Rendez-vous sur l'Amazone

After delivering his prize bulls from Texas to a mysterious buyer in the Amazon, Glen Ford is reluctantly drawn into a dispute between a wealthy rancher, a beautiful women, homesteaders and Brazilian bandits. A vintage performance by Ford is complemented by Cesar Romero, as the bandit "El Gato." The sexy Abbe Lane pulls off a song in the middle of the movie that showcases her then husband, Xavier Cugat's, Latin score. Americans in the 1950's were fascinated with the Amazon, one of North America's last frontiers. With some great second unit wildlife shots, this is not Monument Valley. If you can enjoy an old time western, with its stoic hero and sharp moral choices, set in 1950's Brazil, then this one is for you.

I won't write 4 paragraphs about the plot. I wanted to see this movie again from another perspective. In the 50s to 1966 when Eric Fleming was killed in Peru filming an adventure movie, studios did some live filming on field locations because the tourist industry, airlines, people with vacation money wanted to see Panama, Brazil, Morocco etc. I like to watch on location movies with Ford and other actors. This one is good for the location filming but shallow. Glenn Ford displays again his excellent horsemanship. he was considered of the top 3 riders of that time. 2 high jumps and 3 running mounts. I can watch a whole movie of him riding. This is 1 movie where its not about him in a romance, so his acting has more character. For as much as this story could have contained, it was spread out evenly. Glenn was great, movie is good.

AMAZON but not really,the river scene...no...piranha.no man a geography mess..The sad thing is they come to our contry to film this thing ,they shot in cool location but for them to sell they have to put the label AMAZON..JUNGLE ...sad man.they shoot in MATO GROSSO nice place i like that but AMAZON ..stereotypes only and the language PORTUNHOL a mix between portuguese and spanish man stereotype ONLY but i already went to wacth knowing that would happen because...AMERICANS..and..GEOGRAPHY dont go together but its not good and itsnot bad i DIG it had fun nothing compromising long that gets boring..NOT BAD!!!

Watchable and standard Western set in flashy Brazil about classic confrontation between cattlemen and homesteaders . There are wonderful , showy outdoors shot on spectacular territory and it displays action , shootouts , violence and though sometimes is slow-moving , isn't tiring neither dreary , sustaining the interest for quite a while . It deals with an American who takes a small herd of Brahma bulls and undertakes the long drives began from Texas to Brazil where he has sold them for a small fortune that is subsequently robbed . Later on , the American working on a ranch in the Amazon comes up against a gang of Brazilian bandits (Cesar Romero) . The American named Sam Dent fights to stifle the conflicts between homesteaders (led by Ursula Thies) and cattleman (Frank Lovejoy) who hires gunfighters . Texas cowboy become involved with a group of bad guys versus Brazilian good guys in this way-south-of-the-border Western . Meanwhile , he is hired for a time to keep the peace and develops a love story with the wealthy owner. But the Amazon becomes notorious for its lawlessness .

The picture gets action Western , shootouts , a love story , musical numbers (in charge of a gorgeous Abbe Lane) and is quite entertaining . A formula film featuring the standard grand opening , an enjoyable change of scenery , dramatic problem-posing center and slang-bang climax , but a nice entertaining Western nonetheless . It's a medium budget film with good actors , technicians, cheap production values and pleasing results . Bright scenarios shot in Brazil and Riverside, California , though there are excessive stock-shots. The main asset results to be the change of scenery , but a familiar theme : homesteaders against cattlemen make this movie all but a little bit pedestrian . Acceptable acting by Glenn Ford as a Texas cowboy gets embroiled with bad guys and finds himself in the middle of a range war . Commendable support cast as Frank Lovejoy , Cesar Romero , Rodolfo Hoyos and the gorgeous Abbe Lane , though Sara Montiel was originally cast for the role of Teresa and filmed some sequences in the Matto Grosso jungle . Atmospheric musical score by Roy Webb , including agreeable songs ; being danced and sung by Abbe Lane and composed and conducted by her husband Xavier Cugat .

This low-budgeted motion picture was professionally directed by William Castle . He was an expert craftsman with some of the all-time great schlock names serving as the producer Sam Katzman and fondness for gimmicks as proved in his successful terror films such as House of haunted hill , The Tingler , Mr Sardonicus , Strait-jacked , Homicidal , Macabre and 13 Ghosts . Castle emulated Alfred Hitchcock , this included the practice of appearing in the trailers, and even making cameo appearances in his films . Furthermore , he made several Western such as 1955 Duel on the Mississippi , 1955 The Gun That Won the West ,1955 El Americano , 1954 Masterson of Kansas , 1954 The Law vs. Billy the Kid , 1954 Jesse James vs. the Daltons , 1954 Battle of Rogue River , 1953 Fort Ti , 1951 cave of outlaws. Rating : 6. Acceptable and passable

This is a much better Technicolor production than many of the other Castle films of the era. Castle brings back his oblique staging/blocking and adds some interesting low and high angle shots (which had been poorly employed in preceding Castle films) in order to develop a clear psychological motivation for the titular character. The shot-reverse-shot construction is more subtle than previous Technicolor Castle films, making the suture smoother and thus more endearing for the spectator. Depth of field creeps back into Castle's stylistic system in this film, aided by picturesque natural exteriors. Castle plays around with montage again, purposeful as ellipsis and appropriate to plot progression. I am reserved in labeling certain elements of the production as budget due to the possibility of a poor transfer for the copy I viewed (in particular I am referring to the cross-cut shots of wild animals). The script is more natural and a nice fit for the milieu of the film - real people talking honestly to each other. Pace slows and shot-reverse-shot construction gets sloppy half way through the film but is compensated for by some frantic action sequences that distinguish a morality for Ford's character that drives the rest of the narrative forward. There is a nice song (musical number) tri-functional as entr'acte for the story, prompt for budding romantic subplots and homage to the chanchadas of Brazil (ironic, given that after all the Columbia Pictures distribution of Castle's films that The Americano was released through RKO). It was at this time that Columbia Pictures's exploitation of the Brazilian film market was reaching critical mass and spurring the development of the Cinema Novo counter-cinema movement. Dramatic confessions under extreme duress perfectly mirror Castle's The Chance of a Lifetime (1943) and tease out a neat closure to a film that operated with few plot contrivances.