L'homme de Monterey

"The Man From Monterey" was the last of six "B" features that John Wayne (and his horse "Duke") made for Warner Bros. for the 1932-33 season. Warners would get out of the series "B" westerns for a while until they made a series with Dick Foran later on in the 30s.

This story takes place in 1848 California after the state joined the USA. Landowners with old Spanish land grants are being asked to register their properties with the government or else the land will fall into public domain and be there for the taking.

Don Pablo Gonzales (Francis Ford) is trying to discourage fellow landowner Don Jose Castanares (Lafe McKee) from registering his property and then grabbing it for himself. His son Don Luis (Donald Reed) is courting Castanares' daughter Dolores (Ruth Hall) hoping to join the two families (and their properties) through marriage, if all else fails.

Captain John Holmes (Wayne) is sent to see why certain property owners have not registered their land. Naturally, Holmes is headed for the Castanares spread.

In the local town saloon, a wayfaring troubadour named Felipe (Luis Alberni) has a confrontation with Don Luis who has come to see his love sick girl friend Anita Garcia (Nena Quartero). Holmes intervenes and he and Felipe team up together.

On the way to the ranch, Holmes manages to rescue Dolores from a bogus attack on her coach by Don Luis' men designed to make him out a hero in Dolores' eyes.

Holmes manages to convince Don Jose to register his land before the impending deadline. On his way to register, Don Jose is kidnapped and imprisoned by Don Pablo's men. Meanwhile Holmes and Felipe have befriended an American bandit named Jake Morgan (Slim Whitaker) and his men who also plan to move on any unregistered properties.

In the ensuing action to free Don Jose we get to see John Wayne wield a sword. Let's just say that as a swashbuckler, Wayne made a great gunfighter.

The "acting" in this oater is uniformly awful. The attempts at Spanish accents are laughable. Wayne still had a long six years ahead of him in "B" westerns before achieving stardom in John Ford's "Stagecoach" (1939). Coincidently, Francis Ford, John Ford's brother appears in this film. Also in the cast are Chris Pin Martin as Manuel, Don Pablo's foreman and Tom London as Lt. Adams. Ken Maynard and his horse "Tarzan" appear in stock footage from their silent movie days.

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.

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.

The only way I can watch any one of the early B-westerns is by deciding in advance to treat it as high camp, although occasionally a good one pops up. This film is not one of those, but I still had a few chuckles at the goings on, looking for outrageous items. John Wayne is an army captain sent from a fort in Monterey to convince Spanish land owner Lafe McKee to register his claim, else it will become public domain. Land grabbers Francis Ford and his son Donald Reed try to keep McKee from doing so in order to get the land for themselves. The only comic relief in the film came from Luis Alberni, who reads palms, continuously introduces himself as "Felipe Guadelupe Constanche Delgado Santa Cruz" in a flourish, and dresses in drag. Almost everyone else, including Wayne, is so serious it was somewhat funny. I had fun with the good bad guy (Slim Whitaker), the all-too-easy escapes, the stilted dialog, the obligatory love-interest (with Ruth Hall), the peculiar sword fighting, and best of all, Wayne's mind-reading horse, Duke. When Wayne was captured, he tells Alberni (who is outside the locked room where there are no guards) to send Duke to get Whitaker's men. All Alberni does is pat the horse on his rear end and say "go on, Duke."

This was set right after California entered the Union when the Spanish land owners distrusted the "gringos," and filmmakers used the theme of land grabbing quite often.

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?