Guns of Diablo

This is a fair movie to say the least. Not one of Charles Bronson's better movies. Only the die-hard Bronson fan might want to check it out. Look for a very young Kurt Russell in the film also.

This is actually a couple of episodes of the short-lived TV series "The Travels Of Jaimie McPheeters" edited together. Though the production values are decent, it never quite shakes the TV feel it has.

It's not terrible at all - just rather ordinary, with not much excitement and a lot of chat. However, there is definite interest in seeing a young Kurt Russell, especially seeing him with Bronson. Bronson fans might get more enjoyment out of this, because he plays a different character than the usual hard-ass he played. He even has a love scene, which is surprisingly revealing for the period - hard to believe they got away with it on American TV in the early '60s!

During the Sixties MGM packaged episodes of TV series as feature movies for distribution in Europe. "Guns Of Diablo" represents two episodes of the series "The Travels Of Jamie McPheeters". Some comments note the daring love scene (for TV at the time). Actually sometimes MGM would add footage not in the original episode to make the feature more adult for European audiences. This was the case for "Guns Of Diablo".

This feature has been released on both video and DVD on budget labels. The print quality is fairly good under these circumstances.

When you consider its origins, "Guns" comes off as a reasonably entertaining western. It certainly showcases Bronson's talent and on screen charisma. For an example of how not to turn TV episodes into a feature check out "The Meanest Men In The West" also starring Bronson. It consists of two episodes of "The Virginian" with Bronson and Lee Marvin as brothers who do not share any scenes together but with editing appear to.

Watchable Western programmer of the most elementary kind, this was actually culled from episodes of an obscure TV series THE TRAVELS OF JAMIE McPHEETERS. Charles Bronson is O.K. as the taciturn hero (though obviously far away from the mythic quality of his "Harmonica" character in Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST [1968], the masterpiece which belatedly shot him to stardom), Kurt Russell is the likable boy in his charge and Douglas Fowley plays an eccentric old prospector whom the latter befriends (eventually becoming his beneficiary).

The narrative presents a HIGH NOON (1952)-type situation where Bronson meets an old flame he believed dead and is then confronted by her husband (Bronson's nemesis back in the day) and his two brothers. While the quality of the transfer on the budget DVD I watched left a lot to be desired (including several unnatural transitions betraying its modest TV origins), the film itself manages a couple of good action climaxes.

Charles Bronson is not listed for "The Adventures of Jaime McPheeters," a September 1963-March 1964 series, but he played Linc Murdock in that show (with Kurt Russell in the title role and Dan O'Herlihy as his father) for the last 18 or 20 episodes after another actor left. I've seen snippets from this film and may have it on home video, but my cataloging leaves much to be desired.

Although the movie is in color at a time when color TV shows were relatively rare, I think it's either a two-part series episode given theatrical release or a movie feature quickly spun off from the series. Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide doesn't list it. Perhaps someone can hunt down the show (perhaps I could do it myself from a source book I know) and put it into IMDb.