beats out the tempo and the speed the wagon goes, as it does when the Comancheros ride.

At other times when the music slows and qoes quiet, it gives, to me at any rate, a slight sense of peace, calmness nostalgia, a sadness almost a sense of ending and a remberance of John Wayne's quality. Which when you realise he would not die for another eighteen years may seem ridiculous, but as I couldn't know then but do now hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Incidentally I thought the movie was great.

Regards
Arthur

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Hi cookiequilts,

and WELCOME to the JWMB.

Thanks for your post, and you maybe interested,
there are dedicated threads for Duke's Movies,

Here is the link for

THE COMANCHEROS

there are more memorable qoutes, in that thread.

Best Wishes,