![]() Gary Cooper is slightly less effective, perhaps because the story never makes up its mind about his character. At one point Lancaster even says that he 'Always wanted to be a sailor.' But he's still a sick, charming rattlesnake. There's a hint of parody in the way he grins at the camera like The Crimson Pirate. Lancaster is fall-down funny and a little disturbing at the same time. One wonders how Aldrich got away with this kind of savagery, as much as the dialog where Lancaster clearly says, "Well, I'll be a son of a bitch!" One slaying, showing only Lancaster's self-satisfied face as he rams a lance through the neck of unlucky 'little tin soldier' Henry Brandon, is so gruesome by implication, it almost hurts to watch. His baiting of the luckless Charlie, only to gun him down with a sneaky, showoff circus trick shot ("Anyone else string with Charlie?") is actually slimier and more funny than any of Clint Eastwood's casual killings. What's Buzzin' Buzzard?, Lancaster's psychotic joy for killing equals the amorality of the mayhem in the later Sergio Leone westerns. Not only do Ben Trane and Jo Erin upstage one another with more stylish double-crosses than the battling birds of Tex Avery's The revolutionaries have positioned a sexy spy in the caravan, Nina (Sarita Montiel), whose exact mission is unclear.īesides being a remarkably 80's - style 'buddy' picture, Vera Cruz is astonishingly cynical for 1954. Things get dicey when a triple-cross of unfaithful allies develops between the adventurers, their French employers and the Juarista rebels. Impressing the French with a demonstration of Yankee firepower literally in the Halls of Montezuma, they hire on to escort a Countess Marie Duvarre (Denise Darcel) to the Carribean port of Vera Cruz under the leadership of the grinning Marquis de Labordere (Cesar Romero). Also looking for trouble is the charismatic but incredibly untrustworthy Joe Erin (Burt Lancaster), who leads a group of n'er-do-wells hoping to enlist as killers for the corrupt Emperor. It was also the first movie in SuperScope, and by virtue of its ruthless, mercenary attitude is a major forerunner of the Italian Spaghetti Westerns which came a decade later.Īt the conclusion of the Civil War, dispossessed and defeated Southerner Ben Trane (Gary Cooper) drifts into Mexico along with dozens of freebooting Americans looking for a way to earn, connive or steal big money in the civil war between the French legionnaires of Maximillian (George Macready) and the revolutionary Juaristas. Produced by Harold Hecht, James Hill Burt LancasterĪ rip-roaring, cynical and slighty sadistic Western adventure with a subversive political dimension, Vera Cruz boasts great performances from big stars, a gallery of up'n coming talent and frenzied direction from Robert Aldrich making his first big-budget movie. Henry Brandon, Archie Savage, Jack Lambert ![]() ![]() Starring Burt Lancaster, Gary Cooper, Sarita Montiel, George Macready,ĭenise Darcel, Morris Ankrum, Charles Buchinsky (Bronson), Ernest Borgnine.
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