The story: Ralph Bellamy is a rich old fart
with a young wife who has been kidnapped by a Mexican bandit. He
puts together a team to cross the desert to retrieve her. A basic
Impregnable Fortress setup.
The team--Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Woody
Strode, and Robert Ryan. Lee and Burt knew the bandit (Jack
Palance) back when they were all rebels together.
No surprises. The lusty busty babe wife wasn't
kidnapped, there are choices that you just *know* are going to
come back to haunt them, and the upside down cross will warn them
of danger one more time.
But the dialogue is cutting and literate.
Marvin and Lancaster are superb. Marvin is the taciturn idealist;
Lancaster the pleasure-loving pragmatic. Ryan is cast against
type as a softie. And I just need to say again how much I wish
Strode made more movies back in the 60s.
The women in the film are violent, brave, and
ruthless. I was impressed.
It also was ahead of its time in its portrayal
of Mexicans and the wars of that era.
Well worth a rental.
