I have read some reviews of "Rio Conchos", and some people think it is a remake of "The Comancheros", and trust me it is not. Do they have some things in common? Yes they do. 1: They were both done by 20th Century Fox. 2: They both had Stuart Whitman (Although Paul Regret in "The Commancheros" is a very different character than Capt. Haven here). 3: Both involved gun running to the Indians. 4: The girl rescues the main characters. There it was Pilar Graile (Ina Balin), here it is the Sally Apache Girl (Wende Wagner). That is where it ends. First off it is an inferior film. "The Commancheros" is a Western Classic with much better and likable characters such as Capt. Jake Cutter (John Wayne), "Crow" (Lee Marvin), Regret, Pilar, and her father the bad guy played by Nehemiah Persoff. The characters here are simply unlikable (Except perhaps Haven and Sally at the end of the film). The worst of all was Col. Theron 'Gray Fox' Pardee (The former Confederate Commander of Major Jim Lassiter (Richard Boone)). His goal was to use the Indians as an Army against the American People. As he stated" The reason the South lost was its misguided sense of honor." (By comparison Regret has a lot of honor (You first meet him, when he participates in a duel, and kills the other person when he moves). This is also very different than Graile who wanted "A Community of Thieves" (His words), which is certainly not to send Indians on a rampage to kill without mercy. Lassiter is not very likable either: He was angry and embittered over the loss to the North, and having his family killed by the Indians. He is almost like a rabid dog, just wanting to kill before he gets killed. He even tried to kill Sally until Haven stopped him. Two others along for the ride are Sgt. Franklyn (Jim Brown), who rarely speaks, but is almost as ruthless as Lassiter at killing Indians, and Juan Luis Rodriguez (Tony Franciosa), who is a real vile character who reminds me of AJ Maggott (Telly Savalas) from "The Dirty Dozen" an absolute psychopath who pretends to be charming, but is worse than a rattlesnake. Basically, there is not a likable character in the bunch OBrien (who I generally like) stands out as nothing more than a psychotic with visions of grandeur which again is different than Graile or Jeff Chandler's Luke Darcy from "The Jayhawkers! (Another film I reviewed). Next, it is fair to say this is not exactly a comedy which to a large extent "The Commancheros" is (Particularly the scenes involving "Crow"), and thus a lot of fun. Is this a bad film? No it is not, particularly the ending (Spoliers), where Lassiter and Franklyn take on the Indians and Pardee's men (Rodriguez is killed earlier by Lassiter, and Haven is wounded in the ankle by a spear so he cannot do much except free the others (After Sally frees him)). Its ending is extremely ambiguous where Pardee survives (But goes totally mad), and Haven and Sally get away. The question is will Haven make General (Lassiter said "You may make General yet."), or will he end up with Sally (Back then, having an Indian woman (or wife), around you will not exactly help you with that). Since she essentially chose him over her people (Probably because he saved her life), and since he is bringing her back with him (Instead of leaving her with her people (Who were unaware of what Sally did (helping Haven, Franklyn and Lassiter escape ( although only Haven of the three survive))), not to mention the look on his face towards her), you strongly suspect that he is choosing Sally over the military. 7/10 Stars.
Review of Rio Conchos
