In the mid-1980s, an Italian TV channel showed a vintage Hollywood Western every Saturday night, which is where I first watched this enjoyable light-hearted genre caper. Although writer-director Kennedy would score an even greater success at the box office with his subsequent SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF (1968), this is arguably his best film. Incidentally, he was so adamant that Kirk Douglas should co-star in his movie that he gave away half his salary in order to appease the opposing studio chiefs! For the record, Kennedy would re-unite with his other leading man here, John Wayne, on the similarly-themed THE TRAIN ROBBERS (1973).
While Wayne and Douglas were on opposite sides with respect to political issues in real life, this was their third film together in as many years following IN HARM'S WAY (1965) and CAST A GIANT SHADOW (1966). Wayne is his usual laconic and "big as life" self, but Douglas enjoys himself tremendously as a peerless safecracker with a grudge against Wayne who allows himself to be hired by Cabot to gun down Wayne, all the while being in cahoots with the latter to rob Cabot's heavily-guarded gold deposits! As a matter of fact, while Douglas was a much more versatile actor than his co-star, he did his fair share of Westerns himself over a period of 30 years from Raoul Walsh's ALONG THE GREAT DIVIDE (1951) to the Australian production THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER (1982) and which include such notable examples as THE BIG SKY (1952), GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL (1957), LAST TRAIN FROM GUN HILL (1959), LONELY ARE THE BRAVE (1962) and POSSE (1975), in which Douglas directed himself and another co-star from the film under review (Bruce Dern).
Apart from the two Hollywood legends, THE WAR WAGON features a good cast of character actors Howard Keel (amusing as an Indian crony of Wayne's), Keenan Wynn (as the most ill-tempered member of the gang), Wayne regular Bruce Cabot (as a villainous tycoon) and Gene Evans (as a corrupt deputy); among the younger actors, then, we find Robert Walker Jr. (as the drunken explosives expert) and the afore-mentioned Dern (as one of Cabot's henchmen). Dimitri Tiomkin's score is suitably stirring in the right spots and the title tune is quite pleasant, too. The last half hour, in which the robbery takes place, is the film's most spectacular and exciting segment culminating in that deliciously ironic conclusion.
THE WAR WAGON forms part of Universal's "John Wayne: Screen Legend" set, and shares disc space with the much earlier but equally engaging Western THE SPOILERS (1942); overall, it is a more dignified and representative collection than the same studio's previous set "John Wayne: An American Icon" (both of which are 2-Discers each containing five of The Duke's films).
While Wayne and Douglas were on opposite sides with respect to political issues in real life, this was their third film together in as many years following IN HARM'S WAY (1965) and CAST A GIANT SHADOW (1966). Wayne is his usual laconic and "big as life" self, but Douglas enjoys himself tremendously as a peerless safecracker with a grudge against Wayne who allows himself to be hired by Cabot to gun down Wayne, all the while being in cahoots with the latter to rob Cabot's heavily-guarded gold deposits! As a matter of fact, while Douglas was a much more versatile actor than his co-star, he did his fair share of Westerns himself over a period of 30 years from Raoul Walsh's ALONG THE GREAT DIVIDE (1951) to the Australian production THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER (1982) and which include such notable examples as THE BIG SKY (1952), GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL (1957), LAST TRAIN FROM GUN HILL (1959), LONELY ARE THE BRAVE (1962) and POSSE (1975), in which Douglas directed himself and another co-star from the film under review (Bruce Dern).
Apart from the two Hollywood legends, THE WAR WAGON features a good cast of character actors Howard Keel (amusing as an Indian crony of Wayne's), Keenan Wynn (as the most ill-tempered member of the gang), Wayne regular Bruce Cabot (as a villainous tycoon) and Gene Evans (as a corrupt deputy); among the younger actors, then, we find Robert Walker Jr. (as the drunken explosives expert) and the afore-mentioned Dern (as one of Cabot's henchmen). Dimitri Tiomkin's score is suitably stirring in the right spots and the title tune is quite pleasant, too. The last half hour, in which the robbery takes place, is the film's most spectacular and exciting segment culminating in that deliciously ironic conclusion.
THE WAR WAGON forms part of Universal's "John Wayne: Screen Legend" set, and shares disc space with the much earlier but equally engaging Western THE SPOILERS (1942); overall, it is a more dignified and representative collection than the same studio's previous set "John Wayne: An American Icon" (both of which are 2-Discers each containing five of The Duke's films).