One way to get thru the movie

EL CONDOR shot its way into 1970 with a rating of R, owing to the quotient of violence and nudity. True, the violence was plentiful and the nudity was gratuitous but beyond basted blood and bared breasts (bared everything in this case) the MPAA sticker could have been R for Retread, as in the storyline, Ridiculous, the acting and dialogue and Ruinous, box office tanked #131, with $1,300,000 coming back from a cost of $4,500,000.

Mexico, the mid-1860’s, under the oppressive thumb of French-imposed Emperor Maximilian. Escaped American convict ‘Luke’ (Jim Brown, 33 and no friendlier than usual) flees below the border and joins up with ornery hermit-prospector ‘Jaroo’ (Lee Van Cleef, 44 and off the leash) to scheme with Apaches to seize a massive haul of gold bars from ‘El Condor’, a big, strongly defended fort. Count on heavy casualties.

Sword used to see if it will get him to change expression

Ripping off or getting one past Maximilian Mexico (1861-67) had earlier figured in Vera Cruz, Major Dundee and The Undefeated, plus ’70 also added Two Mules For Sister Sara. The original (if that’s the word) script from Steven Carabatsos was rewritten by Larry Cohen (It’s Alive, Q) and the uncredited Niven Busch (Duel In The Sun, The Furies). Andre de Toth produced, shooting in Almeria, Spain, with an elaborately constructed adobe fort (110,000 square feet) impressive enough that it was re-used in a number of pictures, most notably Conan The Barbarian (a little hammer & nail foofing and we’re back to the Hyborian Age). Proven action ace—and harsh taskmaster—John Guillermin (The Blue Max, The Bridge At Remagen) took on direction.

We’re waiting…oh, right, the ‘character motivation’

This was Brown’s third of four westerns, preceded by his 1964 supporting debut in the very good Rio Conchos and then as headliner in 1969’s mediocre 100 Rifles, trailed six years later by the dopey Take A Hard Ride (also with Lee VC). Genre standby Van Cleef appeared 52 western feature films (including a half-dozen classics) and in episodes of 24 western TV series. They’re joined by Patrick O’Neal, 42, as ‘Chavez’, El Condor’s sadistic commandante, and Marianna Hill, 27, as his chattel mistress ‘Claudine’. She naturally falls for Luke (because he’s charming?), enough that when time for the gold swipe (and a huge slaughter) arrives she ‘assists’ in diverting the horndog garrison by parading au naturel in her bedroom with the windows and balcony door wide open and the lights on.

The nude scene that Hill boldly took on had turned away first Ewa Aulin, who left after Guillermin humiliated her (he was notably unpleasant to work under) and then Sharon Farrell. From our lookout post we don’t have a problem ogling Hill, and the big-scale wipeout that follows is interesting from a candy carnage angle—the mass choreography and stunt danger stuff: just forget viability, let alone realism. *

Chavez, Ireland, if you really want to know

Otherwise, the flick is a dud, poorly written, with jarring tone changes between unfunny insertions of humor and bloody killings, the pacing is off and the thesping under pressure (or fortified by booze) does no-one any favors. Van Cleef hams like crazy, Brown does the physical end with expected vigor but emotionally he’s stuck in A Town Called Sullen. Hill is sexy and nothing more, talented O’Neal apparently in desperate need of a paycheck. Maurice Jarre’s jolly score is ill-suited; hard to see how he could be very inspired. He’d composed a great soundtrack four years earlier for The Professionals (a vastly better movie), and a lively one for Villa Rides! but his other sallies into the genre (Red Sun, The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean) were as blah as this one.

With Iron Eyes Cody (65 and still counting coup over fooling people he wasn’t Italian-American from Louisiana), Imogen Hassall (27, also garment-free, her Brit press nickname was ‘The Countess of Cleavage’) and eternal goofball Elisha Cook, 66 and odd as ever. 102 minutes worth.

* Hill: “I was confused all of the time, as everybody was. And I don’t drink, I never touch the stuff, but there was a lot of drinking going on down there and so that affected the Karma on the set. I just couldn’t figure out what was going on.”

Roger Ebert: “”what El Condor lacks in intelligence, it makes up for in stupidity.”

Click to enlarge for clarity/edification