The Man from Monterey

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.

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.

In 1848, Spanish landowners are losing their lands when the US government refuses to acknowledge the land grants given years before to the citizens. Some unscrupulous types are also using the upheaval as an opportunity to swindle others. Cavalry officer John Holmes (John Wayne) is sent to make sure that the land owners know that they have a chance to register their lands with the government, which upsets scheming bad guys Don Luis (Donald Reed) and Don Pablo (Francis Ford). Holmes tries to outwit them while also wooing local beauty Dolores (Ruth Hall).

This is a little better than many of the other Wayne/Duke movies, with an emphasis on character, and better costumes and sets. It's still pretty bad, though, with stilted acting and an uninspired script. Luis Alberni gets a scene in drag. It's largely interesting from a standpoint of seeing what John Wayne was doing between The Big Trail and Stagecoach.

The Man from Monterey has virtually nothing to offer the movie fan, not even the John Wayne completist. Its story is hackneyed, its actor's mostly amateurish and their character's boring. On the plus side, the exterior scenery is pleasant and Luis Alberni gives a comic performance that, while not especially funny, seems positively inspired compared with the rest of the cast. But undoubtedly the movie's greatest asset is that it lasts less than an hour.

John Wayne's first starring role was in Raoul Walsh's "The Big Trail" from 1930, but when this film flopped at the box-office he spend most of the rest of the decade making third-rate horse-operas for the smaller "Poverty Row" studios. "The Man from Monterey", however, is a cut above that sort of thing. It was the last of six films Wayne made for Warner Brothers in 1932 and 1933, although it is still a B-movie, less than an hour long. The action takes place in California in 1848, during the brief interval between that territory's annexation by the United States following the Mexican-American war and the arrival of the miners in the Gold Rush of 1849, a period during which the majority of the white population of the area were Hispanic rather than Anglo.

The story revolves around a love-triangle between Wayne's character John Holmes, Dolores Castanares, the daughter of a wealthy Spanish landowner, and Don Luis Gonzales, the son of another landowning family. No prizes for guessing who gets the girl. Although Don Luis seems handsome and dashing, he and his father are plotting to acquire the Castanares land by underhand methods. The new US administration have required Spanish land owners to register their lands before a deadline, and the Gonzaleses are aiming to use this requirement as part of their plot. It falls to Holmes, a U. S. Army Captain charged with administering the registration scheme, to foil them.

None of the other cast members are of any great fame; second billing goes not to any of Wayne's human co-stars but to his white horse, Duke. (Presumably named after Wayne's own nickname). Duke had been introduced to the public the previous year in "Ride Him, Cowboy" (in which he plays a major role in the plot) and was a regular fixture in Wayne's Warner Brothers movies.

This film is a lot better than many of Wayne's offerings from the thirties. It is not marked by the sort of bad acting, cheap special effects and incompetently choreographed fight scenes that marred films like "Paradise Canyon" or "The Desert Trail". There is a relatively entertaining story and Wayne, although by no means at his best, is certainly than he was to be in those two films and many others like them. It is also better than "Ride Him, Cowboy", which has a glaring plot-hole at its centre. It would doubtless have vanished from public view entirely had Wayne not gone on to become an American legend in his later career, but it still remains relatively watchable. 6/10.