This is a dark little Western for all you nihilists out there.After the American Civil War, a lot of displaced, dispirited, and just plain lawless folk drifted down to Mexico for the promise of gold and fighting in the revolution. Former Southern gentleman Benjamin Trane (Gary Cooper) falls in with a hired killer named Joe Erin (Burt Lancaster) and his bunch of hooligans (including Jack Elam, Ernest Borgnine, and Charles Bronson) on an escort mission from Mexico City to the port of Vera Cruz. The emperor (George Macready) has made an alliance with the French, and wants his closest advisor's mistress, Countess Duvarre (Denise Darcel), to reach the port unharmed. He and the advisor (Cesar Romero) have already determined that the Americans are to be killed before payment is issued. But the double-crosses don't stop. In the carriage, the Countess is aware there is a fortune in gold under her feet and plans to skim some from the top. She recruits Trane and Erin to help her get away by promising them a cut, but Erin is a grade-A psychopath who could snap at any moment, and Trane is conflicted by the morals of helping the emperor over the revolutionaries.
This is a big boiling kettle of motivations and divided loyalties and it makes for a very effective plot. Cooper is great as the soul-weary Trane trying to stomach being on the wrong side of a war, while Lancaster is magnetic as the unpredictable but not nearly as crazy as he looks Erin. I'm surprised this isn't higher on lists of Great Westerns. It almost feels like a forgotten classic and that's crazy. You should watch it for Cesar Romero alone. I grew up with him just as the campy Joker with the painted over mustache in reruns of Batman. That is so far away from his character and portrayal here I had to check to make sure it was the same guy. I love those kinds of revelations.
No comments:
Post a Comment