Given the fact that it doesn’t have much of a reputation, I had missed out on this Western countless times on Italian TV; however, since the film stars Gregory Peck, I was interested in it regardless – and, having last year caught up with SHOOT OUT (1971), another minor genre outing from him, it was high time that I got round to this one as well. Most Westerns made during this time were Revisionist and elegiac in tone; in this respect, screenwriter Alan Sharp seemed like the ideal choice (having had already contributed THE HIRED HAND [1971] and ULZANA’S RAID [1972]): however, the end result is merely a pleasant-looking and oddly pointless affair!
The plot develops into one long chase as an elderly Scottish bank-robber (Peck) and his young half-breed companion/associate (Desi Arnaz Jr. playing the titular character) are doggedly pursued by Sheriff Jack Warden. Along the way, they meet up with a reformed criminal and his squaw (the former, seemingly indebted to Warden, willingly joins him on the trail of the fugitive Scotsman – while the latter has compassion for the boy, who’s been caught but subsequently freed by Peck), a band of renegade Apaches, and an unhappy prairie couple (having been wounded, the star requires the man’s help to procure a buck-board to travel in – while Arnaz stays behind to look after the farm and the owner’s nervous mail-order bride). The latter relationship is quite movingly handled: the two innocents fall in love, a situation which Warden can’t bring himself to understand when he turns up; eventually, the trio take off to reach Peck – whose journey has been beleaguered with a raid by the traditionally hostile Apaches, and which has left him for dead. Ultimately, only the young couple survive: the woman pleads with the half-breed to be taken along, in spite of the intolerance this will undoubtedly provoke.
Old-fashioned and essentially dreary, the film is nonetheless fairly tolerable while it’s on. Incidentally, Norman Jewison served as co-producer on this one: curiously enough, he would never tackle the genre in his more regular capacity as director!
The plot develops into one long chase as an elderly Scottish bank-robber (Peck) and his young half-breed companion/associate (Desi Arnaz Jr. playing the titular character) are doggedly pursued by Sheriff Jack Warden. Along the way, they meet up with a reformed criminal and his squaw (the former, seemingly indebted to Warden, willingly joins him on the trail of the fugitive Scotsman – while the latter has compassion for the boy, who’s been caught but subsequently freed by Peck), a band of renegade Apaches, and an unhappy prairie couple (having been wounded, the star requires the man’s help to procure a buck-board to travel in – while Arnaz stays behind to look after the farm and the owner’s nervous mail-order bride). The latter relationship is quite movingly handled: the two innocents fall in love, a situation which Warden can’t bring himself to understand when he turns up; eventually, the trio take off to reach Peck – whose journey has been beleaguered with a raid by the traditionally hostile Apaches, and which has left him for dead. Ultimately, only the young couple survive: the woman pleads with the half-breed to be taken along, in spite of the intolerance this will undoubtedly provoke.
Old-fashioned and essentially dreary, the film is nonetheless fairly tolerable while it’s on. Incidentally, Norman Jewison served as co-producer on this one: curiously enough, he would never tackle the genre in his more regular capacity as director!