Telly "Kojak" Savalas and George Maharis ('Route 66') play feuding brothers Vicente and Pablo, in this tale in which ultra-greedy land baron Vicente will stop at NOTHING to get his way. He pretty much owns the local Arizona community of Forge River lock, stock, and barrel, including weakling lawman John Mayfield (Phil Brown, "Star Wars"). He has a seething hatred for the local Apaches, and goes about ensuring that the people will eventually want to go to war with them.
Just for one example of how rotten Vicente is, there's a tragedy in the brothers' past, and Pablo is not completely convinced that it was an "accident". You can tell that Telly is relishing his role; while he stops short of real scenery-chewing, you just KNOW that he's having fun. In essence, his despicable heel is what makes the film truly worth watching.
Overall, it's nothing great, but it's an entertaining story capably told, by filmmaker Nathan H. Juran, in a rare Western assignment for the director; he was better known as a director of fantasy (ex. "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad") and sci-fi (ex. "The Brain from Planet Arous") pictures. Although peppered with obvious stock footage, its action scenes ARE well-done. It's also got a good supporting cast: Arlene Dahl ("Journey to the Center of the Earth"), Janet Landgard ("The Swimmer"), Guy Rolfe ("The Stranglers of Bombay"), George Coulouris ("Citizen Kane"), Jocelyn Lane ("Tickle Me"), Fernando Rey ("The French Connection"), and Robert Carricart ("The Milagro Beanfield War").
Fairly violent without ever being TOO gory, this does get a pretty big boost from the score by Bruno Nicolai, and from its location shooting in Spain (which leads some people to mistakenly assume it's a Euro-Western, when in fact it was an American production).
Seven out of 10.
