Though wont to rollover & play dead on his Frank Sinatra vehicles (like the just completed ROBIN AND THE 7 HOODS), Gordon Douglas could show striking command of action-oriented set pieces when given a chance. A chance he gets in the second half of this brutish Western. Richard Boone, in a particularly nasty turn, is an ex-Confederate seeking revenge on the whole Apache Nation for the murder of his wife & daughter. Anthony Franciosa is a jailed, linguistically nimble Mexican con man forced to join him in aiding a couple of Regular Army soldiers (Stuart Whitman & debuting Jim Brown) on a mission to recover 500 stolen repeating rifles from former Confederate General Edmund O’Brien who plans on selling them to Apaches in Mexico. Douglas’s laissez-faire attitude toward actors allows for excessively broad characterizations out of Boone (underlining every line) and Franciosa (a close second to Dick Van Dyke’s notorious Cockney from MARY POPPINS in the race for 1964's Worst Accent of the Year), but once past the Mexican border, the demands of narrative & action over character bring a healthy improvement to the film. As does Joseph MacDonald’s spectacular cinematography all thru the pic (interiors & exteriors) in CinemaScope & Deluxe Color. So hang in there.
DOUBLE-BILL: Whitman starts on the wrong side of the law (against John Wayne) in THE COMANCHEROS/’61, written by this film’s Clair Huffaker and sporting many similarities.
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