This
1961 Western from Warner Brothers has all the elements for a top
notch Western adventure—strong cast, veteran writers, good
production values, and some beautiful outdoor scenery shot in and
around Arches National Park in Utah. Unfortunately, it suffers from
some slow pacing and a couple prolonged shootouts that amount to
little more than two groups of guys blazing away at one another from
behind rocks. It's hard to make a shootout un-exciting,
but this film almost manages it.
The
two main characters, Jim Rainbolt and Sean Garrett, are played
respectively by Clint Walker and a painfully young-looking Roger
Moore (long before James Bond, in his Warner Brothers contract days
when he played the English cousin Beau on Maverick
and co-starred in the short-lived Alaskans
series). The banter and chemistry between these two make for some of
the best moments in the film. Rainbolt and Garrett are a pair of
trappers who inadvertently have made a gold strike. They are on their way
to cash in their new wealth at a place called Seven Saints when
Rainbolt's horse pulls up lame. (Seven Saints as advertised in the
title, by the way, is a bit misleading—it's not the gold of
seven
saints, which makes it sound rather Raiders of the Lost Ark-ish, but
rather a destination [one they never even quite reach].) Anyway, in
going into a nearby small town to get his partner a re-mount, Garrett
foolishly flashes some of the gold to buy a horse. This is noticed by
big, burly Gene Evans playing a nasty character named McCracken who
promptly gathers up a gang of bad guys to follow Garrett with
intentions of finding out how much more gold there is and relieving
him of it. This sets up a long series of the bad guys following
Rainbolt and Garrett through vast stretches of beautifully rugged
country. The pair can't quite escape, the bad guys can't quite manage
to catch up and pin them down.
Chill
Wills shows up as a crusty, drunken old doctor (was there any other
kind in the Old West?) who helps the good guys out of a tight spot
and then treats Garrett's wound. When asked how a doctor knows how to
shoot so good, he explains “I learned how to shoot long before I
learned about doctoring”. Eventually, the now-trio reaches the
hacienda of Gondora (played with scenery-chewing delight by Robert
Middleton), an old pal of Rainbolt's and now part-time bandit living
high off his ill-gotten gains. He agrees to help protect his old
friend for a portion of the gold (which by this point Rainbolt and
Garrett have hidden out in the desert as a potential bargaining chip
should they be captured by the baddies).
An
interlude at the Gondora hacienda involves some scenes with saucy,
sexy Leticia Roman playing Tita, a “ward” of Gondora who is
willingly for sale to any man with the right price. This is all
treated as light-hearted fun that would drive many people nuts in
these PC-conscious times. There is also a scene where Doc Chill Wills
helps the wife of one of Gondora's men having difficulty giving birth
to her baby. The doc requests a quill and a box of snuff to aid him
and then, off camera, we here the mother give a loud sneeze followed
shortly by the wailing of a newborn. Doc calls it a “quill baby”
.. I got the snuff part figured out, but how the quill figured in I
will leave to your imagination.
In
the end, through diversion, McCracken kidnaps the wounded Garrett and
uses him to force Rainbolt to tell where the gold is hidden. Rainbolt tricks
the gang leader at the last minute, and pins him under a boulder
which had previously been covering the gold. There is a powerful scene
here where Rainbolt shows every intent of leaving the injured, pinned
McCracken to die in spite of his pleas for mercy. He flings a handful
of gold dust at him and snarls, “Here—die rich!” A few more
gritty scenes like this could have lifted this movie a lot.
Gondora
and his riders show up at the last minute to kill McCracken and, not
surprisingly, demand all
of the gold for their trouble. Another chase ensues, this time with
Rainbolt and Garrett fleeing a new bunch of bad guys. Spoiler
Alert:
The big climax involves our boys trying to escape by crossing a
swollen, rushing river. They make good their escape but, in the
process, the gold dust is washed away—back into the river where it
came from—and nobody gets rich off it. From opposite sides of the
river, Rainbolt and Gondora declare they will be friends once more
should they ever meet again in the future. Then, left on their own,
Rainbolt and Garrett decide they will go back to trapping ... it's a
lot less dangerous and troublesome than gold.
This
movie is based on DESERT GUNS, a novel by Steve Frazee that I never
read so I don't know how it compares. Leigh Brackett, notable for
much stronger stuff, co-wrote the screenplay. Direction was by
veteran Gordon Douglas who did everything from Little Rascal comedies
to a blaxploitation
movie near the end of his career, with outings featuring the likes of
Jimmy Cagney, Sinatra, and Elvis in between. He also prviously helmed
FORT DOBBS and YELLOWSTONE KELLY (a far superior Western) with Walker.
In
the final analysis, I found this a watchable, mildly entertaining
movie. Largely because I like Clint Walker a lot and, as noted
before, the banter between him and Moore is enjloyable. But, somehow,
I found myself thinking throughout that it just could have been a lot
better.
