Sometimes I have no idea what people were thinking when they made certain films. I’m a typical guy when it comes to some of my movie favorites- westerns, classic kung fu, Marvel superhero films, police/military action, all on the list if they are well done. Some are on the list even if they aren’t well done like some of the 70’s kung fu movies that are so bad they are good.
But what makes a good movie? Hitchcock said it takes 3 things to make a good film- a good script, a good script and a good script. Being a screenwriter, I say thank you! He knew the vale of a well plotted story. I have added to that- it takes the proper casting for the roles. Bad casting can ruin what would be a great film. So what if you had to pick one- bad casting or bad script? Hitchcock might have said bad casting, since the script is the thing. Here’s one film that would probably be good evidence for that.
If you have read some of my reviews here, you how I feel about Gregory Peck. He has done so many incredible films: Duel in the Sun, The Gunfighter, (the absolutely amazing) To Kill a Mockingbird, Gentlemen’s Agreement, Roman Holiday, (the absolutely amazing) Cape Fear, The Guns of Navarone, the list is huge. He was a great talent and like Jimmy Stewart could handle most any role. So if I told you I was going to produce a western starring Gregory Peck as a marshal squaring off against Omar Sharif (playing a Mexican bandit), Lee J. Cobb (On the Waterfront), Raymond Massey (the Scarlet Pimpernel), Burgess Meredith (Rocky), Anthony Quayle (Guns of Navarone), Edward G. Robinson (too many to mention), Eli Wallach (Magnificent 7), as well as Telly Savalas (TV’s Kojak), Julie Newmar (Catwoman from Batman ’66) and Ted Cassidy (Lurch from the Addams Family, and one of Hollywood’s best 10 voices ever), you’d probably say “shut up and take my money!”
That’s what producers may have done without reading the script, which was almost non-existent. A curious thing too, because it was written by Carl Foreman (writer of Champion, High Noon, Bridge on the River Kwai, Guns of Navarone); the guy knew how to write a script. Maybe the fact that he had faced charges of communism in the 50’s from the Red Scare days of Hollywood and it just took the gas right out of him. Maybe the source material is awful. I don’t know. All I know is this is an utterly un-enjoyable film.
Gregory Peck plays a Marshal who is kidnapped by bandits so that they can force him to show them the way to the lost Canyon of Gold. He supposedly knows about it along with Edward G. Robinson who claims to have actually seen it, but has had his eyes burned out by Apaches, seeing that the canyon is on their land. So the bandits capture Peck, and the army chases them. They get away, they stop and talk, the army finds them, they fight, they run away, they stop and talk, rinse and repeat. That’s the whole film. Except when the townspeople show up and want to be part of the group so they can get gold too. Most of them get killed in one of the ensuing fights.
It just feels like one of those Republic serials with John Wayne (Shadow of the Eagle) where they fight, run, stop, talk, run, cliff hanger, talk, run, stop, etc. This movie for all its potential is not likable. And it wasn’t because of casting, or directing, which was helmed by J. Lee Thompson who also did Woman in a Dressing Gown, Ice Cold in Alex, The Guns of Navarone and Cape Fear. The plotting and characterization are paper thin (one of my pet peeves about some superhero films). I’m not sure, except for the incredible list of actors in the film, what producers thought was going to draw people to see this albatross of a movie. The "lust for gold" story? Maybe. The fact that Julie Newmar skinnydips in a lake while trying to kill another woman? Don’t know. The fact that Keenan Wynne, a veteran Disney actor that played villain Alonzo Hawk in every early Medfield College film, cackles like a crazy homeless guy? I have no idea.
As I said, the plotting is non-existent, the characterization is so thin it wouldn’t matter who you plugged into the roles, the tension is silly and stilted. Go ahead and see for yourself.
And BTW, you know you are in for a stink-fest when the opening sequence is the incredibly talented Jose Feliciano singing a song about a depressed turkey buzzard, probably trying not to laugh. It’s abysmal.
IMDB gives this turkey buzzard a 6.7/10. Take into account who was in it, and what it should have been, and I’m not kidding when I say it’s a 3.7/10.
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