This is one of the strangest westerns ever made, and that includes the various incarnations of the spaghetti variety. And it isn't all bad. Yul Brynner is at the top of his game, and that is saying something. But everything around him is so bizarre that it's almost like walking into an episode of "The Prisoner," with nothing looking quite right and nobody taking things quite seriously enough. The difference is that there, it's not supposed to look like it makes sense. Here, unfortunately, it is supposed to - I think.
Anyway, Yul plays your standard-issue cool, unshakable, unbeatable gunfighter, naturally clad all in black, the kind that pops up with great regularity in bad movies. But he is such a fine actor that he adds a knowing look here, a smirk there to show an intelligence usually missing in these kind of heroes. He even plays classical piano - Clint Eastwood never did THAT.
But he isn't given much to play off. Dean Reed (who?) plays the closest thing to a buddy he has here, a completely out-of-place traitor to the infamous Mexican Maximilian government (and to everyone else). As is always, always, always the case in these films about the Maximilian days, it all comes down to the government's gold, and who gets it. I won't spoil the ending, but if you've seen any other film about the Maximilian days, you already know who will get the gold that everybody is after. More evidence of a poor script....
The plot itself is pretty much beside the point, though. Even Yul, good as he is, is really just window dressing. The really striking thing about this film is the villains. Maximilian and his henchmen are always portrayed so originally in films about the period. In the fine "Veracruz," they were portrayed as medieval French knights. In "Undefeated," basically overdressed locals. Here, they are Austrians (yes, you read that right, Austrians) wearing bowler hats (yes, big old bowlers in the hot sun) and three piece suits (no, I'm really not kidding). Come on, where else are you going to see grimy revolutionaries in hand-to-hand combat with downtown bankers? Seriously! And Blofeld, I mean "Colonel Skimmer," is busy adjusting his monocle (!) while pulling the strings and using prisoners for his target practice.
Worth it for the surreal nature of the bad guys, the glaringly obvious references to better spaghetti westerns (the visuals, the music, the ubiquitous musical watch, the reference to burying the gold in a cemetery), and of course, unforgettable Yul.
Anyway, Yul plays your standard-issue cool, unshakable, unbeatable gunfighter, naturally clad all in black, the kind that pops up with great regularity in bad movies. But he is such a fine actor that he adds a knowing look here, a smirk there to show an intelligence usually missing in these kind of heroes. He even plays classical piano - Clint Eastwood never did THAT.
But he isn't given much to play off. Dean Reed (who?) plays the closest thing to a buddy he has here, a completely out-of-place traitor to the infamous Mexican Maximilian government (and to everyone else). As is always, always, always the case in these films about the Maximilian days, it all comes down to the government's gold, and who gets it. I won't spoil the ending, but if you've seen any other film about the Maximilian days, you already know who will get the gold that everybody is after. More evidence of a poor script....
The plot itself is pretty much beside the point, though. Even Yul, good as he is, is really just window dressing. The really striking thing about this film is the villains. Maximilian and his henchmen are always portrayed so originally in films about the period. In the fine "Veracruz," they were portrayed as medieval French knights. In "Undefeated," basically overdressed locals. Here, they are Austrians (yes, you read that right, Austrians) wearing bowler hats (yes, big old bowlers in the hot sun) and three piece suits (no, I'm really not kidding). Come on, where else are you going to see grimy revolutionaries in hand-to-hand combat with downtown bankers? Seriously! And Blofeld, I mean "Colonel Skimmer," is busy adjusting his monocle (!) while pulling the strings and using prisoners for his target practice.
Worth it for the surreal nature of the bad guys, the glaringly obvious references to better spaghetti westerns (the visuals, the music, the ubiquitous musical watch, the reference to burying the gold in a cemetery), and of course, unforgettable Yul.