Here\u2019s a western made in 1966 that reflected the later anti-hero story line that Clint Eastwood mined so successfully in his spaghetti westerns.\u00a0 The big names are Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin.\u00a0 They are former mercenaries who have ridden with Pancho Villa but now are selling their services to a Texan (played by Ralph Bellamy) whose wife has been kidnapped by an old bandit ally of theirs.\u00a0 This bandit, Jesus Raza, played by Jack Palance is over the border in Mexico with a small army of followers in a heavily defended camp.\u00a0 Marvin adds two more men to his crew with Robert Ryan and Woody Strode.\u00a0 Together they devise a scheme to disrupt the camp, rescue the woman and outwit and outfight Raza\u2019s army.\u00a0 Claudia Cardinale plays the kidnapped wife and in addition to being a capable actress she shows why she is remembered as one of the most attractive actresses of her time.\u00a0 She is a fine-looking babe.<\/p>\n
The script is tight and the dialog is apt with each of the main characters given the words that fit the part.\u00a0 Marvin is the cool efficient tactician and leader.\u00a0 Lancaster is the fearless daredevil who lightheartedly plunks dynamite at his enemies while firing off jokes and insults at everyone around him.\u00a0 Ryan and Strode ably fulfill their parts but with less dialog.\u00a0 And at the end of the main action Lancaster and Palance get to discuss life and love as they prepare for their strange duel.<\/p>\n
The plot has a surprising twist and plenty of action and is in my opinion, one of the better westerns from its era.\u00a0 Marvin and Lancaster have good chemistry and have been placed in a production that uses their particular talents to excellent effect.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a fan of the western genre this movie delivers the goods.\u00a0 Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here\u2019s a western made in 1966 that reflected the later anti-hero story line that Clint Eastwood mined so successfully in his spaghetti westerns.\u00a0 The big<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237],"tags":[2974,3362,3360,1996,43,3361,38,1355,3097,3363],"class_list":["post-10283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-burt-lancaster","tag-claudia-cardinale","tag-jack-palance","tag-lee-marvin","tag-movie-review","tag-ralph-bellamy","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-robert-ryan","tag-woody-strode"],"yoast_head":"\n