The Comancheros movie synopsis. In 1843, roguish gambler Paul Regret (Whitman) flees to avoid a death penalty after a duel with Emil Bouvier (Gregg Palmer), the son of a Louisiana judge. Regret claimed that he would have only wounded Bouvier if he had not sidestepped. He is captured by Texas Ranger Captain Jake Cutter (Wayne) after a tryst with a mysterious lady, Pilar Graile (Ina Balin). Regret manages to escape but is recaptured after a chance encounter with Cutter in a saloon.
Returning Regret to Louisiana, Cutter is forced to join forces with the condemned man to fight the “Comancheros”, a large criminal gang headed by a former officer who 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 the Comanche attack suddenly.
During the attack, Regret jumps on a horse and flees but instead of making a clean getaway, he returns with a unit of Texas Rangers and the attack is repulsed. Because of Regret’s act of valor, a company of Rangers and a judge lie themselves blue in the face, stating that Regret had been working undercover as a Ranger to spy out the Comancheros’ supply line, clear his name, and swear him in as a Texas Ranger.
After finding one of the Comancheros’ suppliers and killing him in self defense, Cutter and Regret take over his delivery wagon and infiltrate the self-sufficient Comanchero community at the bottom of a valley in the desert. Pilar reappears as the daughter of the ruthless Comanchero leader Graile (Nehemiah Persoff), who uses a wheelchair. After Cutter and the other Texas Rangers defeat the Comanches and Comancheros, Regret and Pilar leave together for Mexico and Jake rides off into the sunset to rejoin the Ranger company.
The Comancheros is a 1961 American CinemaScope adventure western film directed by Michael Curtiz, based on a 1952 novel of the same name by Paul Wellman, and starring John Wayne and Stuart Whitman. The supporting cast includes Ina Balin, Lee Marvin, Nehemiah Persoff, Bruce Cabot, Jack Elam, Patrick Wayne, and Edgar Buchanan. Also featured are Western-film veterans Bob Steele, Guinn “Big Boy” Williams, and Harry Carey, Jr. in uncredited supporting roles.
When illness prevented Curtiz (director of Casablanca and The Adventures of Robin Hood) from finishing the film, Wayne took over as director, though his role remained uncredited. Curtiz died shortly after the film was completed.
About the Production
Wellman’s novel had been bought for the screen by George Stevens, who wanted to direct it after Giant (1956). He then became interested in making The Diary of Anne Frank and sold the film rights to Fox for $300,000. Clair Huffaker was signed by the studio to adapt it for producer Charles Brackett, with Gary Cooper to star. Robert Wagner was in line to play Cooper’s co-star.
Cooper was in ill health and in early 1961 Douglas Heyes was announced as writer and director. John Wayne and Charlton Heston were announced as stars but Heston dropped out and was replaced by Tom Tryon, then Heyes dropped out and was replaced by Michael Curtiz. Fox had the script rewritten by Wayne’s regular writer James Edward Grant.
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’s ill health and Garner’s blackballing over a dispute with Jack L. Warner ruled them out.
According to Tom Mankiewicz, who worked on the film as an assistant, Curtiz was often ill during production and John Wayne took over the directing.[6] Wayne told Mankiewicz to remove his John F. Kennedy button.
Parts of the film were shot in Professor Valley, Dead Horse Point, King’s Bottom, La Sal Mountains, Fisher Valley, Onion Creek, Hurrah Pass and Haver Ranch in Utah.
The Comancheros (1961)
Directed by: Michael Curtiz
Starring: John Wayne, Stuart Whitman, Ina Balin, Lee Marvin, Joan O’Brien, Nehemiah Persoff, Bruce Cabot, Edgar Buchanan, Henry Daniell, Richard Devon, Phil Arnold, Anne Barton
Screenplay by: James Edward Grant, Clair Huffaker
Cinematography by: William H. Clothier
Film Editing by: Louis Loeffler
Costume Design by: Marjorie Best
Set Decoration by: Robert Priestley, Walter M. Scott
Art Direction by: Jack Martin Smith, Alfred Ybarra
Makeup Department: Ben Nye, Helen Turpin
Music by: Elmer Bernstein
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: November 1, 1961
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