Well I was avoiding this film for a while, seeing as how I've heard that it was total crap, but since I had gotten a gift card for FYE I picked up the box set Rawhide Season 1, and had a little credit left on the card so when I saw this DVD marked down to $2.99 well, thats a price that I can stomach experimenting with little known films.
Pancho Villa, Dir, by Eugenio Martin, stars Telly Savalas as Pancho Villa, Clint Walker as Scotty, in the standard role of the gringo American gunrunner, Chuck Connors as clean freak nut case Col. Wilcox, Anne Francis (who played Altaria in Forbidden Planet) as Flo, and it also has Dan Van Husen and a few of the regular list of SW bit part players.
The version I picked up was released by Geneon its runtime is 92 minutes, it has no chapter stops, and no special features. When your expecting total crap your expectations are lower than whale sh*t, so I was actually pleasantly surprised that this turned out to be very watchable. Its supposed to be either humorous or a lighthearted farce rather than a slapstick comedy but with the casting problems and limits of the script it comes out as neither. I guess we all got to remember that this was made post "Trinity is Still My Name" and the time for serious SW's and Zapatas Westerns had passed.
Three things though really stand out and they are the quality of the transfer which was widescreen and excellent, secondly, the beautiful cinematography of Alejandro Ulloa which is one of the things that really impressed me when I first saw his work on Corbucci's Companero's, his other work some of you will recognize from The Mercenary, Sonny & Jed, Cry Onion, Providence, and other great SWs and third is the almost star billing for the TRAINS! This film is a train-lovers delight, this is one Zapata Western that really emphasizes the trains, there is some great railroad action footage, including a beginning act that has a locomotive chase, that for me anyway really compensates for the rest of the film who's biggest problem is the miscasting of Savalas as Villa. Savalas sucks basically is about the best you can say about his performance as Villa, he effects no accent whatsoever, but he is still his charming wise-guy persona and he does have some good scenes (like when he's pretending to be a corpse where he doesn't have to talk which was not much of a stretch for him) so you can suspend disbelief.
Walker is his hulking self. I think the only memorable time I saw these two together was in "The Dirty Dozen". In this film Walker runs around dressed like a sea captain with insignia cap and blue brass buttoned watch-coat, a strange choice. Chuck Connors plays a misophobic US army Col. Wilcox, but rather than be a strong villain he comes off as more of a nut job. Flo (Anne Francis) has some scenes with her wayward husband Scotty (Walker) which were supposed to be funny but don't quite work, mostly because Walker doesn't have much range as an actor.
The town sets and the border custom station/army post look fine, you will recognize La Calahorra station, Colmenar Viejo, & Guadix.
This film is unique from other Zapatas in that it covers Villas attack on Columbus, New Mexico, in 1917, long after his glory days were past and that it emphasized his use of railroads with his "Army of The North". It does have a spectacular set piece real head on collision with two steam locomotives, similar to DYS, but without the dynamite, its cool to see real train-wrecks. Nowadays it would all be computer generated effects The score is mostly mariachi music and fits the film well, but it does have Telly sing the ending credit tune which is a hoot, on par with LVC's turn in Captian Apache.
Any way this worth getting for $10 or lower.
Pancho Villa, Dir, by Eugenio Martin, stars Telly Savalas as Pancho Villa, Clint Walker as Scotty, in the standard role of the gringo American gunrunner, Chuck Connors as clean freak nut case Col. Wilcox, Anne Francis (who played Altaria in Forbidden Planet) as Flo, and it also has Dan Van Husen and a few of the regular list of SW bit part players.
The version I picked up was released by Geneon its runtime is 92 minutes, it has no chapter stops, and no special features. When your expecting total crap your expectations are lower than whale sh*t, so I was actually pleasantly surprised that this turned out to be very watchable. Its supposed to be either humorous or a lighthearted farce rather than a slapstick comedy but with the casting problems and limits of the script it comes out as neither. I guess we all got to remember that this was made post "Trinity is Still My Name" and the time for serious SW's and Zapatas Westerns had passed.
Three things though really stand out and they are the quality of the transfer which was widescreen and excellent, secondly, the beautiful cinematography of Alejandro Ulloa which is one of the things that really impressed me when I first saw his work on Corbucci's Companero's, his other work some of you will recognize from The Mercenary, Sonny & Jed, Cry Onion, Providence, and other great SWs and third is the almost star billing for the TRAINS! This film is a train-lovers delight, this is one Zapata Western that really emphasizes the trains, there is some great railroad action footage, including a beginning act that has a locomotive chase, that for me anyway really compensates for the rest of the film who's biggest problem is the miscasting of Savalas as Villa. Savalas sucks basically is about the best you can say about his performance as Villa, he effects no accent whatsoever, but he is still his charming wise-guy persona and he does have some good scenes (like when he's pretending to be a corpse where he doesn't have to talk which was not much of a stretch for him) so you can suspend disbelief.
Walker is his hulking self. I think the only memorable time I saw these two together was in "The Dirty Dozen". In this film Walker runs around dressed like a sea captain with insignia cap and blue brass buttoned watch-coat, a strange choice. Chuck Connors plays a misophobic US army Col. Wilcox, but rather than be a strong villain he comes off as more of a nut job. Flo (Anne Francis) has some scenes with her wayward husband Scotty (Walker) which were supposed to be funny but don't quite work, mostly because Walker doesn't have much range as an actor.
The town sets and the border custom station/army post look fine, you will recognize La Calahorra station, Colmenar Viejo, & Guadix.
This film is unique from other Zapatas in that it covers Villas attack on Columbus, New Mexico, in 1917, long after his glory days were past and that it emphasized his use of railroads with his "Army of The North". It does have a spectacular set piece real head on collision with two steam locomotives, similar to DYS, but without the dynamite, its cool to see real train-wrecks. Nowadays it would all be computer generated effects The score is mostly mariachi music and fits the film well, but it does have Telly sing the ending credit tune which is a hoot, on par with LVC's turn in Captian Apache.
Any way this worth getting for $10 or lower.