Big Stampede

Buy This Item Big Stampede by MGM (Warner)  Available from Amazon  $19.98  on 9-21-2008     John Wayne's road to stardom needed some giddyup in the early 1930s; after a leading-man turn in <I>The Big Trail</i>, he quickly fell into B-movie obscurity. While waiting to vault to first-tier status in 1939's <I>Stagecoach</i>, he honed his talent with a set of six B-Westerns at Warner Brothers, shot in 1932-33. The series of snappy little films (under an hour each) allowed Warners to recycle footage (and plots) from a string of silent Westerns made with Ken Maynard, with the young Mr. Wayne stepping into Maynard's saddle. <I>The Big Stampede</i> doesn't have much drama but lives up to its title with a cattle-frenzy finale. Noah Beery Sr. plays the baddie, and Wayne's future <I>Stagecoach</i> co-star Berton Churchill plays Lew Wallace (the governor of New Mexico and the man who wrote <I>Ben-Hur</I>). It was shot by Ted McCord, who would go on to shoot <I>The Treasure of the Sierra Madre</i> and <I>East of Eden</i>. Wayne, 25 years old, plays the same naively heroic hero in each of the six films. He's lean and handsome and not yet grown into his talent. But you can see how much the camera likes him--as his future director Howard Hawks might have put it--and how much that famous stride is already coming into step. <I>--Robert Horton</i> Reader Reviews I've always considered it very strange why Wayne's westerns of the 1930's are not given the same sort of revered status that other western stars like Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers received. Sure they're B movies but so were the films by Cassidy and Rogers. They might not have been as good from a pure technical standpoint, but they weren't awful either. Wayne plays deputy Sheriff John Steele as he goes undercover as a drifter in New Mexico to find out who is behind the cattle rustling. Ruthless Land baron Sam Crew sends his Henchman Arizona Frank Bailey out to capture a herd of cattle being brought in by some new settlers. Steele joins the settlers and evenutally saves the say as Crew and Bailey are brought to justice. At just 55 minutes this is a very quick film but quite action packed and very well done. One of Wayne's strongest early roles. Nice supporting cast including Noah Beery as Crew.

Big Stampede Available from Amazon Price: $19.98 Updated on 9-21-2008.

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