I have often asked myself what was my favorite Steve McQueen movie......sometimes I think it is "Bullet" other times I think it was "The Thomas Crown Affair", then I think of "The Great Escape".....when the bell finally rung though I gave it to "Neveda Smith" and why not? McQueen is over the top as an Indian "boy" (although he seemed much older that the part called for), who is hell bent on revenge against three murderers of his parents. Some awesome villains in Karl Malden, Martin Balsam and the legendary Arthur Kennedy. Give a lot of kudos to Brian Keith also, as a man who finds a helpless Max Sand (McQueen) getting started out on his revenge mission - and tries to help him get used to the ways of the outlaw world.....it is very apparent Sand would not have gotten his revenge without the help of Jonas Cord (Keith) who showed him how to shoot, eat and chase bandits and how to look out for himself in more ways than one..... The director Henry Hathaway moves the film along very smoothly and never lets McQueen have a dull moment in the film.....he keeps McQueen cunning, clever and hell bent on revenge all throughout the film. Pat Hingle as the prison guard in the Louisiana swamp turns in a typical Pat Hingle performance - a ruthless, hellbent for leather prison guard who shows little to no mercy on anyone. Remember him as the father from hell in "Splendor in the Grass"??? Suzanne Pleshette seems a bit miscast as a plantation slave girl - she is way too beautiful and smooth to play a rough, worn out slave girl who toiled on a plantation in the swamps. Give a lot of credit to Arthur Kennedy as one of the killers....he gives his typical outstanding performance as an odd ball with a twisted personality and is only concerned about his own welfare. If McQueen and Pleshette died leaving the swamp it would not bother him one bit. Karl Malden as the last of the three to get taken out gives a very worthy performance you come to expect from him. He tries every way he can to find out if McQueen, a new member of his outlaw gang is the real Max Sand, a wacko who is tracking him according to news reports. McQueen very coolly reacts calmly to Malden's wicked remarks about Indian women (McQueen mother was an Indian***) in an attempt to get Sand to show his identity. Alfred Newman's musical score is a classic also...very good music throughout the film. The final scenes where McQueen cuts down Malden bullet by bullet is a classic - you don't know whether to feel sorry for McQueen or Malden at this point in the film. Very coolly McQueen rides off leaving Malden shot up in misery screaming at Sand as he leaves. As they say, McQueen was the "king of cool" and you could see it very easily in this film. One of the best westerns ever made in my opinion.
Review of Nevada Smith
