King of the Pecos

This film begins with an extremely greedy man by the name of "Alexander Stiles" (Cy Kendall) riding out to an isolated part of Texas and arrogantly declaring to his cowboys that the entire area is his by "right of discovery." Of course, being the dishonest man that he is, the fact that his claim has no legal basis doesn't concern him in the least. To that effect, in an effort to also control all of the watering holes as well, he then sends his men to a nearby ranch and demands that the owner sell his stake to him. When the owner refuses, he sends his men to murder both him and his wife. In the process, they also beat their young son and leave him unconscious on the ground while they ride off. The scene then shifts to 10 years later with a young man by the name of "John Clayborn" (John Wayne) riding in a stagecoach into a small West Texas town and declaring to the people there that he is a lawyer and intends to challenge Alexander Stiles' illegitimate claim of land in a court-of-law. Needless to say, this infuriates Alexander Stiles who becomes determined to prevent any such action--one way or the other. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this turned out to be one of the better John Wayne films from his earlier days as it flowed much more smoothly from one scene to the next than many of his previous pictures. Naturally, as is quite typical for the time, it does have a few corny scenes here and there but even so I enjoyed it for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

I wonder why this movie has a low rating? Of course with only 15 folks voting on it, there may be some bias. I found it funny, action filled, and not as cliche as most films from the thirties. I love the charismatic and tough, cocky, self assured character's Wayne played in the thirties, before becoming a bruting middle aged man. I say check this one out, it is worth it. Stiles as the bad guy is perfect. You really end up cheering for "The King of the Pecos", too take the bad guys down. 6/10

King of the Pecos has a pre-Stagecoach John Wayne witnessing the murder of his parents by a no good land swindling dealer played by Cy Kendall. Of course he's a little kid at the time, but when he grows up he becomes a lawyer. But he's no ordinary lawyer, he can ride, and shoot, and fight with the best of them.

Kendall doesn't outrightly own a whole lot of the land he's swindled from folks. He just has phony options. Lawyer Wayne take him to court as well as deal with him in the usual John Wayne fashion.

This is far from the best western the Duke ever made, but it's pretty good for the B product he was stuck in at the time. And his legion of fans will love it.

If you see this title and wonder what 'the Pecos' are, don't worry--I had the exact same thought. Apparently, the Pecos river begins in Eastern New Mexico and runs along the Texas border--emptying into the Rio Grande.

Unlike many of John Wayne's early B-movies, this one is not in the public domain and the copy I saw was very crisp and clean. It also appears to have a higher budget than his earlier films for tiny production companies such as Schlessinger. Now it might surprise you to see Wayne in such a film, but through the 1930s, practically all the films he made were B-westerns. It wasn't until after successes in films such as "Stagecoach" and "They Were Expendable" that Wayne graduated to A-pictures and became a top star.

The film begins with a typical baddie deciding that he's entitled to everyone's land. So, when one farmer won't sell out to him, the baddie and his henchmen kill the farmer and his wife--leaving the young boy an orphan. Naturally, the boy grows into a man (John Wayne) intent on exacting justice for his folks. Still, a decade later, the baddie is still forcing people off their land--giving them worthless promissory notes and controlling all the water. Now Wayne is a lawyer and plans on using the law to stop this jerk. Will the law be enough or will Wayne have to resort to his fists and guns? Considering that the baddie controls EVERYTHING, it's not a huge surprise where the film goes next.

The film is nicely polished and watchable. The only negative is that in many of Wayne's early films he had lovable sidekicks--like Gabby Hayes. Here, despite a great villain (Cy Kendall), the supporting cast for the good guys is a bit dull. I missed the usual sidekicks, such as Gabby Hayes, as the deaf guy and his friend were a bit dull. Also, while not exactly a negative, the plot is a bit too familiar--as Wayne and many other western heroes made similar films over the years.

By the way, in a sad note, you see a horse trip and throw its rider near the end (I think this was reused from an earlier film). This is sad, as to get this sort of stunt in the old days, they used trip wires to literally rip the legs out from under the horse--and usually broke the horse's legs in the process!! Fortunately, such things have long ago been outlawed--as it was a terrific waste and morally suspect!

1st watched 12/30/2001 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Joseph Kane): Uninspired early John Wayne western portraying him at his early acting stages where he seems to just be doing the lines without putting any feeling into them. This story could have brought out much emotion(Wayne's character's father being murdered and him returning as a lawyer to do in the killer) but it's pretty much kept at bay so that we're presented with a flat and typical gun-shooting contest. Wayne is a handsome young stud here but not much else and the screenplay comes across like it was written on the way over to the set without much patchwork done to it. I'm sure Wayne's tall good looks and smile kept his contract going until he was able to actually do some real acting later in his career so for this I'm grateful(I guess).