Customer Reviews

King of the Pecos [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This review refers to the Artisan DVD of "King Of The Pecos"(John Wayne Collection)...

Alexander Stiles is a land grubbing, cattle rustling,water hording, lily livered murderin' thief. Nobody and nothin' will get in the way of the empire he is building for himself in Old New Mexico. He even goes as far as to have a hard working husband and wife shot down in cold blood in front of their own child. BIG mistake...little did Stiles realize then that this little kid would grow up to be The Duke..John Wayne!

Yesiree Bob..little John Clayborn comes back to town all grown up and with a law degree to boot. Now known as John Clay he's on a mission to help the townspeople that have all been swindled by the evil Stiles. The long arm of the law is no match for Stiles' murderin' ways though, and lucky for us, The Duke not only has a law degree but is a crack shot with a six-shooter as well! So let the range wars begin! Who will be the last man standing?...well..You know....

At just under an hour,"King Of The Pecos" is the kind of great old fashioned shoot-em-up that all the newer westerns pay homage to. Wayne is marvelous as the ultimate good guy who comes riding in on his white horse to save the day..and you know..where our guy is concerned there is even a little romance as well!

Wonderfully directed by Joseph Kane("Flame of the Barbary Coast"), with some fabulous black and white western cinematography, the film also stars Muriel Evans, Cy Kendall and Jack Clifford.

A great big nod to Artsian, for giving us a beautiful transfer of the 1936 film. The picture in the original full screen is clear and crisp. The sound is remasterd in DD2.0(mono). The dialouge is clear and distinct, as is all the wonderful sounds of the horses and gunfire. I am truly impressed by how good it looks and sounds.

Five stars for being a wonderful piece of cinematic history to add to your John Wayne collection!

Saddle up and enjoy....Laurie

also recommended:
The Searchers / Stagecoach
John Wayne

John Cleburn and his family were hard working settlers with legal right to prime western property. They happened to be on the property that the thieving Alexander Stiles set his sights upon. When Cleburn did not agree to sell his property, Stiles and his evil cronies just killed Cleburn and his wife and beat their son, leaving him for dead. But, he did not die, and you can imagine that John Jr. grew up with revenge in his eyes. He became a lawyer and a gunman. With those two talents, he eventually manages to ruin the evil Stiles Empire. John Wayne was the only one in the film with much acting ability. His two sidekicks are somewhat funny. As usual, there is a wedding at the end and JW is in it. This is a good film for all to see. Get your kids into the old Wayne films. They are clean and wholesome good fun.

This is a simple good and bad guy movie. John Wayne is the only one on a white horse. He fights evil and wins the heart of the pretty girl. His friends are of the best caliber and stick by him no matter what. I liked it because it reminds me when good always won and life was simple.

For John Wayne enthusiasts this is a good movie. There were plenty of big
stars including John Wayne. One could tell the limits of movie production
at the time which was comical to watch, but for anyone that loves John Wayne as much as I do it is a good movie.

I am a John Wayne fan with over 70 of his movies. I agree with the other reviews of the plot of the movie. It is top of the line of John Wayne's grade B Republic movies. The DVD has been fixed & the sound & picture are better than I expected. I especially enjoyed the ending since I am slightly hard of hearing.

I'm a big fan of John Wayne. Even in my youthful liberal days, I always stood up for him whenever my friends on the left would disparage him and his acting. "Forget his politics" I would say, "He's an outstanding actor!" The comment that "He always played the same role" led me to observe, over the years, that this discription would apply to 90% of all screen actors. The idea that a strong, forceful man of principle is the discription of a character role just doesn't register. The main problem with the career of John Wayne was that he made numerous poor decisions in the movies he chose to make. However, that is a flaw of his years of stardom. He made a lot of clunkers before he ever became a star but that was his role in hollywood; the Saturday matinee cowboy hero.

I have seen a number of Wayne's pre-"Stagecoach" movies and I decided to jot a review of "King of the Pecos" because it struck me as one of the better movies Wayne made during this period. It has an interesting beginning; a ruthless man and his entourage stake out a terriotory of their own in Texas. In the process his henchman kills a settler and his wife but leaves the young boy. Well, guess who comes back incognito as an adult. Some of the action is fairly decent and the role that Wayne plays is a bit more complex in this movie (he has a law degree as well as the ability to shoot the eyes out of a snake). The other characters are somewhat less developed but there are a couple of comic sidekicks that fit the role adequately. There are issues with this movie as there are with all the pre-stardom movies that were made on the cheap. Things don't always make sense. For example what happens to his horse during one of the big shootouts, how can you rely on white armbands while riding miles on a dusty trail, and what's the big deal with the safe and the salamander nickname? However, for a low budget movie probably made in a week's time, "King of the Pecos" isn't too bad (but, let's face it, none of these movies rate a **** or a *****).

i've enjoyed finding some oldies but goodies of john wayne's movies~~~ my elderly mother and i enjoy them emmensely. Love watching "the duke"

King of the Pecos was probably part of the double bill at the Bijou's Saturday matinee. If you buy it, you'll watch it once.
It isn't awful, but it's nothing special, either.