Villa Rides (1968)

There is 1 reply in this Thread which has previously been viewed 9,435 times. The latest Post () was by ethanedwards.

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!

  • VILLA RIDES


    DIRECTED BY BUZZ KULIK
    MUSIC MY MICHAEL JARRE
    PARAMOUNT PICTURES



    INFORMATION FROM IMDb


    Plot Summary
    Pulled into the Mexican Revolution by his own greed, Texas gunrunner & pilot Lee Arnold joins bandit-turned-patriot Pancho Villa & his band of dedicated men in a march across Mexico battling the Colorados & stealing women's hearts as they go. But each has a nemesis among his friends: Arnold is tormented by Fierro, Villa's right-hand-man; and Villa must face possible betrayal by his own president's naiveté.
    Written by Steve83


    Cast
    Yul Brynner ... Pancho Villa
    Robert Mitchum ... Lee Arnold
    Maria Grazia Buccella ... Fina (as Grazia Buccella)
    Charles Bronson ... Rodolfo Fierro
    Herbert Lom Herbert Lom ...
    General HuertaRobert Viharo ...
    Urbina
    Frank Wolff ... Ramirez
    Alexander Knox ... President Madero
    Robert Carricart ... Don Luis (as Bob Carricart)
    Andrés Monreal ... Captain Herrera
    Fernando Rey ... Fuentes
    Julio Peña ... General
    José María Prada ... Major
    Regina de Julián ... Lupita
    Antoñito Ruiz ... Juan (as Antonio Ruiz)
    Jill Ireland ... Girl in Restaurant
    Diana Lorys ... Emilita
    Rock Brynner ... Villaista (uncredited)
    and many more...


    Directed
    Buzz Kulik


    Writing Credits
    Robert Towne ... (screenplay) and
    Sam Peckinpah ... (screenplay)
    William Douglas Lansford ... (adaptation) (novel)
    Produced
    Ted Richmond ... producer


    Music
    Maurice Jarre


    Cinematography
    Jack Hildyard ... director of photography


    Trivia
    This is the first movie where Charles Bronson appears with his trademark mustache.


    Robert Mitchum did not get along with Yul Brynner during filming.
    He later said he could not understand why Charles Bronson was famous.


    First movie to feature real-life husband and wife Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland.


    According to Producer Norbert Saada's interview in documentary "Once Upon A Time Sergio Leone", Italian director Sergio Leone was offered to direct, but turned it down, because he did not like the cast of Yul Brynner in the title role.


    Yul Brynner was on Variety's list of Top Ten Overpriced Stars in 1968.


    Sam Peckinpah wrote the original script and was set to direct, but Yul Brynner didn't like the script because it made Pancho Villa - a man who had given standing orders to shoot all prisoners - "look like a bad guy". Peckinpah was fired and his script was rewritten by Robert Towne to conform to Brynner's idea of what Villa was like.


    Yul Brynner & Charles Bronson appeared together 8 years before the release of this film in the classic western "The Magnificent Seven".


    One of the extras in the film, playing a Mexican guerrilla girl, is Turkish singer Seyyal Taner. She would later receive notoriety for scoring no points in the 1987 Eurovision song contest.


    The first of three consecutive movies which Robert Mitchum made in Europe. This was filmed in Spain , and he then headed to Italy for Edward Dmytryk's " Anzio" and followed that with a brief stint on Joe Losey 's " Secret Ceremony " in London.


    Robert Mitchum 's son, James , and Yul Brynner's son, Rock, had both been students at Trinity College Dublin in 1966, the year before this movie began filming


    Goofs
    Anachronisms
    High-tension power wires are visible near Conejos just after Arnold lights his cigar.


    Audio/visual unsynchronised
    A machine gun nest ambushes charging Mexicans by cutting down the first three over a wall with a short burst, but as hordes more come over the wall, the machine gun doesn't fire even though the sounds of it firing continue. The gun obviously jammed but the footage was used anyhow with firing sounds dubbed into it.


    Urbina's mouth says "Yes" at the end of the condolence scene, but there is no sound.


    Character error
    The "boy" who takes Villa's watch calls him "my General", but Villa is a colonel.


    Continuity
    Condition of the paint on the left side of the fuselage near the tail just before the flight training scene.


    Near the end of the movie they show a street scene that is supposed to be El Paso Texas
    but on the side of a building it advertises the Oklahoma Wigwam the newspaper from the book and movie Cimarron.


    In the first flight with Arnold & Fierro, they observe the train approaching a causeway over a valley at speed. They return to Chupadero to report to Villa. The next day, they fly over the train again, which is a few feet past where they saw it before crossing the same valley.


    Revealing mistakes
    Helicopter rotor wash visible in the trees during the Conejos cavalry charges.


    Obvious ropes due to flying hay in the wall scene.


    Lee Arnold is hit in the back, on his left shoulder blade, with the flat side of a rifle butt, yet he fell down as though knocked out and remained unconscious for the rest of the battle.


    Spoilers
    Continuity
    Arnold & Villa share a cell, but when they emerge to the firing squad, they appear from different doors on different levels.


    Factual errors
    Repeated reference is made to the "Conejos hanging", but the hanging for which Villa was guilty of inaction happened in Chupadero. There was no hanging shown or implied in Conejos.


    Memorable Quotes


    Filming Locations
    El Casar de Talamanca, Guadalajara, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
    Durango, Mexico
    Chihuahua, Mexico
    Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico
    Sonora, Mexico
    Castle of Santa Cecilia, Guanajuato City, Mexico
    Madrid, Spain
    Spain


    Watch the Movie


    [extendedmedia]

    [/extendedmedia]

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

  • Villa Rides is a 1968 American western war film starring
    Yul Brynner in toupee in the title role and Robert Mitchum
    as an American adventurer and pilot of fortune.
    The supporting cast includes Charles Bronson as Fierro,
    Herbert Lom as Huerta, and Alexander Knox as Madero.


    Sam Peckinpah wrote the original script and was set to direct but Brynner
    didn't like his depiction of Villa as cruel and had Robert Towne rewrite the script
    and sought another director.
    The screenplay is based on the biography by William Douglas Lansford.



    Critical reception
    Film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert, gave the film a mixed review, writing,
    "You would think an interesting picture could be made about Pancho Villa and the Mexican Revolution,
    a subject most Americans know next to nothing about.
    But we learn nothing except that Pancho was a romantic fellow who had a mustache
    and liked to have people lined up three in a row and killed with one bullet.
    (That scene, incidentally, got a big laugh.) Frankly, this kind of movie is beginning to get to me.
    You can enjoy one, maybe, or two. Or you can enjoy a particularly well done shoot-em-up.
    But the Loop has been filled with one action-adventure after another for the last month,
    and if Villa Rides is not the worst, it is certainly not the best."


    Film critic A. H. Weiler wrote, "Yul Brynner, Robert Mitchum, cavalry,
    politicos and even the faint strains of "La Cucaracha" fail to disguise the fact
    that Villa Rides which dashed into the Forum Theater yesterday,
    is simply a sprawling Western and not history.
    As such it incessantly fills the screen with the din of pistols and rifles,
    and assorted warfare and wenching, shot in sharp color on rugged Spanish sites
    that strikingly simulate Mexico.
    Any resemblance to the 1912-1914 campaigns of the bandit-revolutionary
    in the cause of liberal President Madero and against General Huerta is purely coincidental."



    User Review


    Colorful portrayal of the Mexican revolutionary leader , entirely filmed on spectacular Spanish exteriors
    23 October 2012 | by ma-cortes (Santander Spain)


    .

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England