A Grande Estirada

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.

This film essentially begins in New Mexico with a deputy sheriff by the name of "John Steele" (John Wayne) being ordered by "Governor Lew Wallace" (Berton Churchill) to investigate crimes being perpetrated on settlers as they head to a certain part of that territory. Sure enough, when he gets there, he gets involved in a gunfight with a cattle rustler by the name of "Frank Bailey" (Paul Hurst) who the locals call "Arizona." Unfortunately, although he manages to stop Arizona from stealing any cattle, the gunslinger manages to escape into the night--but only after shooting and killing one of the settlers beforehand. Not long afterward, recognizing that he is vastly outnumbered by the cattle rustlers in that area, Sheriff Steele cleverly convinces the leader of a rival band of cattle rustlers named "Sonora Joe" (Luis Alberni), to help him out. Not at all keen to this idea at first, eventually Sonora Joe comes around and joins forces with Sheriff Steele and the settlers to even the odds. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an okay Western which benefited, to a certain degree, from the performance of John Wayne and the presence of one of the smartest horses to ever make its appearance on screen. Other than "Mr. Ed" of course. Be that as it may, although this grade-B film is rather short (no more than 54 minutes), it served to pass the time well enough, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

"The Big Stampede" was the second of six "B" westerns starring John Wayne and his horse "Duke" made by Warner Bros. for the 1932-33 season. As was the case in this series, this film was a re-make of a Ken Maynard silent (in this case, 1927s Land Beyond the Law).

Sam Crew (Noah Beery Sr.) is luring settler's wagon trains (and their cattle) to New Mexico where he rustles the cattle for himself. Governor Lew Wallace (Berton Churchill), who in real life wrote "Ben-Hur", assigns John Steele (Wayne) as a Deputy Sheriff to clean up the problem.

He drifts into town and poses as a shiftless drunk to gain knowledge of the situation. A wagon train led by Cal Brett (Lafe McKee) comes to town and turns to Crew for help in settling in the area. But Crew has other ideas.

When Crew's gunman, Arizona (Paul Hurst) murders Brett, Steele vows to bring in the killer. It just happens that Brett had a young daughter, Ginger (Mae Madison) and a sling shot slinging son Patrick (Sherwood Bailey). Steele naturally takes to the two.

Bandito Sonora Joe (Luis Alberni) and his gang compete with Crew for the settler's cattle. Steele for some unknown reason has enough faith in Sonora Joe to have him throw in with him to bring down Sam Crew. In the final showdown there is a "big stampede" (lifted from the Maynard film) and.........................................

Wayne's inexperience really shows In this film. His acting is mediocre at best but he would gain valuable experience over the next seven years in films like this. There seems to have been a scene or two cut from this film. Wayne's transition from the drunken drifter to heroic sheriff is missing. He just suddenly becomes the upstanding hero without explanation.

This film is boosted somewhat by the casting of Noah Beery Sr. as the snarling villain Crew. Alberni is also good as Sonora Joe, providing the film's comedy relief. Berton Churchill would appear as Gatewood the banker in Wayne's breakthrough film, "Stagecoach (1939).

The Big Stampede casts John Wayne as a Deputy Marshal assigned by Governor Lew Wallace to stamp out lawlessness in the territory that President Hayes assigned him to govern. The chief villain of this western is Noah Beery, Sr. who is a John Chisum like cattle baron, but in Beery's case, he's acquired his big spread and large herd by doing a lot of rustling.

In the meantime Wayne falls for new settler Mae Madison who is also raising her younger brother Sherwood Bailey from the Our Gang series. He was the one thing I really did not like about The Big Stampede, he was one annoying little brat forever trying out his slingshot and causing more trouble than anything else.

John Wayne got to work with two players who later would have a much bigger impact on his career in The Big Stampede. Governor Lew Wallace who in his spare time was writing what would turn out to be Ben-Hur is played by Berton Churchill. Churchill as we know was part of that great ensemble cast John Ford put together for Stagecoach playing Gatewood the fatuous banker who was really an embezzler. And Beery's chief henchman is played by Paul Hurst who Wayne would cast in The Angel And The Badman. Later on the Duke would cast a dying Paul Hurst in Big Jim McLain in a small role so Hurst could pay his medical bills.

The most interesting part in the film is played by Luis Alberni as rival bandit Sonora Joe. Another reviewer said that this is highly unrealistic. But in real life around the same time Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday were forming an unusual friendship and in the real New Mexico territory Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid started out as friends before Garrett took on the task of bringing in Billy dead or alive. Alberni has the best lines in the film and he's of real help to Wayne. I guess Alberni just liked the Duke's style in this film.

The Big Stampede holds up pretty well though it well never make the list of the Duke's top ten films.

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.