In her heyday, the 1960's, I don't think any actress was hotter than Raquel Welch in the looks department. Unfortunately, that didn't translate into meaningful movie roles, perhaps because her physical assets outshone her acting ability. Just surmising on that point mind you, since I haven't seen a lot of her pictures. Here she seems effective as the strong willed Yaqui woman who comes to the aid of her people following the hanging death of her father in an opening scene. Fellow Yaqui, Joe Herrera (Burt Reynolds) is being pursued by ex-footballer Jim Brown, who's character Lyedecker is after a two hundred dollar reward and a permanent job for capturing the Indian bandit.
I couldn't help feeling that the almost two hour film could have been done in half the time like a 'B' programmer from the 1950's. Then of course, you wouldn't have needed the three principal stars to tell the story, or the strong supporting cast headed by Fernando Lamas as the bloodthirsty Mexican General Verdugo. Not knowing him by his real name, Eric Braeden, I would have sworn Hans Gudegast turned up for his role straight off the set of "Rat Patrol" - I'll have to go back to some of those episodes to see if there's a uniform change. He's a very similar character here, but certainly second string to Lamas.
I'll have to admit I was a little impatient for things to get going here, once they do there are a few interesting moments. There's a real tough looking descent down a cliff side on horseback by both the Indians and the Mexican rurales. The love scene between Brown and Welch had me wondering if this might have been the first time an inter-racial match up was attempted in film, if so, it was a ground breaking move, even if tame by today's standards. Still, it was a moment to be noted for the late 1960's. For Raquel Welch, the show stopper was the train stopper, if you know what I mean.
I couldn't help feeling that the almost two hour film could have been done in half the time like a 'B' programmer from the 1950's. Then of course, you wouldn't have needed the three principal stars to tell the story, or the strong supporting cast headed by Fernando Lamas as the bloodthirsty Mexican General Verdugo. Not knowing him by his real name, Eric Braeden, I would have sworn Hans Gudegast turned up for his role straight off the set of "Rat Patrol" - I'll have to go back to some of those episodes to see if there's a uniform change. He's a very similar character here, but certainly second string to Lamas.
I'll have to admit I was a little impatient for things to get going here, once they do there are a few interesting moments. There's a real tough looking descent down a cliff side on horseback by both the Indians and the Mexican rurales. The love scene between Brown and Welch had me wondering if this might have been the first time an inter-racial match up was attempted in film, if so, it was a ground breaking move, even if tame by today's standards. Still, it was a moment to be noted for the late 1960's. For Raquel Welch, the show stopper was the train stopper, if you know what I mean.