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32 out of 40 people found the following review useful:
A curious serial-like Western melodrama packed with stars and pretensions above its situation…, 17 July 2005

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The film opens with a narration by Victor Jory about an Apache legend: a hidden canyon, guarded by the Apache gods and rich with gold… As long as the Apaches kept the canyon a secret and never touched the gold, they would be strong and powerful…

Marshal Mackenna (Gregory Peck) wasted three years chasing that wild goose… He immediately knew the place and identified it as 'Shaking Rock' but insisted to the old Apache dying chief who was keeping the map that there is no gold around there: "The only dust I found was prairie dust!"

Before the chief dies, Mackenna destroys the map, confident it is a myth…

When the ludicrous Mexican bandit Colorado (Omar Sharif) appears on the scene with his gang, and discovers the useless burned map, he took Mackenna—his living map—to his hideout in a little box canyon and forced him to lead him to the legendary canyon…

Colorado's gang includes Hesh-Ke (Julie Newmar), an attractively jealous Apache woman who was once involved with Mackenna, Hachita (Ted Cassidy), a strong and deadly Apache warrior, and a captive girl called Inga (Camilla Sparv), daughter of a murdered judge who put a price on Colorado's head…

Along the way, the group is joined by 'good' citizens, dirty scheming ambitious men, a lot of bronco Apaches on the prowl, and the U.S. Cavalry after anybody and everybody… Probably after the gold too…

"Mackenna's Gold" remains a curious serial-like Western melodrama packed with stars and pretensions above its situation… The script completely wastes the fine cast… On a lower level, it is quite enjoyable… Julie Newmar is a delight, a natural beauty and a distinct "presence" that immediately captivates the audience… There are scenic location shots of the vastness of the desert, exciting action scenes, pretty spectacular scenes of danger but all hampered by frustrating special effects…

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19 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
The Old Turkey Buzzard, 15 October 2007

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

With so much talent and such great location cinematography from Arizona and Utah where Mackenna's Gold was shot, you would think the film would have wound up a classic. Sadly it tries and misses by a good deal.

Gregory Peck at his noblest is a town marshal who is ambushed by old Apache chief Eduardo Ciannelli. Peck kills him and finds out that the old man thought Peck was one of a gang of outlaws after a map of a lost canyon of gold. But as Ciannelli dies, Peck inherits the map which he burns.

Turns out Peck inherits a lot more than a map. Word of what the old guy had has reached the strangest places. The U.S. Cavalry, a group of settlers from the town Peck was the marshal, and unfortunately one unscrupulous bandit played by Omar Sharif. He kidnaps Peck and since Peck knows the location of where the lost canyon allegedly is, that fact keeps him alive.

Gold does terrible things to the human soul as we discover watching this film. Part of the problem here is that Peck somehow seems to rise above the whole business. Maybe he's just a bit too noble in this film and that's my problem with it.

The townspeople are an interesting crowd, the citizens that Peck has sworn to protect turn on him quite savagely. Gambler Eli Wallach, newspaper editor Lee J. Cobb, storekeeper Burgess Meredith, a pair of traveling Englishmen, Anthony Quayle and John Philip Law who think it would be jolly good sport, and even the local preacher who convinces himself God has ordained this so he can build a tabernacle. That role is played by Raymond Massey in his final big screen performance. And of course there's Edward G. Robinson as an old prospector who claims the canyon exists because the saw it and for that the Apaches burned out his eyes.

Camilla Sparv is another of Omar Sharif's hostages who's having a big problem choosing between Peck and the gold. One of the more ridiculous sequences in the film has Sharif and his band coming across an Eden like waterhole they spend a bit of time skinny dipping and satisfying some lustful desires.

The two best performances in the film are from Julie Newmar in a role with no dialog as a murderous Indian squaw who travels with Sharif's band and has a personal score to settle with Peck and from Telly Savalas as a cavalry sergeant who murders his own men and declares himself in on the gold hunt.

Hovering over the characters in the sky throughout the film is an old turkey buzzard and a song is sung intermittently throughout the film by Jose Feliciano. It's a kind of running commentary, the way some of the westerns in the fifties had Frankie Laine and other singers performing the same function.

A lot of the same themes were done better twenty years earlier in Columbia films classic Lust for Gold that starred Glenn Ford and Ida Lupino. Mackenna's Gold is an entertaining enough western, but considering all the talent in this film it should have been a lot better.

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24 out of 36 people found the following review useful:
fast paced western based on a treasure hunt story, 7 April 2006

Author: biyer from Australia

This movie will always remain a favorite on my list. I am surprised that it received such a low rating on this board. It deserves its rightful place as one of the best western movies ever made.

The cast is good with some powerful performances including Gregory Pack as the small town sheriff who accidentally stumbles onto a treasure map leading to a gold mine protected by the Apache Indians. The outdoor locations in this movie (with The Grand Canyon as the back drop) are simply breath-taking.

The story is fast paced with lot of action scenes including some thrilling footage of high speed horse chases. If you like western genre, don't miss this one. You will not be disappointed. It has everything - story, cast, locations, horses, shooting and a very happy ending.

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18 out of 25 people found the following review useful:
A beautiful western in the genre's twilight, 9 August 2003

Author: NewEnglandPat from Virginia

This grand, sprawling western is an entertaining picture with mega cast names that results in an enjoyable adventure. Gregory Peck and Omar Sharif are the main adversaries here as a diverse group of ranchers, soldiers and assorted types search for a hidden canyon of gold in Indian country. The expensive production has several cameo appearances of stars well past their prime and a message about greed and the corrupting influence of gold fever and the risks people take to acquire untold wealth. There are two women in the story, one to meet the romance requirement while the other represents pure menace. The great beauty of the American west is the highlight of the picture as the plot plays out against the deserts, mountains and canyons of the great southwest. Indians are the main danger but the party of whites have their share of infighting with gun fights, chases and double crosses. The film was one of Hollywood's last great screen westerns.

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19 out of 28 people found the following review useful:
Gimme a map, a dusty trail and wild Apaches chasing me..., 12 June 2003
Author: dfarhie-1 from Austin, Texas

And I can find GOLD. I just recently viewed the DVD release of this little western nugget. I was taken aback by the wide screen splendor of the film, the grand location shots in Monument Valley and Canyon De Chellye, not to mention some tricky switcheroo in Zion and Bryce National Parks as well. The movie is campy yet serious, a shoot-em-up one minute and relaxing in a cool secret waterfall filled pond in the next. And the film has its' moments, like Julie Newmar (who can think of her and not say statuesque?), the vicious-obsessive-compulsive-Apache-squaw camp-follower, or Hatchita, played by Ted "You Rang?" Cassidy or the grande dames of acting all seated around the fire.. Keenan Wynn, Edward G. Robinson, Eli Wallach, Burgess Meredith, Anthony Quayle, Omar Sharif, Raymond Massey and Lee J. Cobb like the Fellowship of the Ring gone a hunting gold in the old west. And near the end, Telly (Who Loves Ya Baby?) Savalas joins up as a sadistically cruel Army seargent. I highly recommend this blast from the past, and Jose Feliciano singing "Ol Turkey Buzzard", sends chills down my spine. I saw this movie in the theatre when it premiered. This is already approaching cult status folks.. a real keeper.

The main reason I wrote this review is to pay tribute to Gregory Peck, who was MacKenna, Josef Mengele, Dwight Towers, Charles Keith, Robert Thorn, Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, Atticus Finch, Keith Mallory, David,Ahab, Harry Street and many many more. He will always live in my heart and mind as a great actor, the like of which may never again be seen. Nobody held a candle to him, or ever will. JUne 12, 2003

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18 out of 27 people found the following review useful:
Mackenna's Gold, 26 January 2005

Author: adam6194 from United Kingdom

I first saw this film a few months ago on TV and i thought it was so good i bought it on DVD.Now I'm not really a fan of westerns but this film really got me interested in them.The Film is set in the Arizona territory of the 1870's. Gregory Peck is brilliant as Sam Mackenna who is the only living person who knows the torturous route to the fabulous "canon del oro." During his journey Mackenna is captured by Colorado played by the great Omar Shariff, a brutal Mexican bandit who has long sought his death. But, if Mackenna is to lead the cut-throat gang to the lost treasure, Colorado must keep him alive. En route, Mackenna and the outlaw band are joined by renegade soldiers, vengeful Indians, cold-blooded killers and "gentlemen from town" As they near golden canyon, all but Mackenna are swept by a sudden fever - the naked greed for Gold. Mackenna's Gold is one of the most exciting Westerns ever made.

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19 out of 31 people found the following review useful:
TeeVee Battlefield, 27 February 2006
Author: tedg (tedg@FilmsFolded.com) from Virginia Beach

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Everything about this disaster reminds us of the battle that raged in those days between TeeVee and movies, meaning movies exhibited in a theater. The battle was hot and heavy with a major industry severely threatened. Now of course it is both TeeVee and theaters that are running scared.

Movies had scope, bigness, grand music, stars and budgets that TeeVee didn't have, so studios made movies that spoke to those values. In this case we have 70mm wide screen, the actual demolition of an impressive canyon as if it had been created for this one event. We have nudity (!), and there's a parade of big names from both TeeVee and Hollywood. The original scope was 2 1/2 hours with an intermission after the townspeople get massacred.

But everything about this is wrong. Everything. In part it was because they started with components and shoved them together without any coherent tone: a hee-haw narrator, a comically toned score, what looks like the goals of three or four scriptwriters and in the end some radical chopping of scenes.

But there are other problems too. Peck is supposed to be an ordinary character, modeled after "Maverick," the character in the runaway Warner TeeVee western. A man with a rogue past, many women, drinking, gambling, who has turned "good" and cleaned up the town, perhaps heavy-handedly.

He encounters one of his lovers, here a sexy Indian maiden who he has not only thrown over, but disfigured. He is played by Gregory Peck, but because the director is so weak, Peck reverts to his Mockingbird lawyer. It screws the whole thing around. Lucas and Harrison Ford were one of the bad things to happen to the world, but you have to admit they got this center right. Egyptian Sharif as a Mexican bandito is similarly bungled.

Everything else is sullied in the same way: We have some actors that have been adequate elsewhere, but here we see Lurch, Cat-woman, Kojac, the wife of the studio boss and a bunch of cameos from movie-land. Here, movie-land is shoveled in as "The Town." All the Hollywood actors are townspeople (who are killed by the audience/cavalry) contrasted to the TeeVee folks passing through.

The explosions that bring the walls of the canyon down are compromised by some of the cheapest, junkiest effects you'll see. The wonderful location shots are interspersed by artless backprojection. The nudity is by Julie Newmar or her double and consists of a very strangely assembled nude swim during which she tries to seduce Peck, is rebuffed, so she tries to drown the apparent new girlfriend in underwater shots made murky in postproduction.

Its a curious piece of history. In lots of other places we have movies poorly assembled from prefabricated parts, some which spend a lot of money. Its the overt role that TeeVee plays that makes this interesting, plus the obvious self-reference of goldseekers that come away empty-handed and in the process destroy something beautiful.

So much of life is dealing with old battlefields.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

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11 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Pretty much splendid adventure western, 28 June 2002
Author: Mika Pykäläaho (bygis80@hotmail.com) from Järvenpää, Finland

When I was a kid I used to totally love this movie. I thought it was one of the greatest and the most exciting westerns ever made. When I saw "Mackenna's gold" some years later and I was considerably older it seemed pretty lame and I wondered what was so special about it in the first place. Last night I saw "Mackenna's gold" again, I guess it was the third time. I admit that it wasn't difficult to understand why I adored the film when I was a child. "Mackenna's gold" is not a traditional western, it's more like an entertaining and unique larger-than-life adventure - just the kind of a stuff that appeals to young boy.

There's an interesting script with lots of thrills, action, Indians, lost gold treasure and a bit peculiar characters. I wouldn't be surprised if Steven Spielberg would admit that he's taken plenty of influences from "Mackenna's gold" for his Indiana Jones trilogy. (J. Lee Thompson himself directed afterwards couple of classic adventure flicks, such as two sequels to "The Planet of the apes" and Richard Chamberlain classic "King Solomon's mines".)

When I look at "Mackenna's gold" nowadays I frankly have to acknowledge that even though it's not among the best films of this genre it's a bloody great western and considering that back in 1969 westerns weren't so popular anymore this one's a marvelous classic and one of the finest of the time. Gregory Peck is just as superb as MacKenna as the splendid Omar Sharif in his amusing bad guy role. Supporting cast is excellent too, late Telly Savalas who played Blofeld in James Bond movie that very same year, Julie Newmar and Burgess Meredith (The Catwoman and The Penguin in the 60's tv series "Batman") and the legendary Eli Wallach. I understand that Clint Eastwood turned down the chance to play the leading role of "Mackenna's gold". With him this would have been one of my all time favorites.

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12 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
The map was on his mind., 12 June 2003

Author: tmwest from S. Paulo, Brazil

1969 was a very good year for westerns (The Wild Bunch, True Grit), so this film went by without being noticed, but every second of it is enjoyable. Gregory Peck is great as always, Omar Sharif as Colorado does surprisingly well, also Julie Newmar as the Indian girl, Edward G. Robinson as Adams, Telly Savalas as an army officer. No doubt this was a precursor to Raiders of the Lost Ark. It is also very similar in certain scenes to the 1949 western "Lust For Gold". Seeing it today in DVD with widescreen is quite an experience, because of the beautiful way the scenery is shown (it looks like Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon put together with a bit of fantasy) also the unusual places the camera is placed, like at certain moments you are following the feet of the horses, or in other scenes you feel the camera is riding the horse.

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14 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
The worlds first Sci-Fi Western, 28 November 1999
Author: seashellz from United States

Its got everything! Two fisted action! Gorgeous females! Catfights! Gregory Peck! Camilla Sparve! a Whos Who of yesterdays character actors! Hokey dialog! Excellent Special Effects! Great scenery! Ultra-Panavision™! Directed by the guy who did Bridge Over River Kwai! ah well, according to several sources this movie was supposed to be over 3 hours long, and was going to come out as a Cinerama-type Road Show...but the days of that were dying and Columbia got cold feet, so it was cut to a little over 2 hours; There are some minor differences between 35 and 70mm prints; This movie is a hoot-see it!

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