JohnHowardReid Copyright 28 September 1932 by Vitagraph Pictures, Inc. Released through Warner Bros. No New York showcase. U.S. release: 8 October 1932. U.K. release: March 1933. 54 minutes. SYNOPSIS: A bandit (Alberni) aids a new deputy sheriff (Wayne) in cleaning up a gang of rustlers organised by a big land owner (Beery) in New Mexico. NOTES: A re-make of The Land Beyond the Law (1927) starring Ken Maynard as Steele, Dorothy Dwan as Ginger, Tom Santschi as Crew, Noah Young as the bandit chief, Gibson Gowland as Crew's vicious henchman, Billy Butts as the youngster, and "Tarzan" the horse as himself. Directed by Harry J. Brown, photographed by Sol Polito for Charles R. Rogers Productions. Re-made again in 1936 under the original title, this time with Dick Foran. COMMENT: The original Ken Maynard effort must have been one spectacular movie. True, some of the stock footage was undoubtedly lifted from earlier films, but it's still mighty impressive. This Wayne re-make would certainly have knocked the socks off most spectators who must have a wondered how a little "B" western could afford such exceptionally lavish effects. And it's not that The Big Stampede relies to all that great an extent on stock footage either! Impressively adding to the tautness and suspense of the script are a fine roster of players, led by the personable Wayne, the delightfully villainous Beery and the psycho-comic Hurst. (Love the way the cast is introduced in the credit titles: Wayne chatting to "Duke", Hurst glowering at a laughing Beery, Miss Madison looking uncomfortable whilst Master Bailey stares self-consciously at the camera). Wright has directed with considerable flair and panache, making the most of the many action sequences (especially the saloon appointment) staged especially for this movie. For the most part, the stock material is cleverly integrated. It's only the speed of the silent footage that gives the game away - though all the same it's still hard to tell where some Land Beyond shots stop and Big Stampede begins (the gunning down of Lafe McKee, for instance). Realistic sets and locations allow ace cinematographer Ted McCord to present a series of pictures that are always fascinating or appealing.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . are thieving crooks with this 1932 offering, THE BIG STAMPEDE. Sam "S.Crew-the-Little-Guy" Crew is New Mexico's richest resident, worth about 18 Trumps (adjusted for inflation). You might wonder what beneficial product Mr. Crew discovered, invented, or manufactured to earn his fabulous wealth. Your answer is: None. He simply hires gun-wielding assassins to filch all the cattle in three states. Is it any surprise that polls show 91% of U.S. gun owners backing America's current Robber Baron, Trump? Or that Trump's main "products" are the 4,000 lawsuits documented by USA TODAY that he's used to shirk 89% of his tax obligations, 62% of his contractors' bills, 74% of his Hotel Workers' overtime pay--all while retaining 95% of the gross on his scams, such as Trump U? Or that his business savvy is worse than his People Skills, so that Russia's KGB schemer Vladimir "Mad Dog" Putin has bailed Trump out of at least $5 billion worth of bankruptcy debt, as the WALL STREET JOURNAL reveals? Warner Bros. decides that S.Crew must be Trumpled to Death in THE BIG STAMPEDE. Perhaps this is the proverbial "word to the wise" one always is hearing about.

classicsoncall I happened to catch this film back to back with "Cahill, U.S. Marshal", and you couldn't ask for a better contrast between the John Wayne who appeared in one of his very first movies, and the one who finished out a career in one of his very last Westerns. Wayne was strikingly handsome in these early oaters, and because he appeared rail thin, looked somewhat taller than he did in his films of the late Seventies portraying characters like Cahill, Big Jake and Rooster Cogburn, all notably huskier and gruffer looking."The Big Stampede" was one of six movies Wayne appeared in under the 'Four Westerns" banner, an offshoot of the Warners studio. He was paired with a white horse named Duke, a conscious choice because Duke needed to resemble Ken Maynard's horse Tarzan when they sometimes appear in silent film stock footage used by the Four Westerns pictures. I hadn't noticed it before, but Duke bore what looked like an 'A1' mark or brand on his left hindquarter in this picture. I'll have to keep an eye out for it in other films.As far as the story goes, it's somewhat unusual in that newly deputized sheriff John Steele (Wayne) sees fit to team up with a Mexican bandit named Sonora Joe (Luis Alberni) in order to break up a cattle rustling operation run by outlaw Sam Crew, played by Noah Beery. What makes the situation even more incredible is that earlier, Steele stopped Sonora Joe and his banditos from stealing cattle that was part of the wagon train Steele was riding with.Apparently, story continuity wasn't one of the primary concerns for these early Westerns. There was an instance where Steele left the wagon train to make his way to Fort Cummings to see if the Army could use some beef cattle. However right after he left, the very next scene shows Steele playing harmonica back in camp with the rest of the cattle men. It could be that the version I watched on Turner Classics was an incomplete print because there were also a distracting number of flaws in the picture about fifteen minutes in.Still, if you're a John Wayne fan or a follower of these early Westerns, it's a fun flick that blows by in just under an hour. Like many of his first couple dozen films, Wayne's character wins the female lead, in this case Mae Madison, at the end of the picture. This time however, Sonora Joe has to stop Ginger's younger brother Patrick (Sherwood Bailey) from interrupting the romance - "All is fair in love and war, but no sling shot"!Addendum**** 6-7-2016 - Doing a little research on 'Duke', you can see a pretty good screen capture of the brand noted in my review here at: http://www.b-westerns.com/hoss-jwayne.htm. Apparently it's a combination of the letters AH as one can see from the picture.

ccthemovieman-1 A number of John Wayne's early westerns looked alike, but that's not a criticism because the handful I've seen were all entertaining.That's one similarity: others included the fact they only were about an hour long, had interesting (albeit strange) dialog, had a pretty lead female (here, Mae Madison) and a very talented horse named "Blue." Of course, the men were all tough guys.There is a lot of action and interesting scenes packed into this one hour.My only complaint was that Luis Alberini's character made the Mexicans look unnecessarily stupid.