"The Reward" (1965)is one of the most interesting and well photographed and directed westerns that I've seen. Director Serge Bourguignon ("Sundays and Cybele") proves he's a distinguished director with this tale of two men who try to bring a posse out after a fugitive for the $50,000 reward and end up having to agree to split the reward with the three other men, a sergeant and an Indian and another Mexican. Bourguignon shows his strength just in his casting decisions that he is a top-flight director. In the cast, as his protagonist, a pilot, (Max Von Sydow)paired with Gilbert Roland as an captain, with Emilio Fernandez as the sergeant, Henry Silva as the Indian and Nino Castelnuovo as the other Mexican. Yvette Mimieux plays the girl accompanying Emphrem Zimbalist, Jr. as the fugitive. The cinematography is very well realized by Joe MacDonald in Color By Deluxe. Bourguignon's directorial flourishes abound, the matching of image to sound and the cutting from scene to scene are skillfully wrought. Film Editor was Robert Simpson. Of course, the English subtitles for the Spanish should have been retained. The script was by Bourguignon and Oscar Millard based on a novel by Michael Barrett. Produced by Aaron Rosenberg. There was always a question after "Sundays and Cybele" that it could have been a fluke the film was as good as it was winning Best Foreign Film, (After all it had Patricia Gozzi as the star) but "The Reward" certainly cements his reputation and makes me interested to see his other films. Yes, I think the film should be revived. It is probably more important today than initially upon release. It was a 20th Century-Fox film.
Review of The Reward
