Somewhere in Sonora (1933)

Director:

Mack V. Wright

Writers:

Will Levington Comfort (story)
Joseph Anthony Roach (adaptation)

Release Date:

27 May 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

Reach for a piece of sky, stranger...or you'll get six feet of earth!

Plot:

John Bishop discovers a plot to rob a silver mine belonging to his girlfriend Mary's father and, to foil the evildoers, he joins them.

Plot Keywords:

Bronc Riding | Trick Riding | Cantina | Bar Fight | Rurales

Cast

John Wayne	...	John Bishop
Duke	...	Duke, John's horse
Henry B. Walthall	...	Bob Leadly
Shirley Palmer	...	Mary Burton
Ann Fay	...	Patsy Ellis (as Ann Faye)
J.P. McGowan	...	Monte Black
Paul Fix	...	Bart Leadly
Ralph Lewis	...	Mr. Kelly Burton
Frank Rice	...	Riley
Billy Franey	...	Shorty

Runtime:

59 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

Norway:A (1933) | USA:Approved (PCA #2609-R, 3 September 1936 for re-release) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Leon Schlesinger Studios

Trivia:

Using the name "Monte Black" as the villain was something of an in-joke at Warners, where Monte Blue was a star during the silent era. After sound came in, he was relegated to minor supporting roles at the studio, albeit in some very good films like Casablanca (1942) and Key Largo (1948).

Quotes:

Bob Leadly: [Talking about his missing son] A man was killed. Some of the men who were present seemed to think Bart was the guilty party. They found out later that he was innocent, but... Bart's gone.
John Bishop: Hung? Where is he? What happened?
Bob Leadly: I'm not sure, but I heard he was south - somewhere in Sonora, a bandit in the gang of Monte Black.
John Bishop: Monte Black?
Bob Leadly: Once a man joins that gang, he never comes out alive. It's known as the Brotherhood of Death.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Toonheads: The Lost Cartoons (2000) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Lady of Spain

The Middle Class John Wayne

It's in these early films that you see how middle-class John Wayne really is before he assumed the immortal identity of the American cowboy. He was obviously socialised into high society through his university connections and has a healthy interest in women. Thanks to John Ford he was just churning out the B-pictures one after the other. However, as a self-contained project, the film looks quite stagy as though it was fresh from the theatre. The dialogue is stilted and clumsy, but then that's down to the writing. I don't think that screenwriters and directors got to grips with the new medium that is cinema at this point, making this offering painful to watch.