Patrouille des Todes

A short and tough little western that was apparently shot in Guatemala until local politics got too hot so they decamped to Mexico to finish it off. It has a rugged look and feel to it and Dane Clark has a good mean streak here, far away from the clean cut Hammer image he had elsewhere. Quite densely plotted too given the running time and with plenty of action.

Despite featuring a cast culled from both Hollywood and Mexico, and colorful Mexican locations, this is in all respects a very poorly made Western picture. The plot concerns the capture of a band of Yaqui Indians, gun smugglers and Mexican Federales, all leading to the title's conclusion. The characters are so poorly developed, that by the time the picture has run half way, all we want is a conclusion, no matter what the consequences. It is rumored that this one was quite often yanked from the screen at the "A" movie houses and soon made it's appearance on TV. This is NOT one of the better efforts of Robert Lippert and Company.

It seems to be a co production: American and Mexican. It is question of gun smugglers, Indians, and authorities, all of them fighting against each other. This is an ordinary B western, directed by a B film maker whose best movies were some action packed crime flicks for Paramount during the late thirties, starring Anthony Quinn, Lloyd Nolan, J Caroll Naish. Besides those films, and some Bulldog Drummond adventures which I have never seen - so I don't know if they were worth ( and not worse!! ) - King demonstrated a magnificent lack of ambition, compared to his brother Henry King. Ninety percent of his movies are now totally forgotten. The only peculiarity of this western, if you dared absolutely find one, would be the place of the Yaqui indians in this story. They are not totally shown as the evil natives, but on the contrary revengeful after some people sold them bad medication. So for me, the actual villains are the ones who are in charge of medication traffic; right? Excellent, bloody and very unexpected ending. A very unusual western which scheme suggests that the White characters who fight against the "evil" Indians are not necessarily the good ones after all. With an unexpected result.

Marta Roth is pretty to look at and James Craig is around for laughs, but this Mexican western is not so fulfilling as Dane Clark leads his federales across Mexico to find the buyers of rifles bought from gunrunners, one of them being Marta, who'd rather put a bullet in Dane's skull than travel with him to find the other swindler (who happens to be Marta's hubby).

Horny Jim Craig will seduce her along the way. Meanwhile, the Indians are causing a great deal of consternation for all involved, so Dane and his Mexican merry men must stave off attacks concomitantly with looking for Marta's ol' man.

I really liked this tough little time capsule film. Wild story, of nasty double crossing bad people making trouble for themselves.

The lack of big stars kinda makes it work. Martha Roth is really the rotten glue that holds it all together! The underacting by the rest make it all strangely more plausible.

The strongest part of this film for mine is the excellent music score of Gonzalo Curiel which is a masterpiece of Western movie music! Solid theme, relevant and supporting incidental music is spot on with dynamic use of horns and flutes. Restating the theme with a blue vocal rendition of the tune round the campfire and a fantastic crescendo!

The south of the border locations with the interesting landscape and climate evident, the extras, the props and costumes in this film are all excellent and deliver authenticity!

The old Mex charro saddles with the pineapple horn!..

The color print, the sound and especially good is the jingle jangle of the federals spurs.

Notice the detail of the guard on duty with his spurs on over the top of his feet to stop the noise......now that's western!

The cavvy of horses in this film are worth a mention. I reckon that those tough little ponies are what horses probably looked like back in the old west. Very different to those grain fed quarter horses in Hollywood!

A strange Western Noir gem!