Movie Review: The Comancheros Blu-ray

The Comancheros is one of John Wayne's lower rated films but even his lesser films are fun and more than entertaining with plenty of classic western action.

Film making 20/25
Video 23/25
Audio 21/25
Bonus Features 20/25
Total 84/100


John Wayne plays Captain Jake Cutter, a tough Texas Ranger who is planning on returning Paul Regret played by Stuart Whitman to Louisiana for killing a judge's son. Problem with the supposed murder is that the judges son died in a duel with Regret and when Regret helps Captain Cutter in a gunfight things aren't as clear cut.


Paul Regret is a ladies man and after a duel he wins the arbiter of the fight tells Paul he killed a judge's son so Regret runs for his life. The judge is mad for the killing and even though it was a duel he signs out a warrant for Paul Regret who escapes to Texas.


Jake Cutter gets a lead and finds Regret on a riverboat and takes him into custody but before he can get the fugitive back to Louisiana Comancheros attack the small outpost Cutter and Regret are in. Regret proves himself useful to the fight and Cutter finds himself asking for Regrets help to infiltrate the band of Comancheros.


The Comancheros are a band of outlaws that deal guns to the Comanche along with other illegal activities that the Texas Rangers are trying to stop. Cutter and Regret use their opportunity to get into the camp and bust up the group's activities and in the end are rescued by the Rangers in an all-out attack on the desperados.


John Wayne plays the suave and confident Texas Ranger to a tee and Stuart does a great job at the conman who is just misunderstood but not a really bad guy. The film is probably lacking due to the loss of direction by the ailing Michael Curtiz who had late stage cancer.


John Wayne directed about half the film and this disjointed direction probably led to the films lesser quality but Wayne did a fine job considering. As others have noted The Comancheros is less a serious western and more of a fun film that takes the action along with the joking.


The Comancheros is a pretty good film even though it is not the Duke's best work but he did cut his teeth as a director on it. The film is as good you could expect from a 1960's Cinemascope movie transferred to Blu-ray for video quality but audio is not even better than video.


The film looks good in that Cinemascope widescreen aspect commonly used in that era of filmmaking and colors are really nice. The films video is very good looking for a film that is this old and the transfer came through very well for everything.


The film is clear with very little noticeable defects and from a film this old it is truly spectacular looking with nice color and well done shadows and darks. I have seen newer films with much worse quality in video so this is one film that came through the transfer to Blu-ray with flying colors.


Audio is not quite up to the same standards as the video with both a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and the four channel original sound track but the 5.1 does sound better. The four channels is original but the reworked newer version does sound better even though the sound quality is not quite as good as we have come to expect.


The film is a good one that looks great and sounds pretty good but the extras are not lacking with plenty of nice bonus features. Extras include audio commentary, a couple of documentaries about John Wayne and the historical background of the film including the Texas Rangers, a look at the comic book adaptation and a look at Stuart Whitman's career.


Bonus features are great for this film and with just a little more would have been perfect but they only include about an hour and a half of extras not including the audio track. There is plenty in The Comancheros 50^th Anniversary Limited Edition Blu-ray Book release is a great film and the book included as part of the case is also worth it.


You get a book as part of the case with a good look at the cast and a couple of movie posters from the film that adds up to be a fun look at the film and those in it. The Comancheros may not be the Dukes best work but all his films are above average and entertaining.


The Comancheros is a great addition to any Blu-ray or western collection and is well worth the cost of admission for an entertaining movie from a legend in film making.