Simply Perfect

Really Surprised!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A Major Disappointment

THE COMANCHEROS is an adventure western that delivers, a lot of an exciting entertainment in a frivolous story. Film is based on a 1952 novel of the same name by Paul Wellman.A roguish gambler escapes a death penalty after killing in a duel a son of a Louisiana judge. A fugitive enjoys in romantic moments with a mysterious lady on a ship. After that, he is captured by Texas Ranger. He manages to escape, but is subsequently recaptured after a chance encounter with a Ranger in a saloon. A Ranger is forced to join forces with the condemned to fight the "Comancheros", a large criminal gang headed by a former officer that smuggles guns and whiskey to the Comanche Indians to make money and keep the frontier in a state of violence. A gambler will find, among bandits, his love from a ship...This is a film, in which a mischievous gambler and a guardian of the law play their little game. A very interesting plot switches to an expected climax, which revives a stray love. Too many things is left to randomness in this story. We can, with the exception of logic, look at two sides of the law in this film.Open landscapes are very impressive. Characterization is pretty bad.In addition to John Wayne (Capt. Jake Cutter), who is a dominant character with his charisma and Lee Marvin (Tully Crow), who brought liveliness to the story, all the others are fit to an average performance.This film is a quite frivolous and it takes absurd proportions in some moments.

Enjoyable western with the surprisingly nice pairing of John Wayne and Stuart Whitman. Wayne plays Texas Ranger Jake Cutter. That's quite possibly the manliest name ever. Cutter arrests gambler Paul Regret (Whitman), who is wanted for killing a man even though it was in a fair duel. A lot of stuff happens but basically Cutter grows to respect and like Regret and the two team up to take on the Comancheros and the Comanches. I could explain the difference but it's probably better if you look it up. Solid cowboys and Indians western with a good cast. Nice support from Lee Marvin, Nehemiah Persoff, Jack Elam, Bruce Cabot, and Patrick Wayne. Henry Daniell appears briefly. The obligatory love interests are Ina Balin and Joan O'Brien. This is legendary director Michael Curtiz's last film. He was sick with cancer throughout the filming so an uncredited Wayne did quite a bit of the directing.

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.