****SPOILERS**** Hidden gem of a movie with Rod Steiger as unscrupulous heel and multi million dollar embezzler, of his own brokerage firm, Carl Schaffner who after stealing someone's identity, by getting him drunk and throwing him off a moving train, tries to escape justice. It's then that Schaffner finds that the person who's identity he stole is on the lamb murderer Mr. Cooper, Alan Gifford,who's wanted by the Mexican police. With the choice of staying in Mexico to prevent himself from being arrested in the US for grand larceny Schaffner, after proving that he isn't in fact Mr. Cooper, faces a catch-22 situation.: Spend the rest of his life in total poverty without access to the millions he has stashed away in Mexico; Or going back in the US to spend 5 to 10 years behind bars and then be free to live off his vast amount of his hidden, in numbered bank accounts, ill gotten gains.
As it turned out it was the badly injured Cooper who was later killed in a police shoot-out in his motel room on the US side of the border and then had his stranded and owner-less pet dog Dolores become attach to Schaffner whom he at first wanted no part of. It was Dolores' dog like loyalty to Schaffner who despite all the mental abuse she took from him that in the end won him over to her side. A the time the movie was about to end Schaffner forgot about freedom or money but only wanted to be together with his new found friend or dog Dolores. So much so to when the authorities in both the US and Mexico used the pooch by tying her up on the bridge yards on the USA side of the border in order to get him to go get her and expose himself to arrest!
***SPOILERS**** Tear and gut crunching final with a by now not at all caring about himself Schaffner risking his both freedom as well as life to get the only friend he has in the world Dolores back with, for him, disastrous results. The final scene with Schaffner while trying to get Dolores back to the Mexcian side of the bridge was almost too painful to watch. He in fact risked and lost his life for a dog he at first wanted no part of. But later found out that Dolores was by far more important to him then his freedom as well as money and the only one in the world, with everyone who ended up jumping ship on him, who ever really cared about him.
As it turned out it was the badly injured Cooper who was later killed in a police shoot-out in his motel room on the US side of the border and then had his stranded and owner-less pet dog Dolores become attach to Schaffner whom he at first wanted no part of. It was Dolores' dog like loyalty to Schaffner who despite all the mental abuse she took from him that in the end won him over to her side. A the time the movie was about to end Schaffner forgot about freedom or money but only wanted to be together with his new found friend or dog Dolores. So much so to when the authorities in both the US and Mexico used the pooch by tying her up on the bridge yards on the USA side of the border in order to get him to go get her and expose himself to arrest!
***SPOILERS**** Tear and gut crunching final with a by now not at all caring about himself Schaffner risking his both freedom as well as life to get the only friend he has in the world Dolores back with, for him, disastrous results. The final scene with Schaffner while trying to get Dolores back to the Mexcian side of the bridge was almost too painful to watch. He in fact risked and lost his life for a dog he at first wanted no part of. But later found out that Dolores was by far more important to him then his freedom as well as money and the only one in the world, with everyone who ended up jumping ship on him, who ever really cared about him.