Customer Reviews

Man From Monterey [VHS]

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John Wayne's sixth B Western for Warner Brothers and last. Wayne does a good job as a army captain who must fight off spanish land grabbers and rescuse the girl he loves from being married to a crooked spanish guys son. This movie has good costumes and stage sets. Plus a good sword fight with Wayne taking on all the bad guys.

"The Man From Monterey" (1933) remains a deadly dull John Wayne vehicle, with unfunny comic relief and precious little action. Still learning the ropes, a youthful Duke proves he's no Errol Flynn in a poorly staged sword fight. Easily the worst of Wayne's six Westerns for Warner/Vitagraph.

"Man from Monterey" is one of the 60+ B westerns that John Wayne made before his "break-out" in "Stagecoach" (1939). He made it in 1933, one of 14 films he made that year, and the last one he made for Warner Brothers before joining Monogram. This is one of the first of his lead roles.

The film stars "John Wayne and Duke", Duke being the wonder horse. Duke was so well known that Wayne shared billing with him in several films. In the other films, Duke performs more tricks, but in this one he is fairly muted. Duke was a beautiful, huge, white horse. Wayne would go on to ride about a dozen horses during his long career, the most famous of whom was Ol' Dollar ("True Grit", "The Undefeated", "Rio Lobo", "Chisum", and "The Shootist").

Francis Ford (1881-1953) co-stars with Ruth Hall. Francis Ford was director John Ford's older brother. He was a writer and a director and also an actor, appearing in several films directed by his younger brother - "The Informer" (1935), "Drums Along the Mohawk" (1939), "The Quiet Man" (1952), etc. Ford plays an evil Spanish landowner. In almost all his roles under brother John, Francis has only minor parts. In films with other directors, like this one, he had much more screen time.

Ruth Hall (1910-2003) plays Wayne's love interest. She appeared in 40 films from 1930 to 1953, although the early 30s was her most active period. She appeared with Wayne in "The Three Musketeers" (1931).

Slim Whitaker (1893-1960) appears as an ally of Wayne. Whitaker appeared in more than 300 films, from the silent era where he worked as a stunt man from Broncho Billy Anderson. He was close friends with Ken Maynard, Hoot Gibson, Walter Brennan, and Wayne, and appeared in many of their films, most often as a mustachioed bad guy. In 1933 he appeared in more than 20 films.

Mack Wright (1894-1965) directs. He worked on more than 100 films between 1920 and 1961 including 6 with John Wayne between 1931 and 1936. His most well known film was "The Mummy's Curse (1944).

The film is OK as one of the hundreds of B westerns that were churned out in the 30s. Wayne, though, is pretty bad, and he has a sword fighting scene that is truly pathetic. If you want to see how bad an actor John Wayne could be, this is the right film for you. Otherwise it doesn't have much to recommend it.