L'homme de Monterey

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 setting is 1848 and the U.S. government sends Captain John Wayne to the newly conquered territory of California from the Mexican War. His job is to win over the Spanish Dons to register their land grant property with our government or else they'll be declared public domain.

Of course there are some nasty claim jumpers there who are both gringo and Latino ready to foil our hero. One particularly nasty one is another Spanish Don played by Francis Ford. He's got his eyes on his neighbor's property another Don with an attractive daughter, Ruth Hall. If Ford can't get it one way, he'll get it by marrying his son Donald Reed to Hall.

That changes when John Wayne comes on the scene and Hall crushes on him big time. Of course Wayne is riding on Duke the Wonder Horse and Duke once again proves of invaluable assistance in foiling the bad guys.

Best performance in the film goes to Luis Alberni who to foil the bad guys has to get into drag at the wedding scene of Reed and Hall. He's downright hilarious.

This marked the fourth and last film John Wayne did for Warner Brothers with Duke the Wonder Horse. Later on in his career John Wayne was not noted for particular attachment to his horses. They were a tool of the cowboy trade, nothing more in his films. In fact if my memory serves me I can only recall three films in his later years where the horse's had names and therefore horsenalities to him. That would be True Grit, The Shootist and A Lady Takes A Chance. I'm sure if I'm wrong, John Wayne fans will let me know.

Of course John Wayne moved on to Monogram films and Lone Star westerns and the quality of production went down a few pegs. Bigger and better things were in store for him. But what ever happened to Duke the Wonder Horse?

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.

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.

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.