Customer Reviews

Somewhere in Sonora

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I've always considered it very strange why Wayne's westerns of the 1930's are not given the same sort of revered status that other western stars like Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers received. Sure they're B movies but so were the films by Cassidy and Rogers. They might not have been as good from a pure technical standpoint, but they weren't awful either.

Wayne is John Bishop who, in a very familiar plotline, finds himself the victim of a frame-up. This time he's accused of tampering with a rivals coach in a big stage coach race and sent to jail. His boss (Henry B. Wathall) gets him out of jail and asks him to find his son Bart who was falsely accused of murder and now riding with a notorious outlaw gang. Bishop is joined by two friends, shorty and Riley as they venture off to Sonora to locate Bart and bring him back home safely.

Nicely done and full of action. Technically sound with even some comedic elements from the female co-stars Ann Fay and Shirley Palmer.

John Wayne once remarked that producer Leon Schlesinger's cartoons "were better than the horse operas he put me in." The Duke was probably referring to "Somewhere in Sonora" (1933) - one of his weakest Warner/Vitagraph Westerns. Wayne's youthful presence, Ted McCord's cinematography and a good supporting cast (including Henry B. Walthall, Paul Fix and Glenn Strange) are the best aspects of this dull "B" programmer. More action and far less comic relief would have helped. If you want embryonic Wayne, stick with "Haunted Gold" or "The Big Stampede."

Typical older Wayne work. Decent, solid but not like his later stuff. I have it and watch it now and then.