weezeralfalfa One of the early Republic John Wayne westerns. As usual, he's the tall, handsome, well spoken, westerner with a white hat and white horse. Here, he's a triple threat, with his law degree, as well as his firsts and gun. He's out to get even with Alexander Stiles(the obese Cy Kendall), whom we might label as 'The King of the Pecos', since he controls much of the land and nearly all of the water holes in his part of the Pecos. Wayne holds him as ultimately responsible for the shooting deaths of his parents and leaving him unconscious, 10 years ago. Actually, it was some of Stiles' henchmen , headed by Ash, who did the dirty work. Ash also shoots the father( (Ed Hearn as Eli Jackson) of his girlfriend: Belle(Murrel Evans). , during the rush to claim land and water holes, after Wayne convinced the judge that most of Stiles' claims weren't valid. The exception was the critical water hole at Sweetwater, which was the only source of fresh water for many miles. It was especially important when other herds were being driven to Abilene to load in cars. If Stiles refused to allow their cattle to drink here, or charged an outrageous fee, their cattle would die unless they sold them to him for worthless script. The same was true for the other water holes Stiles' claimed were his. In preparation for this cattle drive, some of Stiles' men had rustled the cattle of a number of ranchers before shooting them dead when they complained. The King of the Pecos is dethroned and eliminated, along with most of his henchmen, at the Battle of Sweetwater. Wayne has a special desire to kill Ash, since he blames him for his parents deaths. Wayne gets his chance in a one on one......I'll point out that the death of Belle's father symbolically opens wider the gate for a young man(Wayne) to replace her father as her significant other. This symbolism is quite common in westerns. ......One of the ranchers, I assume played by Herbert Heywood, is hard of hearing, and often thinks he hears the wrong word. This serves as a running gag throughout most of the film. .....Famed stuntman , rodeo rider and director of secondaries, Yakima Canutt, played a small role as a henchman. ....I found the film interesting, with a good mix of strategy and action....See it at YouTube.

parlguthrie I have always enjoyed movies made prior to 60s and King of the Pecos is no exception. As a kid growing up in the 50s my hero was the Lone Ranger which I couldn't help but notice that the Lone Ranger and John Wayne both worn white hats and had white horses. I guess that was the norm for the good guys in those days.John Wayne's acting in King of the Pecos and his early movies in general were a little bland, but it kept my interest. The story line could also have been a little more interesting but that was kind of the way many early Westerns went.I noticed that there were a lot of horse related accidents in this movie. There were horses falling to the ground throwing their riders, and even horses running into other horses when a wagon goes over the cliff. It looked like there was a good chance that they may have been hurt, and wonder how concerned the producers and writers were in those days.If you like early Westerns and John Wayne in particular it's worth watching.

classicsoncall From 1933 to 1935, John Wayne made a series of sixteen sagebrush yarns for Monogram Pictures under their Lone Star production unit. In 1935, Monogram along with Mascot, Consolidated Film Laborites and others merged into the Republic Pictures fold. Wayne, with producers Trem Carr and Paul Malvern moved over to Republic in the deal, and made another eight films there. Republic raised the bar ever so slightly over the Lone Star flicks, with bigger budgets and better production values. Better stories helped also, and "King of the Pecos" is an example.I was lucky to catch the film this morning on AMC's all star Western weekend; I've never seen this movie available on tape or DVD. Set in 1870's Texas, it follows Wayne's character John Clayborn using the typical formula of a young boy growing up after his parents have been killed by the movie's villain, in this case, Cy Kendall as the land grabbing Alexander Stiles. Stiles' ploy is making claim on all the available water holes in his stretch of the Pecos River Valley, and granting settlers cattle which he buys back with worthless notes when they can't afford to pay for the water.There's a neat scene where a lot of fuss is made over a newly designed safe Stiles brings in cross country. It's called a 'Salamander' - it can go through the hottest fire and never melt! Interestingly, Stiles is later referred to as Salamander by his henchmen a few times, which sort of works as he fancies himself immune to heat when the going gets tough.Wayne's character makes a rather questionable transformation from a boy of about ten witnessing his parents' death, to a young man who's already a lawyer in the space of ten years. The math doesn't work, but that aside, Clayborn manages to hone his shooting skills along with his legal work to hang a shingle in the town of Cottonwood. There he collides with town boss Stiles and his gang in order to set things right for the local ranchers who've been swindled by the Salamander. Along the way, the territorial judge finds against Stiles, putting all but one of his water right claims back into the public domain.One of Wayne's good friends from the Lone Star days is along for this ride, Yakima Canutt in a low key role as a Stiles henchman. The female lead is provided by Muriel Evans, a mainstay in a bunch of Buck Jones movies. There's also a comedic tandem using a slightly overdone hard of hearing gimmick who back up Wayne's play at each turn. It's worth mentioning too that John Wayne is often seen riding atop his trusty white horse, appropriately named 'Duke', though that name isn't mentioned in the story.Speaking of horses, keep an eye on the team of white horses pulling Stiles' wagon as he attempts to make a getaway during the shootout near the end of the film. Just before the wagon breaks away, the lead horses take about the nastiest spill you'll ever see in any movie to this day. I'm always amazed at how they managed to film those scenes.For anyone who hasn't sampled a range of Wayne's early work, "King of the Pecos" might come across as an uninspired Western, but if you've viewed his pictures from Columbia and Lone Star, you'll note the gradual progression of his skill, honed during the ten year span of the 1930's. Believe it or not, Wayne made just over fifty films during this period. Obviously the hard work paid off, and not just in terms of a future career. In the Lone Star flicks, Wayne's character usually got the girl at the end of the film, but here he winds up marrying her as well!

dwpollar 1st watched 12/30/2001 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Joseph Kane): Uninspired early John Wayne western portraying him at his early acting stages where he seems to just be doing the lines without putting any feeling into them. This story could have brought out much emotion(Wayne's character's father being murdered and him returning as a lawyer to do in the killer) but it's pretty much kept at bay so that we're presented with a flat and typical gun-shooting contest. Wayne is a handsome young stud here but not much else and the screenplay comes across like it was written on the way over to the set without much patchwork done to it. I'm sure Wayne's tall good looks and smile kept his contract going until he was able to actually do some real acting later in his career so for this I'm grateful(I guess).