The Undefeated (1969)

Director:

Andrew V. McLaglen

Writers:

James Lee Barrett (screenplay)
Stanley Hough (story)
(more)

Release Date:

27 November 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

After the Civil War, ex-Union Colonel John Henry Thomas and ex-Confederate Colonel James Langdon are...

Plot Keywords:

Colonel | Mexico | Civil War | Bandit | Horse

Cast

John Wayne	...	Col. John Henry Thomas
Rock Hudson	...	Col. James Langdon
Antonio Aguilar	...	Juarista Gen. Rojas (as Tony Aguilar)
Roman Gabriel	...	Blue Boy
Marian McCargo	...	Ann Langdon
Lee Meriwether	...	Margaret Langdon
Merlin Olsen	...	Cpl. Little George
Melissa Newman	...	Charlotte Langdon
Bruce Cabot	...	Sgt. Jeff Newby
Jan-Michael Vincent	...	Lt. Bubba Wilkes (as Michael Vincent)
Ben Johnson	...	Short Grub
Edward Faulkner	...	Capt. Anderson
Harry Carey Jr.	...	Soloman Webster (Thomas rider)
Paul Fix	...	Gen. Joe Masters
Royal Dano	...	Maj. Sanders (one-armed major)
Richard Mulligan	...	Dan Morse
Carlos Rivas	...	Diaz
John Agar	...	Christian
Guy Raymond	...	D.J. Giles
Don Collier	...	Goodyear (Thomas rider)
Big John Hamilton	...	July Mudlow (cowardly Langdon party member)
Dub Taylor	...	McCartney
Henry Beckman	...	Thad Benedict
Víctor Junco	...	Maj. Tapia
Robert Donner	...	Judd Mailer
Pedro Armendáriz Jr.	...	Escalante (as Pedro Armendariz Jr.)
James Dobson	...	Corp. Jamison
Rudy Diaz	...	Sanchez
Richard Angarola	...	Mr. Petain (Maximilian's representative)
James McEachin	...	Jimmy Collins
Gregg Palmer	...	Ezra Parker
Juan García	...	Col. Gomez
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Barbara Faulkner	...	Mrs. Anderson (uncredited)
Barbara Faulkner	...	Anderson's Daughter (uncredited)
Jan Faulkner	...	Anderson's Daughter (uncredited)
Leslie Faulkner	...	Anderson's Daughter (uncredited)
Bob Gravage	...	Bobby Jo Hicks (uncredited)
John Hudkins	...	Whit (uncredited)
Kiel Martin	...	Union corporal with message that the war is over (uncredited)
Hal Needham	...	Yankee corporal at river crossing (uncredited)
Chuck Roberson	...	Yankee sergeant at river (uncredited)

Directed by
Andrew V. McLaglen

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
James Lee Barrett		screenplay
Stanley Hough		story (as Stanley L. Hough)
Lewis B. Patten		novel (uncredited)

Produced by
Robert L. Jacks	....	producer

Original Music by
Hugo Montenegro

Cinematography by
William H. Clothier

Film Editing by
Robert L. Simpson		(as Robert Simpson)

Art Direction by
Carl Anderson

Set Decoration by
Chester L. Bayhi
Walter M. Scott

Costume Design by
Bill Thomas

Makeup Department
Edith Lindon	....	hair stylist
Leo Lotito Jr.	....	makeup artist (as Leo Lotito)
Daniel C. Striepeke	....	makeup supervisor (as Dan Striepeke)
Dave Grayson	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
Clarence Eurist	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jack Cunningham	....	assistant director

Sound Department
David Dockendorf	....	sound
Richard Overton	....	sound

Special Effects by
L.B. Abbott	....	special photographic effects
Art Cruickshank	....	special photographic effects

Stunts
Hal Needham	....	stunt coordinator
Denny Arnold	....	stunts (uncredited)
Stan Barrett	....	stunts (uncredited)
Dick Bullock	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jim Burk	....	stunts (uncredited)
William H. Burton	....	stunts (uncredited)
Tap Canutt	....	stunts (uncredited)
Roydon Clark	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bill Couch	....	stunts (uncredited)
Chuck Couch	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jerry Gatlin	....	stunts (uncredited)
Alan Gibbs	....	stunts (uncredited)
Mickey Gilbert	....	stunts (uncredited)
Kent Hays	....	stunts (uncredited)
John Hudkins	....	stunts (uncredited)
Clyde Hudkins Jr.	....	stunts (uncredited)
Gary McLarty	....	stunts (uncredited)
Hal Needham	....	stunts (uncredited)
Paul Nuckles	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Orrison	....	stunts (uncredited)
Gil Perkins	....	stunts (uncredited)
Chuck Roberson	....	stunts (uncredited)
J.N. Roberts	....	stunts (uncredited)
George Robotham	....	stunts (uncredited)
Wally Rose	....	stunts (uncredited)
Danny Sands	....	stunts (uncredited)
Fred M. Waugh	....	stunts (uncredited)
Walter Wyatt	....	stunts (uncredited)
Dick Ziker	....	stunts (uncredited)

Music Department
Hugo Montenegro	....	conductor
Herbert W. Spencer	....	orchestrator (as Herbert Spencer)
Kenneth Hall	....	music editor (uncredited)
Jack Hayes	....	additional orchestrator (uncredited)
Leo Shuken	....	additional orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
'Chema' Hernandez	....	livestock coordinator (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Distributors

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (1969) (USA) (theatrical)
• Centfox (1969) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox (1969) (France) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1972) (USA) (TV) (original airing) (pan/scan)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (19??) (USA) (DVD)
• Fox Video (199?) (USA) (VHS) (pan/scan)
• Fox Video (USA) (laserdisc)
• Magnetic Video (video)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Germany (2005) (Germany) (DVD)

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Australia:PG (TV rating) | West Germany:12 (f) (re-rated) | West Germany:16 (f) (original rating) | New Zealand:PG | Germany:16 (DVD rating) | Finland:K-12 | South Korea:12 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:G | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

According to director Andrew V. McLaglen, his first choice for the role of Colonel James Langdon was James Arness, who was willing to do it but backed out just before shooting began. Rock Hudson was brought in as his replacement.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Mrs. Langdon wants to break up the brawl that broke out in the Fourth of July celebration, she grabs a rifle and fires three shots into the air in quick succession. The rifle she used was a single-shot carbine, which requires that the shooter manually eject the shell and reload between each shot. It would have been impossible to fire three shots as quickly as she did without ejecting and reloading.

Quotes:

Col. James Langdon: [on finding his men still in uiform] Captain, it is my impression that General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox some weeks ago; yet everywhere I look I see men in uniform with the battle flag still flying! Take it down!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Jan-Michael Vincent Is My Muse (2002)

Duke Yank and Rock Reb

The Civil War is over and it's been pretty costly to both sides. John Wayne has lost nearly every man who volunteered to serve with him and is broke. Rock Hudson who was also a Colonel on the other side went broke financing a regiment of his own and the Yankee carpetbaggers are ready to take over his plantation.

Wayne leads the remainder of his men to capture and tame wild horses to sell. Hudson gets an offer from Emperor Maximilian of Mexico to bring his people and resettle there. He needs all the help he can get to prop up his unpopular government. Hudson is certainly bringing a better quality of Anglo than Burt Lancaster did in Vera Cruz.

When Wayne feels a rip off coming from some middlemen horsetraders, he settles it in the usual Duke fashion and heads to Mexico himself. There the parties of Wayne and Hudson meet and their stories are entwined from then on.

With Wayne and Hudson co-starring, The Undefeated was led by two men who between them were number one at the box office for about a dozen years combined. Wayne was coming off his Oscar winning performance in True Grit. This film was definitely guaranteed an audience.

The story is both men are decent fellows and born leaders. Each is trying to pick up the pieces of civilian life and each is the leader of a party looking to them for leadership. A healthy and mutual respect develops between them despite previous political differences.

Wayne gets a whole load of players who worked with him before for this part. As he grew older he liked to have familiar faces around him. He had the star clout to insure it as well. Ben Johnson, Bruce Cabot, Edward Faulkner, Harry Carey, Jr., are some of the Wayne film veterans here.

Dub Taylor in his only film with the Duke does a very entertaining job as McCartney the cook. Dub did so many westerns when he wasn't doing hillbillies it's amazing that his and Wayne's path crossed only once.

This was also an early film for Jan Michael Vincent who went on to a star career of his own. Two members of the Los Angeles Rams, Roman Gabriel and Merlin Olsen were in this as well. Gabriel played a surrogate son to Wayne and rival for the hand of Melissa Newman to Vincent. Merlin Olsen is also here as a Confederate aide to Hudson. Gabriel decided movies wasn't his thing, but Olsen certainly had a substantial career after football.

The Undefeated has a nice, easy and charming flow to it, just like The Comancheros. Wayne and Hudson work well together in their only joint outing. Less action than you normally have in a Wayne film, but it's mixed in well with some good comic moments.

As Duke said parodying one of his one lines from a previous hit film of his, "Let's Take 'Em to Mexico." You'll like the ride.