Los chacales del oeste

I was in college when I first saw THE TRAIN ROBBERS. I was already a die hard John Wayne fan. I followed his later career with great interest. Since due to the political climate of the day one was not the most popular individual on a campus declaring the fact that you liked this star's work. I didn't simply declare this fact. I shouted it from the rooftops. I dragged all my friends to see this picture because I felt it both reflected the best of Duke's earlier work and still stayed consistent with the aging hero he was portraying. Burt Kennedy's lean and taut script reminded me of the best of his work on the Randolph Scott and Budd Boetticher westerns of the fifties. The simple yarn of Ann-Margret hiring John Wayne and his crew of Ben Johnson, Rod Taylor,Christopher George, Jerry Gatlin and Bobby Vinton to recover half a million dollars in stolen gold is very simple in it's directness. They are are gunmen who just stay on the right side of the law. If they were japanese they could almost be described as landless sellswords or ronin. They exist simply from job to job. The status quo for Lane John Wayne's character is changed by the presence of the woman. Mrs. Lowe, He finds himself sexually attracted to Mrs. Lane, a woman young enough to be his daughter yet still capable of reminding him of the things he's lost in his life.Ann-Margret's character is curious about Lane who won't or more importantly can't talk about himself. Ben Johnson's character Jesse fills in the the necessary exposition but never tells more than he immediately has to. Burt Kennedy also plays with his audience. In BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID George Roy Hill has his leads chased by faceless men that they eventually are able to identify. In THE TRAIN ROBBERS our crew is chased by nameless men we never get to identify, people who remain throughout the film as a constant unknown quantity. This is a situation I don't recall ever seeing before in an A grade Wayne western. There is a scene toward the end of the film where Mrs. Lowe makes an overture to Lane which he reluctantly rejects. He feels he is too old to have feelings of this nature. The film starts to proceed to what might be considered a predictable conclusion. Burt Kennedy does not oblige. He gives us a surprise ending that totally satisfies on each and every viewing. There are other considerable assets to this project. Dominic Frontiere's score is a rouser. The opening of the film and the first fifteen minutes contain no score at all. All of a sudden we have an expansive score on the par with Alfred Newman's HOW THE WEST WAS WON or Jerome Moross's THE BIG COUNTRY. The only other score Mr. Frontiere ever delivered on a par with this film was Ted Post's HANG'EM HIGH. The other major contributor to this project was William H Clothier superb cinematography. This was the last of his 17 collaborations with the Duke and no movie ever looked cleaner or sharper. I know this film has many detractors. Everyone is entitled to his opinion but I feel this is on the high end of Duke's later work. As for Burt Kennedy I feel he delivered a movie even Howard Hawks would have liked to claim as his own.

The picture talks about a widow (Anne Margret , though Wayne felt she had stolen too many scenes) who contracts as employer to a motley group of cowboys (Jon Wayne , Rod Taylor , Ben Johnson, Christopher George , Vinton and Jerry Gatlin replacing Jack Elam) to help her retrieve the robbed gold of the Well Fargo in order to delete her late husband's bad name who had previously stolen it . The gold is located on a far desert and they'll have to cross various places until achieve their objective and being pursued by some cutthroats and a detective of Pinkerton agency (Ricardo Montalban) .

The highlights of the film are the imposing attack by the bunch of baddies on the train remains where the protagonists are sheltered and , of course , the final confrontation results to be pretty exciting . In the motion picture there is western action , continuous riding , emotion , tension , adventures , relaxed acting and results to be quite entertaining as well as fun . John Wayne's and Ann-Margret's character names , "Lane" and "Mrs. Lowe," are the same as Wayne's and Geraldine Page's characters' names in ¨Hondo¨ by John Farrow . The storyline is simple and plain but the final plot line has an astounding surprise that turns out to be the best part of the movie . Good support cast , such as : Ricardo Montalban , Ben Johnson , Jerry Gatlin , and Christopher George who played along with Wayne in "El Dorado" (1967) and "Chisum" (1970) . Excellent musical score by Dominic Frontiere , author of various enjoyable western soundtracks , thus : ''Barquero'', ''Chisum'' and ''Hang high'' . Glittering and impressive cinematography by William H. Clothier at his last film , habitual photographer of John Wayne films , it is colourfully shown on the numerous outdoors that are stunning location shots . This low-key pic was produced by John Wayne and his son Michael G. Wayne , proprietaries of the Batjac Productions . The movie was professionally directed by Burt Kennedy , author and screenwriter of a few classic Western mostly performed by Randolph Scott and directed by Budd Boetticher . The flick will appeal to John Wayne fans and western moviegoers . Rating: Nice and good . It's worthwhile seeing.

I have never seen a John Wayne movie that I didn't enjoy, although some of the very early stuff was a little hammy.

The Duke always gave his best in all his films. Who cares about little little blips here and there. The Good guy always wins, and usually gets the girl.

This film excels because of the way it leads the viewer down a dirty dusty path, with a wonderful twist just where you don't expect it.

As always - Excellent Scenery, even the animals have their own little cameos.

There is plenty of drama, and enough suspense to keep up concentration levels

There are the usual little two way quips, and enough dialogue to paint a clear enough background to the key characters.

Ben Johnson is his usual dry character, Rod Taylor plays a likable delayed adolescent, Ann Margret fills her part amply!

Good Fun - Plenty of Bangs - Well Cast - Memorable Quips.

Nobody minds a bit of repetition if it works, and contributes to the storyline which it does well.

Mrs. Lowe (Ann Margret) is the widow who enlists the help of Lane (John Wayne) in finding a gold shipment that had been stolen five years ago…

In that time ten men rode away with half a million in gold… The fellow that was running the show figured they better hide it until things cooled off… So he took the Fargo box and rode south into Mexico… He had the misfortune of getting shot… But before he died, he told his wife—the mother of his little boy— where the gold was…

But his widow decided to get the gold, return it to the train company for a $50,000 reward, and clear her husband's name… The reason: she doesn't want her kid growing up thinking his old man ran around robbing trains…

In mid way, and as 'gold has a way of bringing out the larceny in all of us,' Wayne, with his old-times pals and two young helpers, find themselves followed by mysterious riders who also want the buried loot…

"The Train Robbers" features plenty of gorgeous vistas, from rocky scrub to a sea of rippling sand dunes… Also Wayne delivers one of his most memorable lines addressing Margret, 'I've got a saddle that's older than you are, Mrs. Lowe.'

Whilst the Western genre for movies has died out since the sixties, most, if not all, John Wayne films are good and enjoyable today. However, with that said, this film (to the seasoned Western viewer) feels like nothing new and exciting. And again, with that said, it is not a bad film by any means. John Wayne puts up, yet again, a stellar performance with the backdrop being a decent adventure film with enough action to entice you for its duration.

Whilst nothing brilliant, The Train Robbers is just an easy film to watch and make time fly. If you are not a Western fan, then give this one a miss because it will not promote you to watch another one, but for the more fans of the genre, this will not be so hit and miss for you.