Wordiezett So much average

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Bereamic Awesome Movie

MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

classicsoncall This John Wayne film from Four Star Westerns has a decidedly Spanish flavor, even more so than the picture that came before, "Somewhere in Sonora", and that one actually took place south of the border. The story has to do with large scale Spanish Grant landholders who are required to register their land with the U.S. government, but in typical fashion, there are holdouts who must be persuaded to comply.John Wayne is Captain John Holmes, who's mission is to get the land owners to fall in line by persuading one of the biggest operators to register. However Don Jose Castanares (Lafe McKee) is reluctant to do so, and his friend Don Pablo Gonzalez (Francis Ford) urges him not to. Some friend, Don Pablo intends to move in on the property by registering it himself if it should fall into public domain by a certain date.This time out, the romantic interest for John Wayne's character is pretty senorita Dolores Castanares (Ruth Hall), daughter of Don Jose. There will be some complications, since the Don intends for his daughter to marry Don Luis (Donald Reed), son of Don Pablo, thereby further guaranteeing an interest in the Castaneras property for the Gonzalez family. For his part, Captain Holmes avails himself of a Mexican sidekick by teaming up with Felipe Guadalupe Constacio Delgado Santa Cruz de la Verranca (Luis Alberni). I included all those names for Felipe because despite all of them, Holmes wound up calling him 'Leo' a couple of times and I couldn't figure out where that came from.Well for an early oater like this there's a lot of goofy stuff going on, whether intentional or not. When Captain Holmes is locked up in a home made dungeon at one point, the bars on the cell are made of wood! A cantina gal named Anita (Nina Quartero), who claims to be engaged to Don Luis, somehow manages to pull a switcheroo during the wedding ceremony and marries Don Luis herself. And in a sword-fight against Don Luis's henchmen, John Wayne proves he's no Errol Flynn by waving his sword back and forth in a manner best designed not to hurt himself.Well look, virtually all of these early oaters were pretty sub-standard by most accounts, even John Wayne's. But the good news for Wayne was that he had only about forty of these types of flicks to go before hitting it big with "Stagecoach" in 1939. Right after completing this stint with Warners' Four Star Westerns unit, he signed up with Paul Malvern's Lone Star Productions where he plied his craft in sixteen more, mostly forgettable Westerns.

utgard14 Cavalry officer John Wayne fights Spaniards over land rights and over a pretty senorita. Early baby-faced Wayne doesn't do much to hint at what's to come later in his career. Luis Alberni is fun at times. Ruth Hall and Nina Quartero pretty things up. One of a half-dozen B westerns John Wayne made for Leon Schlesinger and WB in the early '30s. These are all watchable but ultimately forgettable. This one's not great and has some particularly spotty stunt work. If you're a John Wayne completist and you want to see all of his films, go right ahead and watch this. Everybody else should probably look elsewhere for something with more meat on the bone.

ajabrams134 OK - This is obviously not a great film by any stretch of the imagination but in its own silly way, it's a tremendously entertaining one. It reminds me of an early film operetta (like the original RIO RITA) except without the songs. The acting and script are, for the most part, pretty bad but that's part of the charm. John Wayne's performances certainly improved in later years but he was at his most handsome here--oozing sex appeal. And Luis Alberni has to be one of the great unsung character actors in Hollywood history. He is genuinely funny in this film---almost equaling his hilarious performance in THE GREAT GARRICK. The production values are surprisingly good for such a low budget effort, the print shown on TCM (which I assume is the same as the Warner DVD)is pristine and the plot moves like lightning. Give it a shot--you might have fun.

Michael_Elliott Man from Monterey, The (1933) ** (out of 4) "B" Western has Captain John Holmes (John Wayne) being sent by the government to try and explain to some Spanish folks that they must register their land grants or they will end up losing them by them falling into the public domain. Holmes must battle some greedy land stealers who want the most valuable land to fall into the public domain so that they can get it at a better price. This was one of six early films Wayne made for Warner and it's not one of the best. I think it goes without saying that many of the "B" Westerns from this era were very short on plot and many of them didn't differentiate themselves from countless others that were being released. This one here features Wayne with Duke and that's pretty much it. Usually I find myself entertained during these films but that wasn't the case here as I found the story to be interesting but that's about it. The movie didn't contain any good action scenes, the fights were rather boring and the entire subplot with the love story was deadly boring. The most energy comes from some unintentionally funny moments including one sequence where Wayne saves his love interest (Ruth Hall) only to have her jealous, wannabe boyfriend (Donald Reed) stick him up. How Wayne keeps flirting with the woman even though he has a gun on him had me laughing out loud. Even funnier is that the so-called boyfriend keeps getting more and more steamed yet Wayne never seems to notice. Other funny moments come from a troubadour (Luis Alberni) who actually keeps the film moving with his performance. Wayne isn't too bad, although he really doesn't have much to do except stand tall and act tough. Hall isn't too bad as the love interest but the screenplay doesn't do her any favors. Reed is pretty bland as the bad guy, although the unintentional laughs are actually needed here. The story of the land falling into the public domain could have made for an entertaining story but director Wright brings no life or energy to the film and in the end it's just too boring even at only 57-minutes.