Review: The Big Stampede

Set in New Mexico, John Wayne stars as John Steele, hell-bent on taking down a bunch of cattle rustlers, headed by Noah Beery. For an unorthodox assist, he ropes Mexican bandit Sonora Joe (Luis Alberni) into helping him. Mae Madison plays a purdy settler, whilst Paul Hurst is the chief henchman.

 

An early John Wayne film from 1932, this film from director Tenny Wright is a tolerable enough B-western, if very, very basic. I mean, it clocks in at under an hour, and Wayne’s horse ‘Duke’ gets a co-starring credit, so it’s hardly “The Searchers”. It’s more your Saturday matinee/serial type deal. A minor affair, but not an unpleasant one.

 

Scripted by Kurt Kempler (“A Shriek in the Night”, with Ginger Rogers and Lyle Talbot) from a Marion Jackson novel, it’s certainly worthwhile as a curio. I mean, John Wayne actually smiles in this one. There’s a reason why he rarely ever did that in a film. A very, very good reason. Wayne is shockingly young and obviously doesn’t have the screen presence or masculinity you might be used to from him. His mysterious character is somewhat interesting, if nowhere near as mysterious as the filmmakers no doubt imagined (It’s pretty obvious the stars Wayne keeps leaving behind mean he’s a lawman. 1932 audiences might’ve been slower on the uptake, though).

 

Most of the minor parts are filled by cardboard cut-out level actors, but Noah Beery is clearly the most accomplished member of the cast, and Luis Alberni is pretty decent as roguish cattle thief Sonora Joe. There’s a clever bit where Sonora shoots out the lights and they all have a shootout in a darkened saloon. I haven’t seen something like that in too many subsequent B&W westerns, I must say. The title stampede is rather well-staged and lensed for the period (Though I hear it was cribbed from an earlier, silent film version of the story). The ending is awfully rushed, though.

 

It’s a watchable film (though hardly a film at all, really), and hell it’s better than some of his later films to be honest (“The Green Berets”, anyone? “Rio Lobo”?). It’d be much lesser without Noah Beery, however.

 

Rating: C+