The Comancheros

For other uses, see Comanchero (disambiguation).

The Comancheros
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Michael Curtiz John Wayne (uncredited)
Produced by	George Sherman
Written by	Paul I. Wellman (novel) James Edward Grant Clair Huffaker (screenplay)
Starring	John Wayne Stuart Whitman Ina Balin Lee Marvin Nehemiah Persoff Bruce Cabot
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Cinematography	William H. Clothier
Editing by	Louis Loeffler
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	October 30, 1961
Running time	105 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

The Comancheros is a 1961 western Deluxe CinemaScope color film directed by Michael Curtiz and John Wayne (uncredited) based on a 1952 novel by Paul Wellman 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. The supporting cast includes Ina Balin, Lee Marvin, Nehemiah Persoff, and Bruce Cabot. Also featured are western film veterans Bob Steele, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, and Harry Carey, Jr. in uncredited supporting roles.

Plot

In 1843 roguish gambler Paul Regret (Stuart Whitman) escapes a death penalty after winning a duel with the son of a Louisiana judge, Emil Bouvier (Gregg Palmer) (he claimed that he would have only wounded Bouvier 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). 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", a large criminal gang headed by a former Confederate officer that smuggles guns and whiskey to the Comanche Indians to make money and keep the frontier in a state of violence. Cutter stops at a ranch owned by a friend when there is a sudden Comanche atttack. During the attack Regret hops on a horse and flees, but instead of making a clean getaway he soon returns with a unit of Texas Rangers and the attack is repulsed.

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 and Jake rides off into the sunset.

Cast

Actor	Role
John Wayne	Capt. Jake Cutter
Stuart Whitman	Paul Regret
Ina Balin	Pilar Graile
Nehemiah Persoff	Graile
Lee Marvin	Tully Crow
Michael Ansara	Amelung
Bruce Cabot	Maj. Henry
Joan O'Brien	Melinda Marshall
Jack Elam	Horseface
Edgar Buchanan	Judge Thaddeus Jackson Breen
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams	Ed McBain (gunrunner)
Leigh Snowden	Evie - Blonde in Hotel Room (uncredited)
Patrick Wayne	Tobe (Texas Ranger) (as Pat Wayne)
Gregg Palmer	Emil Bouvier (opponent in duel) (uncredited)
Aissa Wayne	Bessie Marshall (uncredited)

Background

• Anachronisms: 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. (Note however that earlier models of Colt revolvers were available and the Texas Rangers are famous for being the first government entity to adopt their use). 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.

• Whitman's character Paul Regret was the lead in the novel and Wayne's part had to be amplified for the film version. Wellman had envisioned Cary Grant as Regret as he wrote the novel. Gary Cooper and James Garner were originally set to be the leads but Cooper was in ill health and Garner had been blackballed from making major productions due to an ongoing dispute with Jack Warner.

• Michael Curtiz also directed The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart. The Comancheros was his last film.

• Budd Boetticher was the first choice for director but turned it down, as he was already fully occupied with the planning and writing of "Arruza". This odyssey would virtually destroy any chance Boetticher had of returning to the Hollywood mainstream, as it took 10 years to finish (and then only as a documentary), and by then he was virtually forgotten. He had previously worked for John Wayne's production company 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.

• Director Michael Curtiz was in the final stages of the cancer that would eventually kill him (he died shortly after the film was released). Often he was too ill to work, so star John Wayne took over direction of the picture, but he insisted that in the credits only Curtiz' name be listed as director.

External links

• The Comancheros at the Internet Movie Database
• The Comancheros at the TCM Movie Database
• The Comancheros at AllRovi