Edgar Allan Pooh . . . throughout THE COMANCHEROS. As part of his Anti-Firearms Crusade, Wayne's Texas Ranger "Captain Jake" spends most of this flick riding around with 72 modern (by 1840s standards) rifles in the false bottom of his covered wagon. (Since guns provide bullies with a false Security Blanket, Jake feels false bottoms are a fitting place in which to shove your guns.) These 72 rifles suffer further outrages at the hands of Ranger Jake. At one point he buries all of them in a grave in the middle of nowhere that looks to be 10 feet deep. After their good long rust, Jake disinters these rifle bones and mutilates all of them by removing their firing pins. A shooting iron disfigured in this fashion is akin to a geezer after prostate removal: women have little to fear from the business end of either one. As THE COMANCHEROS closes, Jake sees that the 72 lethal weapons are put out of their misery through cremation. Obviously, the hard-drinking Jake is telling us that he's no more a fan of the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment Armory Musket Clause than he would be of The Prohibition Amendment, thinking its silly to have either one of these on our books.

Dark Jedi This movie was directed by both Michael Curtiz and John Wayne himself although the latter was never credited as a director. I so enjoyed myself when watching this movie. It is indeed a classical John Wayne western very far from todays special effects loaded action movies. I guess you must have a bit of a nostalgic attachment to old classics, characters like John Wayne and western movies in order to enjoy this movie.John Wayne plays his classical slightly grumpy, all honest, tough guy that I really like. I remember one of my greatest disappointments as a kid was when John Wayne played a character that actually turned out to be the bad guy at the end. On top of everything he died at the end! I was so pi--ed off, almost traumatized.The story is pretty much what the book blurb says. Nothing fancy. There is a pretty lady thrown in of course although it is not John Wayne who gets her at the end, or even aspires to get her, but the gambler, Paul Regret, who, not surprisingly, turns out to be one of the good guys. The story holds together pretty well and there are of course plenty of opportunities for both fist-fights and gun-fights.The gun-fight are where it turns a bit silly though. The big fights are mostly a whole bunch of Indians mixed up with some white crooks attacking on horseback riding around shooting wildly until the directors decides that it is time for the next scene and they ride away. A handful of people, sometimes barely that, repeatedly stand against 50 or more bad guys on horseback yet they always come out on top. That is pretty silly to me. It makes for some nice old-fashioned gun-fights but it is still rather silly. More the kind of stuff that would be put in a children's movie today.Still the movie was really fun for me to watch. The good guys are really good guys and the bad guys are well done. I especially appreciated Lee Marwin's performance as Tully Crow in the bad guy department. Also, as is usual in these oldie movies, the opponents can have a fight (verbal as well as physical) and still communicate fairly intelligently without swearing their heads off.I would recommend this movie when you are in a nostalgic Western mood looking for some light entertainment.

roger-395 I first saw this film with my dad when it first hit the films. I've probably seen it 25 or 30 times but bought the VHS and then the DVD anyway and I still keep watching it. The Comancheros is quintessential Hollywood. It's entertaining. Elmer Bernstein's music is catchy, the story is interesting (if wildly inaccurate, historically), it has a beautiful and interesting woman in Ina Balin who plays a little more then a damsel in distress, it has a well played bad guys (Nehemiah Persoff, Lee Marvin, Michael Ansara), plenty of terrific western character actors doing their thing, and a bunch of likable good guys (John Wayne and Stuart Whitman play off each other very well). It's pretty obvious that everyone had a grand time making this. The film moves along at a good clip and there's never a dull moment. It's one of those films that could have been 30 minutes longer because the study is dense and there are so many story arcs on going.If you like westerns, if you like John Wayne, this film won't disappoint. Just don't expect anything like The Searchers, Stagecoach, Red River, or Rio Grande. It's not great John Wayne but it will do!

TankGuy The comancheros is pretty unique among westerns as it's plot contains elements of spy thriller. John wayne is brilliant as usual as Texas ranger Jack Cutter and Lee Marvin is excellent as Crow, one of his funniest performances yet. Stuart Whitman is also brilliant as convict Paul Regret. Other brilliant performances come from Nehemiah Persoff, Ina Balin, Bruce Cabot and Patrick Wayne.The theme tune gives you goose bimples all over and is another perfect score by Elmer Bernstein. The comancheros is a very fun and quite light hearted movie to watch and isn't really as dark as some other westerns. There are quite a few comedic scenes, one involving John Wayne and Lee Marvin, who are excellent together, absolutely drunk and singing the red wing song, which climaxes in the two having a drunken brawl in the saloon, this scene made me laugh until my sides hurt. Another scene being a small punch up in front of the bad guy at a dinner table were Jake and Paul fight off a few henchmen and Jake hitting a big henchman over the head repeatedly with a chair, very funny also.The storyline is perfect and like something you would see in an action movie and keeps you wanting to see more and more of the film as it progresses, it's very intriguing and near the end of the film the plot turns completely unexpected as Jake and Paul discover who the comancheros really are.To finish off, the action scenes are also excellent. They are mainly shootouts and battles which make brilliant use of long range rifles and pistols.One of John Waynes best movies, a must see for all western/John Wayne fans.