A zippy Budd Boetticher Western down in old Mexico
1953 was a truly stupendous
year for Westerns. Shane, Hondo, The Naked Spur, these were all-time greats of the genre. And there were
high-class lesser pictures too, Westerns like Escape from Fort Bravo, The Man from the Alamo, The Stranger Wore a Gun,
others.
But then of course there were
the smaller fry. Kansas Pacific, Pony Express, Law and Order. Such a one, sadly, was Wings
of the Hawk, despite its starring Van Heflin, Starrett the homesteader in Shane.
3D, Technicolor, what more could you want?
Still, B-movie or no, it’s directed
by Budd Boetticher, and Universal brought it out in 3D (like Hondo) which was all the rage in ’53, so it’s no ultra-low-budget
quickie.
It’s the old gringo-in-the-Mexican-revolution plot. This time it’s not Bob Mitchum down there, as it
usually was, but Van Heflin. He’s ‘Irish’ Gallager, a mine owner in 1911 whose
goldmine is seized from him by evil Diazista Colonel (pronounced col-o-nel,
obviously) Paco Ruiz, who runs the unnamed northern Mexican province (presumably
Chihuahua) with a grip of iron. Shooting women hostages is all in an afternoon’s
work for Ruiz. He is played by George Dolenz, an Austro-Hungarian, but then for
Hollywood one foreigner is much like another so he’ll do for a Mexican.
Irish falls in with some ‘insurrectors’,
as they are always termed (odd word) and of course among them is a glamorous revolucionaria, Raquel (no, not la Welch as in Rio Conchos, but Julie Adams). Naturally Raquel and Irish
get it on. The revolutionaries are led by Rodolfo Acosta, who has lost his
nerve and is soon usurped by Van. Acosta tries to ally with Ruiz, in revenge. Big mistake.
The sisters. They don't see eye to eye.
But best of
these Mexicanos is Noah Beery (he’d dropped the Jr. in the billing by '53,
fair enough) as Pascual Orozco. It makes a change to have Orozco as a bandido/revolutionary
rather than the usual Pancho Villa.
Pascual Orozco (looks a bit like Lee Van Cleef, don't you think?)
Orozco (1882 – 1915) was, as you probably
know, an anti-Diaz Maderista who, however, fell out with Madero and joined
Huerta, earning the undying enmity of erstwhile ally Villa. When Huerta fell,
he and Orozco campaigned against the new Carranza administration, raising money
and men in the USA and settling in El Paso, but Orozco was killed near High Lonesome in the Van Horn Mountains in an obscure incident involving
horse stealing. So much for the history.
Noah as Orozco, giving it all he's got
Noah, in his short part, endows the character of the
revolutionary leader with charm and zip. He needs Acosta’s support to capture
Juarez and topple Diaz (that part sounds more like Villa but never mind). Beery
had played Mexicans before (e.g. The Light of Western Stars) and was rather good at it. In fact he'd started right back in 1934 on Viva Villa! with his Uncle Wallace though his scenes were deleted in modern versions.
Anyway, where were we? Oh yes, Van Heflin. Well, there’s
a lot of Boetticheresque action and rushing hither and yon, to the accompaniment
of rather cheesy Frank Skinner music which would have graced a Zorro film, which
in some ways Wings of the Hawk
resembles.
I've seen some silly publicity stills in my time but this has to be the silliest
Excellent as a member of the revolutionary band is Pedro
Gonzalez Gonzalez, whom most of us remember as little Carlos in Rio Bravo but who was an old Western hand.
He provides the comic relief and is cheerful throughout. His mamma is one of
those machine-gunned as a hostage by wicked Ruiz but that only depresses Pedro’s
spirits for half a reel or so, then he is back to making music and dancing, I
theenk. Yes, I fear that some of the Mexicans are rather stereotypical.
Pedro
There’s an obligatory worthy priest who aids the revolucionarios, played by Antonio
Moreno. Abbe Lane is Julie Adams’s sister and she’s married to evil Colonel
Ruiz, so that complicates things.
It all comes to a head as Van sacrifices his mine to save
the Revolution and get the girl. Hope I haven’t given too much away here, amigos.
Glam rivolucionaria Raquel (Julie Adams).
Maybe Raquel Welch's peformance in Rio Conchos a decade or so later
was modeled on her...
Here’s the trailer if you want. Don’t
expect too much from this oater in old Mehico but if you like the idea of Van
Heflin, always solid, in a Budd Boetticher Western, you won’t be disappointed.
And the Federales have rather dashing yellow bonnets.
Probably just as well
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