Villa Rides (1968)

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

Director:

Buzz Kulik

Writers:

Robert Towne (screenplay), Sam Peckinpah (screenplay)

Stars:

Yul Brynner, Robert Mitchum, Maria Grazia Buccella

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Yul Brynner	...	Pancho Villa
Robert Mitchum	...	Lee Arnold
Maria Grazia Buccella	...	Fina (as Grazia Buccella)
Charles Bronson	...	Rodolfo Fierro
Herbert Lom	...	General Huerta
Robert Viharo	...	Urbina
Frank Wolff	...	Ramirez
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)

Storyline

Pulled into the Mexican Revolution by his own greed, Texas gunrunner & pilot Lee Arnold joins bandit-turned-patriot Pancho Villa & his band of dedicated men in a march across Mexico battling the Colorados & stealing women's hearts as they go. But each has a nemesis among his friends: Arnold is tormented by Fierro, Villa's right-hand-man; and Villa must face possible betrayal by his own president's naiveté.

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Plot Keywords:

two gun holster | gun | gun holster | holster | double gun holster | 

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Taglines:

The bloodiest rebel of a violent era!

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Genres:

War | Western

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

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.

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Goofs

Condition of the paint on the left side of the fuselage near the tail just before the flight training scene.

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Quotes

[repeated lines]
Rodolfo Fierro: Who cooked this?
Ramirez: Me, Jefe.
Rodolfo Fierro: No, you didn't!
Ramirez: No, I didn't.
Rodolfo Fierro: COOK IT!

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Connections

Referenced in The Story of Eloise (1976)

User Reviews

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.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 August 1968 (France)

Also Known As:

Villa Rides

Filming Locations:

Durango, Mexico

Box Office

Gross USA:

$2,640,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

125 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1