Pancho Villa (1972) User Reviews

Mediocre portrayal about the rowdy rebel who attacked Columbus town

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 30 March 2007]

This is a semi-fictional chronicle of the notorious bandit Pancho Villa (Telly Savalas) . It is a witless recounting of Villa's American campaign with broaden focus about action and irony . Villa (Dorotea Arango , 1878-1923) sends his gringo pal (Clint Walker) as gunrunner into US , but he is betrayed . As he encounters every obstacles with MacDermott (Luis Davila) ; besides , there meets his beautiful spouse (Anne Francis). Then , Villa leads his merry men in the famous raid over an American fort after being double-crossed in a weapons deal . Crossing the frontier attacking firstly the checkpoint and bombing the cartel captioning ¨You are entering in United States¨ . Later on , it begins an intense charge over the Columbus headquarter . A cocky and megalomaniac colonel (Chuck Connors) attempts to battle against him .

This Spanish/American co-production paints an ironic , cynic portrayal of the famous leader following the exploits of Villa and his men formed by a peasant army into USA territory . The picture ignores the wealth of the authentic history and becomes yet another action/adventure/humor Western and this failed production doesn't deliver what it should . It is an average Western with comedy , tongue-in-cheek , action and plenty of shootouts , gun-play and some moments results to be quite entertaining . This Paella/US Western was regularly directed by Eugenio Martin who made terror films (Horror Express) and more Spaghetti Western (Bounty killer , Requiem for a Gringo and Bad man's river) , among others .

This uneven rehash about Pancho villa exploits is partially based on real events , the authentic deeds are the following : For a time Villa,who seemed in line for leadership of Mexico , enjoyed the sympathetic interest of the US government who then dropped Villa and supported his rival , Carranza . Villa's resentment resulted in the vengeance raid on Columbus . Villa slapped the United States in the face by mounting a surprise raid on the town of Columbus,New Mexico,on 9 march 1916, killing eight American soldiers and ten civilians.In retaliation , President Woodrow Wilson sent General Pershing and a Punitive Expedition into Mexico in hot pursuit of Villa.General Pershing's column included the Seventh Cavalry and Apache scouts, chased Villa deep into Mexico , the Americans captured and killed several of Villa's lieutenants but failed to catch the guerrilla leader . Because of Mexican protests , Pershing's command returned to the US.Villa was assassinated in 1923 when gunman ambushed his car .

"Gringos, come surrender!"

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 31 January 2007]

Finally, the mystery solved as to how Telly Savalas became bald! Starting out, "Pancho Villa" appears to be a serious treatment of the Mexican revolutionary's legend, but it quickly dissolves into a farcical comedy Western. Things get under way somewhat tentatively with Colonel Wilcox' (Chuck Connors) 'fly in the mess hall scene', quickly followed by Villa trading a horse for Miss Clara's tin lizzy. By the time Villa feigns being dead, I realized for sure that this one was intended to be an over the top flick, with Savalas going over the top more than once. Without even knowing anything about the historical Pancho Villa, I'm sure this film had nothing remotely to do with him.

It's always neat though, to see legendary TV Western personalities make a comeback, in this case, both 'Rifleman's' Connors, and Cheyenne Bodie himself, Clint Walker. Walker portrays Villa's American sidekick, though it's never made clear why he sides with the Mexicans. A full decade following the end of the 'Cheyenne' series, he looks as good as ever, but it's a mystery why he's in that seafaring get up, though it makes as much sense in it's way as the rest of the film. Even Anne Francis makes an appearance as Scotty's (Walker) ex-wife, giving further star power to this revolutionary tale.

Others on this board have mentioned that train crash scene with some enthusiasm, so I'm not sure if the print I viewed was edited in some way. It appeared to me that once the locomotives made contact with each other the action froze and then we see the aftermath. Why not just show the whole wreck take place, unless it was to save those great antiques for real.

Best line of the film - "He don't need a doctor, he needs a change of underwear", as a doctor removes a lizard from Pancho's shirt while he appears to be dying from some sort of convulsion. But the one each of the principals had to be thinking by the end of the story - "You know, if I was you, I'd jump off this train".

PANCHO VILLA (Eugenio Martin, 1972) **

[Bunuel1976 · 4/10 · 18 March 2006]

Telly Savalas hams it up as the Mexican revolutionary (though he's matched by Chuck Connors as a military martinet) in this jokey yet rather boring pastiche on the famous historical figure's life and times. An earlier attempt, VILLA RIDES! (1968) with Yul Brynner in the role and co-starring Robert Mitchcum, dealt with these events more soberly and on a grander scale. As such, PANCHO VILLA is an all-too typical European venture and an undistinguished one at that, despite its credentials; the end result is more often silly rather than amusing - though a few moments, most notably the action set-pieces and a scene involving a brawl inside a church, offer some mild pleasure. Oh, and Savalas even gets to sing over the end titles!

Telly Savalas, a comedy moustache and one hell of a train crash.

[johnwaynefreak · 3 December 2002]

Telly Savalas stars as the Mexican rebel Villa, `the only man to invade the USA!' Although the story had been told historically before (i.e. `Villa Rides' with Yul Brynner) this version is played more for laughs. This was made at the height of Savalas' popularity in the year that Kojak became a household name.

Here, Villa `borrows' $30,000 to buy guns for his rebel cause. He sends his partner Scotty into America to do the trade, but while there he is double-crossed. He escapes back to Mexico where Villa prepares to take revenge on the men who cheated him. He crosses the border and captures the American town of Columbus.

This western pits a mainly Spanish cast against Savalas, Clint Walker, Anne Francis and Chuck Connors. They give good performances although Savalas has a tendency to go over the top at times; so does the film, with dumb scenes such as when a whole room of soldiers cannot (at the command of Connors as Col. Wilcox) swat a fly. But this scene is justified however, as Wilcox explains `By killing that fly, I am saving your lives'. Well, ahem, quite. Yes, the script is that bad. But keep watching for the `exciting' climax . When the film is boring, it's awful, but some scenes are excellent, helped no end by Savalas' performance.

Low Budget Effort Of Limited Value

[sddavis63 · 4/10 · 31 December 2008]

Telly Savalas put on a passable (but no better than that) performance as Pancho Villa, the notorious Mexican bandit/revolutionary in this account of Villa's raid on the town of Columbus, New Mexico in 1916. Villa is not really a historical figure who I'm overly familiar with, so I won't say much about the historical details of the film. As a movie, this isn't great, although it has a smattering here and there of both action and humour. Chuck Connors' performance as Colonel Wilcox, commander of the U.S. Army base near Columbus struck me as a bit over the top, and Clint Walker as Villa's Gringo sidekick Scotty didn't really do very much for me. The movie is obviously a pretty low budget effort of limited technical quality. For a movie with a runtime of only slightly over an hour and a half I have to say that this movie dragged in places, particularly in the last 20 minutes or so. Villa's raid into the United States was an interesting (if, in the overall scheme of things, not especially important) historical sidebar, and probably deserved better treatment than this. 4/10

Weak Spanish western

[Red-Barracuda · 4/10 · 3 May 2013]

The western was in a bit of a cul-de-sac by the early 70's. The spaghetti and revisionist strands had pushed the format to its extremes, meaning that not much new territory was pursued. Pancho Villa was neither spaghetti, nor a revisionist; it was a Spanish western which decided that the best foot forward was to play things for laughs. It traded largely on its star actor Telly Savalas who was a massive TV star at the time as a result of Kojack.

The result is a silly and often tedious biopic about the Mexican revolutionary of the title and is specifically about his mini-invasion of the U.S.A. in 1916. I don't know the real story but it's quite obvious that this is a loose retelling at best. There is a lot of very stupid humour here including ludicrous separate scenes involving a fly and a lizard. The humour really isn't very good so these scenes just come across as misguided. To ramp up the campy nature further the army officer who is Pancho Villa's adversary is played by Chuck Connors in a quite deranged fashion. Despite a promising opening half, things get bogged down when the Mexicans enter America and things do drag quite a bit thereafter. It is a somewhat strange movie so is possibly worth watching for that reason if you are inclined enough. It ends with Savalas crooning a song over the end credits.

A farce ridiculous enough to watch out of pity

[PapaKilo_PKDS · 3/10 · 2 January 2014]

Somebody must have had the idea to make this actual historical event (1916 Raid on Columbus, NM, USA) into a farce of a film for the audience's pleasure.

It portrays both the American Army and Pancho Villa as bumbling, inept fools. I don't know what Telly Savalas (a huge star at the time) was thinking participating in this film.

With a comical, farcical sound track and ridiculous sound effects it is like watching a combination of MASH 4077, Three Stooges and horrible Chop-Sokey martial arts films of the day.

It's so bizarre, it's worth watching it to say that you did.

Good for nothing

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 8 March 2018]

1972 saw Spanish director Eugenio Martin make two films starring Telly Savalas. One of them, HORROR EXPRESS, is an all-time masterpiece which I enjoy watching over and over again. The other, PANCHO VILLA, isn't. This lame would-be comedy follows Pancho Villa's life in his final days, after his defeat. He's betrayed, loses all his money, and decides to embark on an audacious robbery in the USA to get himself rich again. He's aided by his right hand man Clint Walker and opposed by a psychotic army colonel, played by western regular Chuck Connors. Where to begin with this mess? It's a cheesy, over the top comedy which spends long segments of its running time on absolute nonsense lowbrow set-pieces, like the hunt for a bluebottle in a dining hall. Savalas gives an ultra-laidback performance and there are regular bursts of action, but it's all very silly, unbelievable, and good for nothing. It's hard to believe that this was made by the same guy who directed HORROR EXPRESS the very same year.

Farcical Western starring Telly Savalas, Clint Walker, Anne Francis & Chuck Connors

[Wuchakk · 4/10 · 16 September 2016]

Released in 1972 and directed by Eugenio Martín, "Pancho Villa" is a Western farce starring Telly Savalas as the eponymous Mexican revolutionary general who decides to "invade" America with his raid on Columbus, New Mexico, a town three miles from the border, on March 9, 1916. Clint Walker plays his right-hand man, Scotty with Anne Francis as the latter's wife in a troubled marriage. Chuck Connors plays the US Army officer assigned to repelling the raid.

In real life, Pancho was commander of the northern division of the Constitutional Army and governor of the northern state of Chihuahua, Mexico. He was in line for leadership of Mexico and thus had the sympathy of the US Feds who ultimately forsook Villa in favor of his rival, Carranza, who defeated Villa in two major Mexican battles in 1915. Embittered, Pancho took his wrath out on America with his raid on Columbus, which was a slap in the face to the USA, resulting in the death of 8 American soldiers and 10 civilians. Woodrow Wilson retaliated by sending General Pershing and a punitive expedition into Mexico to apprehend Villa. They went pretty deep south of the border, capturing and killing several of Villa's lieutenants, but failed to capture the famous revolutionary himself. The Perishing expedition ended due to Mexican protests and the US entering into WWI. Villa died seven years later when assassins ambushed his car in Parral, Chihuahua.

The movie focuses on the Battle of Columbus and is an odd mixture of serious drama/violence and utterly goofy comedy, like the ridiculous kill-the-fly sequence, which I guess was to make fun of Connor's more-military-than-thou character. Due to the farcical elements it's hard to take the radical violence seriously. Is it funny to see Mexican citizens shockingly shot on the spot at Villa's whim? Is it funny to see American soldiers & civilians slain during the raid on Columbus? For me, this absurdly incongruous tone ruins the movie. Despite my cavils, "Pancho Villa" is somewhat entertaining as a what-were-they-thinking early 70's curiosity, not to mention Savalas & Walker are amusing as the protagonists and Connors as the often silly antagonist. As for Anne, she was still stunning. For anyone who's interested, Savalas sings the credits' song.

Obviously this movie shouldn't be taken too seriously, but it IS somewhat amusing, highlighted by a great train collision at the climax, not to mention the movie DOES inspire you to research the real-life events.

A joint English/Spanish/American production, the film runs 92 minutes and was shot in Spain.

GRADE: Borderline C-/C (4.5/10 Stars)

Fun But Dumb

[FightingWesterner · 7/10 · 28 September 2009]

Fast and funny account of Pancho Villa's invasion of the United States in order to get revenge on an unscrupulous arms dealer that double crossed him, only to get side-tracked by various mishaps and distractions.

Telly Savalas and Clint Walker are great as the smarmy Villa and his number one crony but Chuck Conners is wasted on the caricatured role of a gung-ho Colonel racing to repel Villa's army. All his scenes (particularly the fly in the mess hall) are cringe-worthy in their silliness!

All the fun is somewhat spoiled by the (historically accurate) sight of foreign invaders murdering US soldiers. These scenes would have been better off if they had been whitewashed as they undermine Savalas' "lovable rogue" performance, though it probably played better in those early-seventies days of "radical chic" than it does now.

Overall, the film is so fast-paced that you never slow down long enough to realize how dumb it is until the ending credits roll and Telly starts singing to you!

STICK TO YOUR GUNS

[davidalexander-63068 · 3/10 · 11 September 2023]

Just what was the reason for three top action stars of the early days of television teaming up for this bland, inane piece of comedic nonsense? Clint Walker (Cheyenne), Telly Savalas (Kojak) and Chuck Connors (The Rifleman) all gave us so many hours of enjoyment back then cleaning up the wild west and the city streets with their own tough brand of law and order. So what compelled them to take a part in this would-be-if-it-could-be comedy about Pancho Villa? God only knows! None of the three is a natural comedian and even the script might attempt to be funny but somehow misses the mark. Maybe the three stars just wanted to show off their acting talents in some other way than we were used to, ie, to try their hand at comedy. Sad to say, none of them have the scope of Jack Lemmon or Cary Grant who could go from comedy to drama with ease (actually, I wonder how Jack Lemmon or Cary Grant would have gone in a western! Not too well, methinks). Boys, know your limitations. Stick to the roles that you excelled in and leave the comedy to others, ok?

Production detail

[faunafan · 10/10 · 5 June 2022]

This is an interesting behind-the-scenes anecdote. Producer Bernard Gordon in his autobiography (Hollywood exile, or, How I learned to love the blacklist: A memoir), stated that Telly Savalas and Clint Walker did not get along during the shooting of the movie. Savalas made attempts to upstage Walker and even insisted on changing some two-shots into solo shots. Conversely, Clint Walker enjoyed Anne Francis's companionship, unlike his onscreen character. (Wagner, L., Anne Francis: The life and career) According to Gordon, this was important to Walker, as not much time had passed since he had barely survived a skiing accident, which, as he told Gordon, completely changed his life. Gordon stated that the production was finished on time and on budget despite script problems. This movie was Clint Walker's first film since that near-fatal skiing accident only a few months before.

Great train footage in a watchable miscast film.

[mgtbltp · 7/10 · 1 January 2007]

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.

Paella and Custard!

[hitchcockthelegend · 4/10 · 28 September 2019]

Pancho Villa is directed by Eugenio Martín and he co-writes the screenplay with Julian Zimet. It stars Telly Savalas, Clint Walker, Chuck Connors and Anne Francis. Music is by Antón García Abril and cinematography by Alejandro Ulloa.

Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa sets about raiding a US Army weapons depot in Columbus, New Mexico.

Well what does one make of this oddity? Pitched somewhere between surreal action and farce comedy, this is a hard film to recommend to even the hardiest fans of the cast members. Beginning with the miscasting of the lead players, pic rumbles on in a stop start fashion that sees director Martín follow a period of dialogue exchanges - in less than convincing fashion - with a burst of action that's mostly tidy when it involves locomotives!

You will not be receiving a history lesson here, or a cinematic art form one either, but a modicum of entertainment value can be garnered if you go in expecting an uneven duffer starring actors you like - or conversely you be flushed with some alcoholic amber nectar! 4/10

Not exactly an enlightening take on the historic figure...

[Poseidon-3 · 1 November 2002]

This is an odd little film about infamous Pancho Villa featuring an all Spanish cast except for a quartet of "name" American actors. Savalas (attempting no sort of accent or strong characterization) slides through the film on his unique brand of charm. (He was at or near his height of fame at he time.) He's given a scene to explain why, in this version of the story, Villa is bald, yet in a clip that takes place prior to the shaving, he is bald then, too! He is only effective at all because so many of the rest of the cast are bad. Roman god come to life Walker co-stars as a gunrunner who works alongside Savalas. Sadly, he is covered up by a jaunty captain's hat and a double breasted coat much of the time, so his treasure of a chest is under wraps. Still, his innate charm and handsome face add a lot to this very slight movie. He manages to inject some humor and slyness into his part. Francis has very little to do in her role (and disappears without a trace at some point!), but is attractive. Conners (with his skeletal features and corpse-like lips) plays a mad, driven Army officer who's bent on cleanliness and order at the expense of efficiency. He has a notable scene in which a mess hall is virtually trashed in order to excise one fly. The film is impossible to take seriously and it doubtful that it was intended as such. It's a sort of parodic, satiric take on the genre. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the wit or the money to make much of an impression. The sets look like they wouldn't pass muster on "Bonanza" and the dubbing (in fact all of the sound) is horrible. The music in this film is almost it's worst aspect. There is a highly aggravating theme played by the Mexicans as they enter the U.S. and it is ceaseless in its torture of the viewers' ears. To top it off, there's a hellacious closing credit song sung by Savalas (!) and written by John Cacavas (who did music for "Kojak" and a horde of TV movies.) The film is not very good, but watchable once if little is expected of it.

Well, it has Telly so that's good

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 18 November 2023]

An Italian Spanish co=production, this was directed by Eugenio Martín and produced by Phillip Yordan as part of three movies they'd make together, which also include Bad Man's River and Horror Express.

After being double-crossed in an arms deal by a gun merchant McDermott (Luis Dávila) from New Mexico, Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa (Telly Savalas) and his American lieutenant Scotty (Clint Walker) attack a U. S. Army weapons depot and seize McDermott.

Colonel Wilcox (Chuck Conners) is stationed on the American side of the border and is assigned to rescue the shady McDermott, who is as bad or worse than the Mexican revolutionaries.

In his book Hollywood exile, or, How I learned to love the blacklist: A memoir, producer Bernard Gordon goes into how little Telly Savalas and Clint Walker liked one another. Savalas made attempts to upstage Walker while - unlike their characters in the movie - Anne Francis and Walker got along quite well. Walker was also not far from a near-death experience. The actor Walker skied out of control and had his heart stabbed with a ski poke. He was pronounced dead until a doctor heard a faint sign of life and performed life-saving surgery.

Walker is pretty much Rick Dalton. He was the lead on Cheyenne before getting into Western and war movies. He eventually moved into TV movies, several of which are pretty good, including Killdozer! And Snowbeast.

Pancho Villa even has a song, We All End Up the Same", which was written by John Cacavas and Don Black and sung by Savalas. This feels very Vietnam-era, in that Connors has a scene where the entire army can't kill one fly. It ends as all movies should with a train on train head to head crash.

Kojak playing Villa

[RodrigAndrisan · 7/10 · 30 April 2017]

Well, it's Telly Savalas, an actor who turned gold any role he accepted. 20 years before, in 1952, the great Marlon Brando played Emiliano Zapata. Now, in 1972, Savalas offers us a very special Pancho Villa. I thought I will see a stupid western spaghetti (usually they are very bad) but no, I had the surprise to see a good decent film. It's not Sergio Leone's genius but it's pretty well-done. With Sergio Leone has in common only the fact that it was filmed in Spain, as well as the dollars series. Of course the best ingredient is Telly Savalas, without him, the movie would be hard to watch. The other actors are OK but only at the functional level, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing brilliant. I am referring especially to Clint Walker and Chuck Connors. Anne Francis is much better in the role of Flo. Does anyone know that Savalas was, besides a brilliant and unique actor, a very good singer, with a warm voice and a few hits under his belt? He plays a song at the end of this movie too. Telly Savalas did another role in the same year, 1972, Capt. Kazan, in "Horror Express", directed by the same Gene Martin (real name Eugenio Martín). Eugenio Martín, who directed before some other Westerns, "Bad Man's River"(1971), with Lee Van Cleef, "Requiem for a Gringo"(1968), "The Ugly Ones"(1966). 7 stars for the charm of Savalas and the accurate direction of Martin.

Saturday matinee special

[mikeschrampf · 7/10 · 13 September 2020]

A movie you would enjoy in your youth. Plenty of explosions and gunfire. Slapstick laughs galore. Too many critics expected a serious, historical story. Questionable if they have a sense of humor.

Not one of the better westerns.

[wotamovie1 · 13 December 2001]

The genre of westerns fell on hard times during the 1970's after its flourish in the 1960's. Still, there was a handful of good westerns in the seventies. Unfortunately, this isn't one of them. There is essentially no plot here. It seems that the movie's sole function was to cash in on the rising popularity for Telly Savalas at the time. Naturally, with very little to work with, he simply chews up the scenery. I'll be the first to admit that Telly was one of the coolest and charismatic actors ever to make his presence on the screen. I'll even go as far as to call him an "icon" of the seventies. Still, there is really no excuse for this garbage. The actors seem to know what they got themselves wrapped into as evidenced by their "ridiculous" performances. The scene with Chuck Connors and the fly "buzzing" around him has got to go down as cinema's most appallingly bad and incompetent sequence. One simply has to see it to believe it! If you treated the whole movie as one long bad joke, then you might feel a little better at the end of the film. You may even come away with a grin. Just don't expect much from this movie. On the plus side, I truly enjoyed the last sequence with Savalas on the caboose of the train fading out of the screen with the soundtrack in the background of Telly belting out the theme song. Truly astonishing! For me, it negated the pain and suffering I had endured through the length of the movie. For others, it may not be enough.

Telly Savalas was entertaing enough as Pancho Villa

[jordondave-28085 · 6/10 · 1 September 2023]

(1972) Pancho Villa DUBBED SPAGHETTI WESTERN/ COMEDY/ ACTION

Co-written and directed by Eugenio Martín with fictitious movie about Pancho Villa played by Telly Savalas revolution against the French with faithful acquaintance Scotty (Clint Walker) stealing the movie.

I just want to say that out of all the movies about "Pancho Villa", that we're also going to expect a made up movie about him as well, whether how fake or phony it is going to look- I thought it was entertaining enough. That if you are unable to adapt to an altered movie about him then how can anyone accept the many interpretations of Wyatt Earp or anyone else for that matter.

mixture

[Vincentiu · 11 September 2012]

comedy, western,cartoon, music and Telly Savalas. in one film. a film about nothing except easy amusing. because each character is only caricature. few fight scenes are not worthy spice for this salad.and poor Pancho Villa is absent. his story is only subject for not very inspired party. is it a disappointment ? no way ! it is only slice from a time.small experiment for a kind of public, ironic piece about USA and different form of cartoon about a really Mexican hero.nothing more. after 40 years it can be a curiosity. but the purpose is entertainment, discover of a good actor as clown and few drops of comedy with French nuances.