Gregory Peck is Mackenna, a one-time gambler who's settled down as the Marshall in a small desert town. Rumors of a lost Apache valley full of gold causes a mass rush that catches both the best and worst elements of the town up in its force. His nemesis Colorado (Omar Sharif) is the chief ringleader, responsible for kidnapping the local judge's daughter (Camilla Sparv) and Mackenna after Mackenna destroys the only map to the valley.
By far the strangest thing about this movie is the way that so many great character actors are basically wasted in tiny roles. I see no reason for the townspeople, who only play in one scene, to be performed by actors of the caliber of Lee J. Cobb, Burgess Meredith, Ray Massey, Eli Wallach, and Edward G. Robinson. It seems to me like a gimmick, a trick to make the audience think that the film will be full of great stars when in actual fact they only paid them for what looks like a couple days' work. The big roles in the film go to incompetent performers like Sparv, or to the stale theatrics of a born TV actor like Savalas (who looks incredibly odd and uncomfortable with his tiny fat legs perched on a huge stallion). Only the excellent Sharif is able to do anything really memorable or interesting with his character, and that's a bit of a stretch since the character himself is so typical. Peck is fine, but that's about it. He has none of the fire or passion that fueled his best western performance in "Duel in the Sun" here. Poor Julie Newmar is stuck as a mute with brown makeup on as an evil Apache woman.
Another odd thing about the movie is the way it consciously evokes Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia", a far better film. The landscape shots are fantastic, but the shots of Sharif riding through the desert ring a note of deja vu. And it can't be a coincidence that Anthony Quayle shows up in the movie. I half expected Peter O'toole or Alec Guinness to make a cameo towards the end.
There's nothing horribly wrong with the film or bad about it as simple entertainment. But considering the cast assembled and the money that was spent, it's very underwhelming. The story is rather dull and predictable, the direction is bland and impersonal. This is simply functional western film-making of the kind that killed the genre.
By far the strangest thing about this movie is the way that so many great character actors are basically wasted in tiny roles. I see no reason for the townspeople, who only play in one scene, to be performed by actors of the caliber of Lee J. Cobb, Burgess Meredith, Ray Massey, Eli Wallach, and Edward G. Robinson. It seems to me like a gimmick, a trick to make the audience think that the film will be full of great stars when in actual fact they only paid them for what looks like a couple days' work. The big roles in the film go to incompetent performers like Sparv, or to the stale theatrics of a born TV actor like Savalas (who looks incredibly odd and uncomfortable with his tiny fat legs perched on a huge stallion). Only the excellent Sharif is able to do anything really memorable or interesting with his character, and that's a bit of a stretch since the character himself is so typical. Peck is fine, but that's about it. He has none of the fire or passion that fueled his best western performance in "Duel in the Sun" here. Poor Julie Newmar is stuck as a mute with brown makeup on as an evil Apache woman.
Another odd thing about the movie is the way it consciously evokes Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia", a far better film. The landscape shots are fantastic, but the shots of Sharif riding through the desert ring a note of deja vu. And it can't be a coincidence that Anthony Quayle shows up in the movie. I half expected Peter O'toole or Alec Guinness to make a cameo towards the end.
There's nothing horribly wrong with the film or bad about it as simple entertainment. But considering the cast assembled and the money that was spent, it's very underwhelming. The story is rather dull and predictable, the direction is bland and impersonal. This is simply functional western film-making of the kind that killed the genre.