An odd movie - considered a flop at the time, though apparently a big hit in India, this is fascinating to watch today, in part because of its flaws but also because of its oddness.
The basic story is a simple Western - a bunch of people go after a map containing gold, facing the environment, Apaches, cavalry, each other. And it's core this is inherently medium budget at best - the main characters are a marshall, an outlaw who kind of loves him, a girl who comes along to prove the lead isn't gay, an Indian girl who wants to bang the marshall, a scary Indian, and a pursuing cavalryman.
Faced with this is then as if writer-producer Carl Foreman and director J. Lee Thompson thought "we can't just give them that, this is the blockbuster era" - and they jazzed it up: Cinerama photography, POV shots of people on horseback, a spectacular earthquake, location filming in the Grand Canyon, sweeping vistas.
It cost $7 million and it didn't need to. There is stunning photography but this is incorporated into some really obvious studio work.
The script is very patchy. Far too many scenes of Peck escaping and being recaptured. Around 45 minutes in Foreman introduces all these new characters - Raymond Massey, Edward G Robinson, Burgess Meredith, Lee J Cobb, Eli Wallach, Anthony Quayle, etc - and within twenty minutes they're all killed. Why even have them? (Maybe Foreman wanted to invoke High Noon which actually isn't a bad idea for a script - the town from High Noon looking for gold - but they set up all these people and then just kill them.) Would the cavalry really kill them all?
Some exciting action sequences. Raymond Massey and Burgess Meredith being killed by Apaches - Meredith pleading with glasses and money and being killed. A fight between Sharif and Peck at the end is very well done bar the studio work.
Plenty of nutty bits. The opening song abut a buzzard. The narration that feels shoved in after a tricky post production process. The effects at the end aren't entirely convincing. Julie Newmar and Omar Shariff show their arse swimming. A naked Newmar tries to hump Peck in the water (he's clothed) then when he rejects her she tries to kill Sparv. George Lucas made a short film during the shoot. Dimitri Tiomkin co produced.
The acting is pretty good - Savalas is reliably excellent. It's one of Sharif's best performances, the film should've have focused more on him and Gregory Peck. Peck is solid. Camilla Sparv has a big chance as the girl, and she's gorgeous but not really up to it.
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