Very well executed

Awesome Movie

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Cavalry officer John Wayne fights Spaniards over land rights and over a pretty senorita. Early baby-faced Wayne doesn't do much to hint at what's to come later in his career. Luis Alberni is fun at times. Ruth Hall and Nina Quartero pretty things up. One of a half-dozen B westerns John Wayne made for Leon Schlesinger and WB in the early '30s. These are all watchable but ultimately forgettable. This one's not great and has some particularly spotty stunt work. If you're a John Wayne completist and you want to see all of his films, go right ahead and watch this. Everybody else should probably look elsewhere for something with more meat on the bone.

OK - This is obviously not a great film by any stretch of the imagination but in its own silly way, it's a tremendously entertaining one. It reminds me of an early film operetta (like the original RIO RITA) except without the songs. The acting and script are, for the most part, pretty bad but that's part of the charm. John Wayne's performances certainly improved in later years but he was at his most handsome here--oozing sex appeal. And Luis Alberni has to be one of the great unsung character actors in Hollywood history. He is genuinely funny in this film---almost equaling his hilarious performance in THE GREAT GARRICK. The production values are surprisingly good for such a low budget effort, the print shown on TCM (which I assume is the same as the Warner DVD)is pristine and the plot moves like lightning. Give it a shot--you might have fun.

"The Man From Monterey" was the last of six "B" features that John Wayne (and his horse "Duke") made for Warner Bros. for the 1932-33 season. Warners would get out of the series "B" westerns for a while until they made a series with Dick Foran later on in the 30s.This story takes place in 1848 California after the state joined the USA. Landowners with old Spanish land grants are being asked to register their properties with the government or else the land will fall into public domain and be there for the taking.Don Pablo Gonzales (Francis Ford) is trying to discourage fellow landowner Don Jose Castanares (Lafe McKee) from registering his property and then grabbing it for himself. His son Don Luis (Donald Reed) is courting Castanares' daughter Dolores (Ruth Hall) hoping to join the two families (and their properties) through marriage, if all else fails.Captain John Holmes (Wayne) is sent to see why certain property owners have not registered their land. Naturally, Holmes is headed for the Castanares spread.In the local town saloon, a wayfaring troubadour named Felipe (Luis Alberni) has a confrontation with Don Luis who has come to see his love sick girl friend Anita Garcia (Nena Quartero). Holmes intervenes and he and Felipe team up together.On the way to the ranch, Holmes manages to rescue Dolores from a bogus attack on her coach by Don Luis' men designed to make him out a hero in Dolores' eyes.Holmes manages to convince Don Jose to register his land before the impending deadline. On his way to register, Don Jose is kidnapped and imprisoned by Don Pablo's men. Meanwhile Holmes and Felipe have befriended an American bandit named Jake Morgan (Slim Whitaker) and his men who also plan to move on any unregistered properties.In the ensuing action to free Don Jose we get to see John Wayne wield a sword. Let's just say that as a swashbuckler, Wayne made a great gunfighter.The "acting" in this oater is uniformly awful. The attempts at Spanish accents are laughable. Wayne still had a long six years ahead of him in "B" westerns before achieving stardom in John Ford's "Stagecoach" (1939). Coincidently, Francis Ford, John Ford's brother appears in this film. Also in the cast are Chris Pin Martin as Manuel, Don Pablo's foreman and Tom London as Lt. Adams. Ken Maynard and his horse "Tarzan" appear in stock footage from their silent movie days.

The setting is 1848 and the U.S. government sends Captain John Wayne to the newly conquered territory of California from the Mexican War. His job is to win over the Spanish Dons to register their land grant property with our government or else they'll be declared public domain.Of course there are some nasty claim jumpers there who are both gringo and Latino ready to foil our hero. One particularly nasty one is another Spanish Don played by Francis Ford. He's got his eyes on his neighbor's property another Don with an attractive daughter, Ruth Hall. If Ford can't get it one way, he'll get it by marrying his son Donald Reed to Hall.That changes when John Wayne comes on the scene and Hall crushes on him big time. Of course Wayne is riding on Duke the Wonder Horse and Duke once again proves of invaluable assistance in foiling the bad guys.Best performance in the film goes to Luis Alberni who to foil the bad guys has to get into drag at the wedding scene of Reed and Hall. He's downright hilarious.This marked the fourth and last film John Wayne did for Warner Brothers with Duke the Wonder Horse. Later on in his career John Wayne was not noted for particular attachment to his horses. They were a tool of the cowboy trade, nothing more in his films. In fact if my memory serves me I can only recall three films in his later years where the horse's had names and therefore horsenalities to him. That would be True Grit, The Shootist and A Lady Takes A Chance. I'm sure if I'm wrong, John Wayne fans will let me know.Of course John Wayne moved on to Monogram films and Lone Star westerns and the quality of production went down a few pegs. Bigger and better things were in store for him. But what ever happened to Duke the Wonder Horse?