The Comancheros

Good plot, stirring musical score and some welcome familiar faces. (I wonder why Guinn Williams was uncredited?) John Wayne lightens his customary toughness with dry humour, calling Regret "Monsewer" and complaining about strangers calling him "Friend".

The obligatory love interest is supplied by Ina Balin, who's not a great actress and looks a bit too nice to live among the Comancheros. Stuart Whitman does very well alongside Wayne.

The opening shot and a couple of topical references tell us that it's the early 40s, but this decade has no relevance at all to the plot. The film has an 1860s/1870s look to it - the buildings, outfits and, most of all, the guns are all of the latter period, and many anachronisms have been listed by other contributors. Of course using period guns that needed to be reloaded after every shot would have made for less spectacular battle scenes. So why not set it in the 1870s? After all, the very similar 1964 film "Rio Conchos", also with Stuart Whitman, was set after the Civil War, with former Confederate officers substituting for the Comanchero leaders.

I wonder if the cast said anything about this? I gather than Wayne was disgruntled when the year before the Mexican army in "The Alamo" was issued with the wrong guns, but this wasn't evident to any but the most experienced eye.

Apart from these anachronistic annoyances, the film makes very good viewing.