The Comancheros is a 1961 American CinemaScope Western film directed by Michael Curtiz, based on a 1952 novel of the same name by Paul Wellman, and starring John Wayne and Stuart Whitman.

The supporting cast includes Ina Balin, Lee Marvin, Nehemiah Persoff, Bruce Cabot, Jack Elam, Joan O'Brien, Patrick Wayne, and Edgar Buchanan.

Also featured are Western-film veterans Bob Steele, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, and Harry Carey, Jr. in uncredited supporting roles.

In pre-Civil War New Orleans, rogue gambler Paul Regret kills Emil Bouvier, the son of a Louisiana judge, in a duel.

Cutter returns to his post in embarrassment, but soon resumes his main task: pursuing a gang of outlaw “Comancheros,” who he suspects are illegally supplying guns and whiskey to the Comanche in order to make money and keep the frontier in a constant state of violence.

The Rangers have arrested a recent ex-convict named McBain, caught with a wagonload of stolen guns likely destined for Comanche territory.

During the fighting, Regret jumps on a horse and flees, but instead of making a clean getaway, he returns with a company of Texas Rangers, who repulse the attack.

Posing as Comancheros, Cutter and Regret travel into Comanche territory with the stolen wagon and guns, with Rangers shadowing them at a distance.

[10][11] A tie-in with the release was a comic book adaption from Dell which was published in Four Color #1300 (February 1962)[12][13] Claude King's version of the theme song was a top 10 country hit, and peaked at #71 on the pop charts in Billboard Magazine.

Variety magazine wrote, "The Comancheros is a big, brash, uninhibited action-western of the old school about as subtle as a right to the jaw... Wayne is obviously comfortable in a role tailor-made to the specifications of his easygoing, square-shooting, tight-lipped but watch-out-when-I'm-mad screen personality.