Villa Rides (1968)

Director:

Buzz Kulik

Writers:

Robert Towne (screenplay) and
Sam Peckinpah (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

20 September 1968 (West Germany)

Genre:

War | Western

Tagline:

Villa rages! Villa lusts! Villa kills! VILLA RIDES!

Plot:

Mexican rebel Pancho Villa lead a revolution helped by an American aviator imprisonned in Mexico.

Plot Keywords:

Mexico | Pancho Villa | Revolution | Gunrunner | Mexican Revolution

Cast

Yul Brynner	...	Pancho Villa
Robert Mitchum	...	Lee Arnold
Maria Grazia Buccella	...	Fina (as Grazia Buccella)
Herbert Lom	...	General Huerta
Robert Viharo	...	Urbina
Frank Wolff	...	Ramirez
Diana Lorys	...	Emilita
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
Charles Bronson	...	Rodolfo Fierro
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Xan das Bolas	...	Villa's Telegraphist (uncredited)
José Canalejas	...	Villa's Guerrillero Rapist Killed by Fierro (uncredited)
John Ireland	...	Barbershop Client (uncredited)
José Riesgo	...	Fierro's Assistant (uncredited)
Enrique Santiago	...	Villa's Guerrillero (uncredited)
Seyyal Taner	...	Guerrilla Girl (uncredited)

Directed by
Buzz Kulik

Writing credits
Robert Towne		(screenplay) and
Sam Peckinpah		(screenplay)
William Douglas Lansford		(adaptation)
William Douglas Lansford		(novel "Pancho Villa")

Produced by
Ted Richmond	....	producer

Original Music by
Maurice Jarre

Cinematography by
Jack Hildyard		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
David Bretherton

Casting by
Lillian Kelly

Production Design by
Ted Haworth

Art Direction by
José Algueró

Set Decoration by
Román Calatayud

Costume Design by
Eric Seelig

Makeup Department
Alberto Gutierrez	....	makeup assistant
Richard Mills	....	makeup artist
Felipe Minez Saavedra	....	makeup assistant
Carmen Sanchez	....	hairdresser
José Antonio Sánchez	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Eduardo García Maroto	....	unit production manager: Spain
Robert Goodstein	....	production supervisor
Concha Hombria	....	production supervisor
Pablo Tallaví	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Gil Carretero	....	second assistant director
Tony Fuentes	....	first assistant director: second unit
Carlos Gil	....	assistant director
Juan Carlos Gil	....	second assistant director: second unit
Ricardo Hansa	....	second assistant director
Chuck Hayward	....	second unit director
Mauricio Matias	....	assistant director
José María Ochoa	....	assistant director
Martín Sacristán	....	second assistant director
Anthony Squire	....	second unit director
Robert Westbrook	....	assistant director

Art Department
Francisco Bautista	....	painter
Fred Buch	....	assistant property master
Rafael Buch	....	art department
Luis Calzada	....	props
Juan Carrion	....	carpenter
Enrique Fernández	....	assistant art director
Fernando González	....	painter
Sam Gordon	....	property master
Pedro Hernandez	....	painter
Billy Judd	....	props
Lorenzo Leon	....	props
Isabel Lopez	....	art department
Monico Lopez	....	carpenter
Antonio Martínez	....	props
Julián Mateos	....	property master: second unit
Jose Rubio	....	carpenter
Antonio Ruiz	....	set dressing assistant
Carlos Ruiz	....	assistant backing artist
Emilio Ruiz	....	backing artist
Jose Ruiz	....	props
Ángel Ruiz	....	props
Vincente Sebastian	....	assistant set dresser
Vicente Sánchez	....	props
José María Tapiador	....	assistant art director

Sound Department
Roy Charman	....	sound
Gordon Daniel	....	sound editor
Enrique Mayberg	....	sound

Special Effects by
Tomas Chamorro	....	special effects assistant
Felipe De Diego	....	special effects assistant
Jose Garcia	....	special effects assistant
Bill Griffis	....	special effects assistant
Miguel Angel Hernando	....	special effects assistant
Luis Jimenes	....	special effects assistant
Luciano Munoz	....	special effects assistant
Emilio Polo	....	special effects assistant
Milt Rice	....	special effects
Luciano Rodriguez	....	special effects assistant

Stunts
José Luis Chinchilla	....	stunts
Miguel Pedregosa	....	stunt performer
Chuck Hayward	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
John Cabrera	....	director of photography: second unit
Alejandro de la Fuente	....	gaffer
Mariano Denia	....	chief grip
Ricardo Navarrete	....	camera operator
George Rice	....	camera operator
Vincent Rossell	....	still photographer

Casting Department
Jose Romero	....	casting assistant
Pedro Sopeña	....	casting assistant (as Pedro Sopena)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Modesto Cuadrado	....	wardrobe assistant
Andres Fernandez	....	wardrobe assistant
Lea Genovese	....	wardrobe assistant (as Lea Seelig)
Carmen Manzano	....	seamstress
Jose Martin	....	wardrobe assistant
Antonio Moreno	....	leather worker
Carmen Ochoa	....	seamstress

Music Department
Maurice Jarre	....	conductor
Tommy Tedesco	....	musician: guitar (uncredited)

Transportation Department
Cesareo Ballester	....	driver
Francisco Colas	....	assistant transportation manager
Jesus Garcia	....	driver
Arturo Liras	....	driver
Deogracias Megino	....	transportation manager
Agustin Perez	....	driver
Manolo Valverde	....	driver

Other crew
Isidro Alonso	....	gardener
Francisco Ardura	....	livestock supervisor
Katrina Bayonas	....	secretary
Charles Boddington	....	pilot
Rafael Buch	....	interpreter
Eva Del Castillo	....	script girl: second unit
Mary Ann Donahue	....	secretary
Jose Fabregas	....	studio representative
Francisco Fernández de Alarcón	....	production assistant
Ricardo Huertas	....	script clerk
Ricardo Hupkins	....	script supervisor
Comandante Juste	....	aviation consultant
Pedro Lopez	....	location labourer
Jose Maria Maldonado	....	interpreter
José María Maldonado	....	production assistant
Alfonso Munoz	....	local contact
Manuel De Castro Navascues	....	restaurant comptroller
Michele Nicholson	....	secretary
Germán Quejido	....	first production assistant

Thanks
Pancho Villa	....	dedicatee

Production Companies

• Paramount Pictures

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1968) (USA) (theatrical)
• Paramount (1968) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1973) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Legend Films (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Video (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Winkler Film (2013) (Germany) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Panavision  filmed in

Also Known As:

Runtime:

USA:125 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved | USA:R | West Germany:16 (f) | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

El Casar de Talamanca, Guadalajara, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

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.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): SPOLER: The "boy" who takes Villa's watch calls him "my General", but Villa is a colonel.

Quotes:

Parral Station Lieutenant:Stop for inspection.
Urbina:Inspect your mother!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Story of Eloise (1976)

Good action, but Brynner is woefully miscast

Mexican bandit and revolutionary Pancho Villa has been portrayed in films before, most notably by Wallace Beery in 1934's "Viva Villa!". Beery bore an uncanny resemblance to the real Pancho Villa, and by all accounts his portrayal is historically quite accurate, although the movie itself isn't. While overall this film is better than Beery's, the miscasting of Yul Brynner as Villa is difficult to overcome, and Robert Mitchum's sleepwalking through his role as an American soldier of fortune caught up in the Mexican revolution doesn't help, either. The two best performances in the film are Charles Bronson as Villa's right-hand man and chief executioner Rodolfo Fierro (Bronson accurately plays him as a man who can murder dozens of people with almost no thought about it; the real Fierro was even more of a butcher than he's shown to be here, and is known to have personally murdered hundreds of people) and Herbert Lom as the murderous Gen. Victoriano Huerta, and although Lom plays him as a sophisticated James Bond-ish Eurotrash villain than the semi-literate Indian and psychopathic killer that Huerta really was, it's still an effective job. The action set pieces are extremely well done and exciting, especially a rebel charge through a marsh against a heavily fortified federale position and, as has been previously mentioned, the film's soundtrack is truly outstanding. So even though Brynner may not be anyone's idea of Pancho Villa, the movie overall is worth a watch.