The Big Stampede (1932)

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I happened to catch this film back to back with "Cahill, U.S. Marshal", and you couldn't ask for a better contrast between the John Wayne who appeared in one of his very first movies, and the one who finished out a career in one of his very last Westerns. Wayne was strikingly handsome in these early oaters, and because he appeared rail thin, looked somewhat taller than he did in his films of the late Seventies portraying characters like Cahill, Big Jake and Rooster Cogburn, all notably huskier and gruffer looking."The Big Stampede" was one of six movies Wayne appeared in under the 'Four Westerns" banner, an offshoot of the Warners studio. He was paired with a white horse named Duke, a conscious choice because Duke needed to resemble Ken Maynard's horse Tarzan when they sometimes appear in silent film stock footage used by the Four Westerns pictures. I hadn't noticed it before, but Duke bore what looked like an 'A1' mark or brand on his left hindquarter in this picture. I'll have to keep an eye out for it in other films.As far as the story goes, it's somewhat unusual in that newly deputized sheriff John Steele (Wayne) sees fit to team up with a Mexican bandit named Sonora Joe (Luis Alberni) in order to break up a cattle rustling operation run by outlaw Sam Crew, played by Noah Beery. What makes the situation even more incredible is that earlier, Steele stopped Sonora Joe and his banditos from stealing cattle that was part of the wagon train Steele was riding with.Apparently, story continuity wasn't one of the primary concerns for these early Westerns. There was an instance where Steele left the wagon train to make his way to Fort Cummings to see if the Army could use some beef cattle. However right after he left, the very next scene shows Steele playing harmonica back in camp with the rest of the cattle men. It could be that the version I watched on Turner Classics was an incomplete print because there were also a distracting number of flaws in the picture about fifteen minutes in.Still, if you're a John Wayne fan or a follower of these early Westerns, it's a fun flick that blows by in just under an hour. Like many of his first couple dozen films, Wayne's character wins the female lead, in this case Mae Madison, at the end of the picture. This time however, Sonora Joe has to stop Ginger's younger brother Patrick (Sherwood Bailey) from interrupting the romance - "All is fair in love and war, but no sling shot"!Addendum**** 6-7-2016 - Doing a little research on 'Duke', you can see a pretty good screen capture of the brand noted in my review here at: http://www.b-westerns.com/hoss-jwayne.htm. Apparently it's a combination of the letters AH as one can see from the picture.

Marshal John Steele (John Wayne) teams up with Mexican outlaw Sonora Joe (Luis Alberni) to take on villainous Sam Crew (Noah Beery). Paul Hurst plays one of Beery's henchmen. I'm used to seeing him in gangster pictures and other urban movies like that. He does fine here though. John Wayne made six of these B westerns for Leon Schlesinger that were distributed by Warner Bros. He appears with talented stunt horse Duke in each one. They're all watchable but nothing special. This is one of the better ones, thanks in large part to Noah Beery as the heavy. Luis Alberni is also lots of fun as the flamboyant Sonora Joe, even if he is Mexican by way of Madrid.

Through the 1930s, most of John Wayne's films were B-westerns--much like the films of the like of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers--though (in most cases) without the singing (don't even get me started on the silly 'Singing Sandy' films he made). In general, the films are above average for these sort of movies, though series B-movies were never meant as high art. The writing was extremely simplistic as were the characters, but thanks to Wayne's nice acting and some exceptional stunt-work, most of the films are a lot of fun for lovers of the genre. Now not all of his films of this type were created equal. Some (such as his Three Mesquiteer series) were very enjoyable while others (many of his films done for Leon Schlesinger) were really, really bad. As this is a Schlesinger film, my hopes were not set really high, as the last two I watched ("Ride Him Cowboy" and "Haunted Gold") were just awful--a surprise since the films were distributed by Warner Brothers-Vitaphone Studio--a bigger-name company and higher status company than than those that usually produced cheap B westerns. Is this one any better? I could only hope! The film begins with Wayne meeting with the governor and volunteering to become a marshal in New Mexico and bring its lawlessness under control. This is a very typical sort of plot but is interesting because the governor portrayed was a real-life guy--General Lew Wallace (Berton Churchill). Wallace was a Civil general, governor and author of "Ben Hur" and seeing him as a character surprised me.Like his other films, his co-star is his horse, 'Duke'. This is a bit ironic, as 'the Duke' was later Wayne's nickname and, in general, this smart horse was the best thing going for these movies! It was so smart and talented, it could have rivaled Roy Rogers' beloved Trigger in intelligence and acting ability! As marshal, Wayne makes an apparently insane move and makes a low-down Mexican bandit-sort, Sonora, his deputy. Clearly, he must have read that he should do this in the script, as it made no sense--any sane lawman would have thought twice or three times before handing a badge to this guy! Yet, as I said, it was in the script, so you know it will work out for the better by the end of the film! And together they take on the chief baddie (Noah Beery). Can you guess who wins in the end?! The film has a better plot than most of the Schlesinger/Wayne films. The bad guy is also better and more memorable than most. As for the stunts, they are once again the highlight of the film. I assumed that it's Yakima Canutt in charge of the great stunt-work, but IMDb did not indicate this--meaning there must have been some other great stunt men doing some of these insanely dangerous and cool stunts OR it was a Canutt job after all but he just isn't credited. Regardless, the work is impressive even today and you wonder how they got anyone crazy enough to do these tricks! Overall, it's a very pleasant little B-film. Compared to other films in this crowded genre, it's very good. It certainly cannot be compared to a typical full-length western, but for what it is it's nice. My score of 7 is relative to other B westerns. What a pleasant surprise! By the way, if the name Schlesinger is familiar, it should be. He's the guy who oversaw production of cartoons for Warner Brothers for several decades. Apparently, I heard he hated cartoons and his job, but he was certainly a lot more successful with them than with B westerns.

A number of John Wayne's early westerns looked alike, but that's not a criticism because the handful I've seen were all entertaining.That's one similarity: others included the fact they only were about an hour long, had interesting (albeit strange) dialog, had a pretty lead female (here, Mae Madison) and a very talented horse named "Blue." Of course, the men were all tough guys.There is a lot of action and interesting scenes packed into this one hour.My only complaint was that Luis Alberini's character made the Mexicans look unnecessarily stupid.