1971
Spain / USA / UK
Cast: Telly Savalas, Clint Walker, Chuck Connors, Anne Francis, Angel Del Well, Jose Maria Prada, Luis Davila , Monica Randall, Antonio Casas, Walter Coy, Alberto Dalba, Dennis Vaughan, Hal Fletcher, Ralph Neville, Gene Collins, Bob Hevelone, Larkin Art, Bart Neighborhood, Adolfo Thou, Fernando Sanchez Polack, Fernando Hilbeck , Felipe Solano, Dan will Husen, Ben Tatar, Lorraine Clewer, Marjorie Neville, Nancy Bayt, Eduardo Calvo, Gerardo Navarro, Lucy Tiller, Lola Gaos, Ines Oviedo, Luis Marin, Tony Skios, Alejandro Ulloa Norman Bailey, Alberto Fernandez, Antonio Rossi, Luis Rivera, Bud Strait, Carl Rapp, Lone Ferk, Marisa Malfatti
Screenplay: Eugenio Martin, Julian Halevy Photo: Alejandro Ulloa
Music: Anton Garcia Abril
Co between the U.S., Britain and Spain 1972 directed by Eugenio Martin, a director and writer of great versatility, he filmed of all genres (adventure, westerns, thrillers, comedies and even musicals), highlighting certainly among them "Hypnosis " of 1962 (thriller with elements supernatural whose main idea was echoed by Richard Attenborough in "Magic ), " The price of a Man " of 1967 (one of the best westerns directed by Tomas Milian in English with his second foray into this subgenre) and " Horror Express " of 1972 (cult favorite and most successful of fantaterror English).
early 1970 signed a contract with the once great American writer and producer Philip Yordan ( "Johnny Guitar", "Broken Lance" for which she won an Oscar or "Man Laramie ") since early sixties was living in Madrid and Paris, having been hired by the producer Samuel Bronston in order to participate in the scripts of most of the films produced in Spain ( "El Cid", "King of Kings" "55 Days at Peking", "The Fall of the Roman Empire" ), becoming his confidant. The result was the creation of three co-production films with budgets higher than usual and that could have an international cast: the failed western with comic elements "Poor Man's River" with Lee Van Cleef , James Mason and Gina Lollobrigida, the film under consideration and the abovementioned "Horror Express" , made to amortize the cost of trains purchased for "The challenge of Pancho Villa" that the couple had more representative of the production Hammer, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, and was the only one that could work on the script from the beginning, because as he himself recognizes in the interview with Juan Gabriel Garcia included in his book "The English of the western" in the first two cases were found with a very loose script so that it merely try to improve as far as possible.
freely The film recreates a historical fact: the invasion of Columbus in 1915, a city in New Mexico, by Pancho Villa in retaliation for U.S. support to Carranza enemy to supplying military equipment. The Villa's raid, in fact he did not participate personally but was carried out by his deputy General Ramon Banda Quesada led to the appropriate U.S. response, the first being invaded by forces of a foreign country, including issuance punishment commanded by General Pershing who ventured for nearly a year in northern Mexico with the target missed to capture Villa (the punitive expedition was treated by the cinema, among others, by Robert Rossen in 1959 film "They Came to Cordura" ).
The film is disappointing, taking into account that it had a budget higher than the average of these products, resulting in a more than acceptable work setting (with a good recreation City of Columbus, some studies created in Madrid and the appearance of numerous sites located in Colmenar Viejo Aranjuez, Guadix, thanks to the wonderful work as a cinematographer Alejandro Ulloa give the hit as border area between U.S. and Mexico). But the problem, as recognized by the director, is a lousy script before which could do little Eugenio Martín.
His home and the slapstick promises us that we'll see. Entitlements of the Mexican flag colors alternate with images mounted so that dizzy while listening to the main theme composed by Anton García Abril teacher more suited to the typical English Comedieta seventies actor Alfredo Landa, for, then look in the first scene how they are shaving Pancho Villa, Villa immediately after being rescued by his men through the ports of the commanding officer decides to slow down the train and, finally, once released check this in his own words that the bald "It makes me more interesting, more intelligent. As a teacher ". And all this stuff to justify the bald Telly Savalas, actor who plays the revolutionary.
western But it does not stop there but as the story progresses, the forward is a saying, supposedly comic elements are on the increase with proliferation of sequences that are a real bullshit: the the emergence of the fly in the high U.S. officials, of the discussion of Scotty, a lieutenant of Villa, with his wife Flo as the revolutionary leader serves as a referee or immediately following the false heart of Villa. Also begin to proliferate truly implausible situations like the flight of Lieutenant Eager to fool his captors by hiding under a bed. And all this must be added the penniless and totally out of context soundtrack, to top it off with the typical and totally inadequate thought for a final song crooner.
As in the atmosphere, the relatively high budget shown in the acting cast. This was chosen American actors, in order to make the product more marketable for the four main roles. Telly Savalas (reached shortly after fame with the television series "Kojak ) plays, in a somewhat excessive, a grotesque, primitive, hypochondriac and teatrero Villa, able to mourn the misfortune of a woman and then shoot a man in cold blood as the godson of his great enemy. The portrait he made of two issues in the film, historically accurate, are the most interesting: the importance it gave to the media as propaganda items (and was accompanied by journalists, from which the famous John Reed said, and sought to have filmed their military interventions) and the growing awareness of his own legend. Beside the role of Scotty, his faithful lieutenant, we find Clint Walker (actor who achieved success in the mid-fifties with the Cheyenne series that filmed 108 episodes over eight years), which contained performance contrasts with that of the protagonist. Too bad no more spaghetti star because its 198 inches was good for westerns. Chuck Connors, another actor also famous for a TV series (in this case "The Rifleman" of which recorded 168 episodes between 1958 and 1963) was responsible for giving life to Colonel Wilcox, a grotesque military, and obsessed with strict ordinances, able to use live ammunition in training his men because that way "I am saving lives" . Anne Francis, an actress who had a very promising start in the cinema with films like "Conspiracy of Silence" and "Blackboard Jungle" but soon he majored in television, giving life to meet inconsequential character Flo Scotty's wife, who works as a pianist in Columbus. Next to them a number of English players, I guess to fill the quota co-production, led by Ángel del Pozo some convincing as Lt. Eager, loving rival of Scotty, and Antonio Casas as General Goyo, great enemy of Pancho Villa, and in minor roles a young Monica Randall (common in those years of spaghetti), Lola Gaos or Eduardo Calvo
I have the edition offered for sale by Suevia Films with good sound and in general, a correct image except for a few moments when we see that the tape copy was obtained was slightly damaged.
euro sum up a bad western with a script that is a real blunder but at least has plenty of action scenes filmed competently, in the absence of a minimally coherent story, liven up a little vision.
SCORE
HISTORY: 2
AMBIENTE: 7
ADDRESS: 5
ACTORS: 6
MUSIC: 1
AMBIENTE: 7
ADDRESS: 5
ACTORS: 6
MUSIC: 1
MEDIA: 4.2
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