Frères dans la mort

Remake of 1927 silent western has a young John Wayne (riding his horse Duke) repaying a favor to a friend (Henry B. Walthall) by going across the border to Sonora, Mexico to locate the man's son (Paul Fix). To find him he has to go undercover in the gang of notorious outlaw Monte Black, a perfect name for a western bad guy. Some nice rodeo stock footage. It's apparently pronounced "ro-day-o" as one character admonishes another. Wayne's accompanied by two comic relief sidekicks, played by Frank Rice and Bill Franey. They are responsible for most of the movie's best parts. There's also two annoying girls who keep popping up and seem to share one brain cell. Pretty routine '30s B western.

I was a bit shocked when I looked at the summaries for this film on IMDb. While the movie clocks in at only 59 minutes, its summary is about as long and detailed as you'd expect for "Gone With The Wind"!! Someone must have really, really liked this film! "Somewhere in Sonora" is one of a half dozen John Wayne B-westerns he made for the Leon Schlesinger Studio (which, in turn, were distributed through First National-Warner Brothers). Today I actually sat down and watched four of the six films and found them to be a very mixed bag. The first two, "Haunted Gold" and "Ride Him Cowboy" were simply dreadful--with nothing to recommend them. This was a bit of a surprise, as Wayne made a ton of B-westerns in the 1930s and most of them are better than the films of his contemporaries, such as Gene Autry. Fortunately, the third film I saw, "The Big Stampede" turned out to be a dandy little film. Was this an abberation or are there other good Schlesinger/Wayne films to be seen--and would "Somewhere in Sonora" be one of the good ones? The film begins with two Easterner women traveling out west where they meet Wayne. Wayne is about to race in a buckboard race and makes a quip about the other guy's wagon falling apart during the race. When this actually occurs (due to the machinations of evil gamblers, not Wayne), he is immediately assumed to be guilty. The two uptight ladies completely hate him (who can hate him?!) and Wayne is left to rot in jail--until his friends help bust him out of jail. He travels to Sonora, Mexico and deliberately insinuates himself with an evil gang--as he wants to help a friend break up this group of thugs. His cover as an escaped prisoner will no doubt help him in this task.

Later, when the two uptight and annoying ladies happen upon Wayne again, he manages to save their lives. At this point, it's obvious even to the most oblivious in the audience that romance is in bloom between Wayne and the less annoying sister. But can Wayne get the girl and break up Monte Black's gang? This is the SAME gang that boasts that no member has ever left the gang....alive! But, of course, Wayne is the handsome hero and this is a B-western, so is there much doubt?! One thing that makes this film a bit difference from the usual B-western of the era is the presence of two sidekicks--not one. The two guys are pretty cute together and they made a sweet couple--though I am not sure whether or not this was the writer's intention. They sure seemed VERY happy together--just like an old married couple. Considering that this film debuted in the Pre-Code era, perhaps this WAS the implication--especially since the two were confirmed misogynists.

Overall, this film is pretty much what you'd expect from a Wayne B-film. He's likable and the film is pleasant, but like all B-westerns, not terribly original or believable but still a lot of fun. Worth seeing.

Henry B. Walthall goes to bat for John Wayne after an overzealous sheriff charges him with a crime during a rodeo. Henry likes Wayne's riding skill and he reminds him of his lost son who fled after being accursed of a murder and hooked up with a murderous gringo gang South of the Border. Wayne repays Walthall's kindness and goes to Mexico to search for Walthall's son played by Paul Fix.

Paul Fix, very good friend of the Duke and father-in-law of Harry Carey, Jr., had more films with John Wayne than any other player. This was the second joint venture for the two of them and the last would be Cahill, U.S. Marshal, 40 years later.

Fix is in a terrible fix, the gang who took him in is one of those once in, never out outfits. But Wayne with the help of his trusty horse Duke sets things to right. Of course Duke the horse plays a mighty big hand in the final showdown.

Somewhere in Sonora entertained many a kid at the bottom half of a double bill for Warner Brothers on a Saturday afternoon. It still holds up pretty good today.

Somewhere in Sonora (1933)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This was one of six early films John Wayne made before Warner shortly before he would enter "B" movie kingdom until finding fame six years later in John Ford's STAGECOACH. The plot here is pure "B" stuff but has Wayne playing a good-hearted cowboy who is accused of fixing a stagecoach race, which nearly kills a man during an accident. Thanks to a father (Henry B. Walthall) he is eventually proved innocent and to repay the man he heads down to Mexico to try and save his son who has fallen in with some bad guys. When one watches a "B" Western it's best not to put too much thought into it because more often than not the screenwriter put even less thought into it. As you'd expect this movie features a plot that never really makes too much sense but then again each scene is just put together quickly so that the next one can get the film closer to the 58-minute mark so that THE END will pop up. The film has action, wannabe drama, laughable romance and some really bad comedy but all of this is what you'd expect to find (once again). I think the most annoying thing about this movie are two female characters, one will go onto be the love interest and the other is her annoying friend. The two are constantly accusing Wayne of murder and it's obvious that the producers were trying to make these two out to be a watered-down version of Tood and Kelly. The woman are extremely annoying here and the one's romance with Wayne is extremely forced and laughable. As for Wayne, he certainly hadn't gotten his acting chops down yet as there are many scenes here where he comes off rather poorly. The action scenes are the ones he does the best in as even at this early stage of his career he knows how to throw a punch and make for a fun hero. Where he doesn't do well at is the romance and drama. Just take a look at the scenes where he tries to play serious, which he does by simply lowering his voice. The lowering of the voice effect never works and in the end just comes off as being silly. Frank Rice and Billy Franey give the comic relief as Wayne's sidekicks who are constantly fighting with one another. Their humor isn't all that funny but at the same time the two actors are good enough to keep you entertained. Walthall appears very briefly in the film but easily gives the best performance. He gets second-billing but doesn't have that much to do. I'm sure those willing to sit down and what this film know what they're going to get. If it's cheap entertainment you're after then you'll find it here but there's no question this is for Wayne die-hards only.

It's in these early films that you see how middle-class John Wayne really is before he assumed the immortal identity of the American cowboy. He was obviously socialised into high society through his university connections and has a healthy interest in women. Thanks to John Ford he was just churning out the B-pictures one after the other. However, as a self-contained project, the film looks quite stagy as though it was fresh from the theatre. The dialogue is stilted and clumsy, but then that's down to the writing. I don't think that screenwriters and directors got to grips with the new medium that is cinema at this point, making this offering painful to watch.