There's no doubt that the director, Budd Boetticher, was a committed professional who loved Mexico and its culture. He was so determined to do a biography of a particular bullfighter that he ran out of money, lived in a shack, and ate from street vendors when he could afford it. It's one thing to do that when you're twenty, but Boetticher was in his forties.
This early effort is a fairly routine Western except that instead of a corrupt cattle boss the heavy is a colonel in the Army of Porfirio Diaz. Van Heflin is a miner whose property is confiscated by the villainous and greedy George Dolenz. Dolenz not only has his men occupy the gold mine but kills Heflin's partner and is about to kill Heflin before Heflin is saved by the insurrectos.
Guess who leads the rebels against the cruel Dolenz. Well, Rodolfo Acosta is the titular head but he's a coward and is deposed. Now it's Julie Adams' turn to "llevar los pantalones". And what pantalones they are. They seem painted on Julie Adams, which was I thought a nice artistic touch, although I prefer Julie Adams and her angular beauty to be on display in a one-piece white bathing suit under water in the Black Lagoon while being tracked underwater by a Gill Man with no good intentions. Make up has darkened her and tried to turn her into a Mexican but she still sounds like an Executive Secretary in Omaha. But who cares?
Van Heflin can be a splendid actor in the right part but this isn't it. The character, like the story, is generic. It could be Audie Murphy or Randolph Scott. All the usual conventions are followed. One clip on the jaw and a man is knocked out for as long as the script requires. If there's a fist fight, the heavy will notice at some point that he's on the losing end of the affair and pick up a bottle or a piece of furniture to attack the hero.
It's not a flop. It's just routine. Boetticher was to do some far more imaginative work with scripts written by Burt Kennedy and starring Randolph Scott. Boetticher's more accomplished direction and Kennedy's folk poetry dialog was a marriage made, well, maybe not in heaven but in cloud cuckoo land.
This early effort is a fairly routine Western except that instead of a corrupt cattle boss the heavy is a colonel in the Army of Porfirio Diaz. Van Heflin is a miner whose property is confiscated by the villainous and greedy George Dolenz. Dolenz not only has his men occupy the gold mine but kills Heflin's partner and is about to kill Heflin before Heflin is saved by the insurrectos.
Guess who leads the rebels against the cruel Dolenz. Well, Rodolfo Acosta is the titular head but he's a coward and is deposed. Now it's Julie Adams' turn to "llevar los pantalones". And what pantalones they are. They seem painted on Julie Adams, which was I thought a nice artistic touch, although I prefer Julie Adams and her angular beauty to be on display in a one-piece white bathing suit under water in the Black Lagoon while being tracked underwater by a Gill Man with no good intentions. Make up has darkened her and tried to turn her into a Mexican but she still sounds like an Executive Secretary in Omaha. But who cares?
Van Heflin can be a splendid actor in the right part but this isn't it. The character, like the story, is generic. It could be Audie Murphy or Randolph Scott. All the usual conventions are followed. One clip on the jaw and a man is knocked out for as long as the script requires. If there's a fist fight, the heavy will notice at some point that he's on the losing end of the affair and pick up a bottle or a piece of furniture to attack the hero.
It's not a flop. It's just routine. Boetticher was to do some far more imaginative work with scripts written by Burt Kennedy and starring Randolph Scott. Boetticher's more accomplished direction and Kennedy's folk poetry dialog was a marriage made, well, maybe not in heaven but in cloud cuckoo land.