Substandard doings for Glenn Ford at the time, this B-pic for an A-list star skips tough-to-film sequences to keep to its tight budget, missing those special moments that might have made something of this relentlessly ordinary pic. The film started shooting in Brazil, ran out of funds, then picked up back in Hollywood with a few casting changes. (Arthur Kennedy out/Frank Lovejoy in; etc.) It’s a contempo Western that has Ford traveling south (Texas to Brazil) with three Brahma bulls he’s selling to ambitious/ruthless cattleman Frank Lovejoy. But he winds up playing referee in a war between open range herders, hard working native farmers, and some outlaw anarchists. You can go to the Southern hemisphere, but you still can’t get away from standard Hollywood story beats about ranchers vs farmers. Cesar Romero is pretty much alone in having a good time on this one, playing a sly, likable bandito who buds up to Ford. And Ford seems happy having him steal every scene. Heck, not much else going on. Most everyone speaks English, which is fine, but when we do hear the local lingo, it sounds like Spanish. In Brazil? But then, what do you expect with a shlockmeister like William Castle calling the shots. That said, the film doesn’t so much leave a bad taste as an odd one.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: For a drama about bringing a new breed of cattle on the range (English stock come to Texas), try James Stewart, Maureen O’Hara & Brian Keith in THE RARE BREED/’66. Horribly directed by Andrew McLaglen, it wastes a heckuva story with a bad script & bad production values. (The acting’s not so hot either, though Keith is strikingly outrageous.) But you can easily see the great story lurking behind the disappointing execution.
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