I can't understand why these American outlaw gangs always gallop into Mexico to find safety and succor. They always wind up getting caught anyway. And before they come to their just end they must suffer through the Aztec Two Step. However, the story is from Sam Pekinpah who had this thing for Mexico.
Rod Taylor, as the leader of this gang of four, doesn't seem to realize this. He and the gang hold up a bank and then get trapped in a Texas town. They're all snarling in the school house or someplace, surrounded by a hundred townsmen pointing rifles in their direction. Peaceful Sheriff Richard Harris tries to sweet talk them into giving up. Like hell! Taylor is pure e-vil. He emerges from the building holding a pistol to the head of a tow-haired young boy who happens to be Harris's son. The accommodating Harris orders his men to throw down their guns, allowing Taylor and the rest to high tail it out of town, with the boy on Taylor's saddle. Harris's wife screams and tries to drag her son from the horse but Taylor shoots her dead. Then the boy topples from the saddle and is stomped to death by twelve hooves as the animals race over his fallen body. Harris is stunned, his face frozen with grief. Then he straps on his gun belt and slips a rifle into its sheath.
This sets the whole plot in motion, similar in some ways to "The Bravados" with Gregory Peck as Adrasteia. I won't bother to spell it out in any detail because it's a long movie and sometimes complicated. But with Harris in pursuit the gang crosses the Rio Grande and more or less slaughters its way through a couple of Mexican villages, sparing no one. Harris manages to catch up from time to time and winnow down the numbers but his efforts are hampered by Al Lettieri as a Mexican police officer who believes in the law. Harris's sheriff, after all, has no business in another country and revenge killings are illegal, so we are led to understand.
It's a colorful movie and full of action, so it's an enjoyable divertimento. The location shooting in Morelos, Mexico, is very nicely done. Make you want to take your holiday there. And the performances aren't bad either. Curious to see Al Lettieri as a force for good instead of evil, although with his bushy mustachio and scowling features he still looks like a for for evil. Rod Taylor could go either way. His face is plumped out with age and he has a full mustache and scraggly beard so that from certain angles he resembles Robin Williams. Harris has that ugly, manly face that some Irishmen have and he hits his marks. He was excellent in the little-seen "The Field" and he seemed to give acting lessons to the other actors in "Gladiator." The plot throws away any credibility it had towards the end. We've gotten to know Rod Taylor's murdering thief. He takes nothing seriously. He watches from a distance while Harris sets about trying to butcher a gang member that's been left behind, and he jokes about it and makes bets on who will win. Then we have to swallow and digest his sudden impulse to visit his little daughter in a Mexican convent. He smiles, tries to hold her close. "You know your ol' Daddy, don't ya?" The tears run down his face, also the viewer's.
Rod Taylor, as the leader of this gang of four, doesn't seem to realize this. He and the gang hold up a bank and then get trapped in a Texas town. They're all snarling in the school house or someplace, surrounded by a hundred townsmen pointing rifles in their direction. Peaceful Sheriff Richard Harris tries to sweet talk them into giving up. Like hell! Taylor is pure e-vil. He emerges from the building holding a pistol to the head of a tow-haired young boy who happens to be Harris's son. The accommodating Harris orders his men to throw down their guns, allowing Taylor and the rest to high tail it out of town, with the boy on Taylor's saddle. Harris's wife screams and tries to drag her son from the horse but Taylor shoots her dead. Then the boy topples from the saddle and is stomped to death by twelve hooves as the animals race over his fallen body. Harris is stunned, his face frozen with grief. Then he straps on his gun belt and slips a rifle into its sheath.
This sets the whole plot in motion, similar in some ways to "The Bravados" with Gregory Peck as Adrasteia. I won't bother to spell it out in any detail because it's a long movie and sometimes complicated. But with Harris in pursuit the gang crosses the Rio Grande and more or less slaughters its way through a couple of Mexican villages, sparing no one. Harris manages to catch up from time to time and winnow down the numbers but his efforts are hampered by Al Lettieri as a Mexican police officer who believes in the law. Harris's sheriff, after all, has no business in another country and revenge killings are illegal, so we are led to understand.
It's a colorful movie and full of action, so it's an enjoyable divertimento. The location shooting in Morelos, Mexico, is very nicely done. Make you want to take your holiday there. And the performances aren't bad either. Curious to see Al Lettieri as a force for good instead of evil, although with his bushy mustachio and scowling features he still looks like a for for evil. Rod Taylor could go either way. His face is plumped out with age and he has a full mustache and scraggly beard so that from certain angles he resembles Robin Williams. Harris has that ugly, manly face that some Irishmen have and he hits his marks. He was excellent in the little-seen "The Field" and he seemed to give acting lessons to the other actors in "Gladiator." The plot throws away any credibility it had towards the end. We've gotten to know Rod Taylor's murdering thief. He takes nothing seriously. He watches from a distance while Harris sets about trying to butcher a gang member that's been left behind, and he jokes about it and makes bets on who will win. Then we have to swallow and digest his sudden impulse to visit his little daughter in a Mexican convent. He smiles, tries to hold her close. "You know your ol' Daddy, don't ya?" The tears run down his face, also the viewer's.