Powderkeg

Just watched it again and still love it. I was 13 when I first saw this movie and it grabbed me from the opening sequence. The musical score, the Bearcat car, Rod Taylor and Dennis Cole...and the impossible job. Very much in the vain of "Guns of Navarone" except in the Mexican desert--an impossible job but a small group of men, specialists, might pull it off. The characters are strong and fun to be with. This movie introduced me to Rod Taylor and I have been a fan ever since. The sad thing is this movie has drifted off the radar screen. It never shows up on old movie channels. I fear it will fade away. It's too bad, because it is a really solid movie and well worth the time. The style is definitely 70s and so is the script, with its double ententes and sexual innuendos. One bit of trivia, the actress who played Juanita Sierra-Perez is Luciana Paluzzi, she played the femme fatale in the James Bond classic "Thunderball."

Powderkeg! was a movie filmed in 1971 starring the well known actor Rod Taylor, and Dennis Cole as two men living in the southwest just prior to WWl. It based around the premise that the pair had 'cleaned up' a couple of rough towns in self-defense, then other towns had come to them seeking help in doing the same for their communities. They had to get 'mercenary' about this and their fee was a blank check. "If you can put a price on it, you don't need 'em bad enough"! The two are contacted by a railroad magnate after one of his trains is hijacked, his best friend killed, and the friends daughter among the 73 people being held by the Morales gang, former revolutionaries turned bandits and murderers. The leader, Chuchu, (Fernando Lamas) has taken the hostages to be exchanged for his brother, being held in a small town jail after a raid by the gang. The plot then centers around Brackett and Reach (Taylor and Cole) devising a plan to seize the train and free the hostages, which they do cleverly and successfully. The movie served as the pilot for the show Bearcats!, which unfortunately, only lasted one season, mostly due to being up against the Flip Wilson show, well established and carrying high ratings. But for one memorable season, Taylor and Cole thrilled many a young lad and sometimes even the Dads as well, with an unusual, well done show with a very original premise, unlike so much of the drivel that 'graces' TV these days! My thanks to all involved in the show, I will never forget it.

Watching Lamas tiptoe up to, but never crossing, the line between acting and overacting is great fun to watch. Taylor, as usual is great as a rough soldier of fortune. This film should be shown to today's network execs to show them how good a TV movie can be...great acting, direction, story, and authentic locations. Too bad "Bearcats!" didn't last longer as a series. A good outdoor based action show with a good cast (and great weekly guest stars) might be a hit today instead of the usual doctor and cop shows. And I love the car...a beautiful 1914 Stutz Bearcat. You car & film buffs out there might be interested in knowing it's the same car John Wayne drove in "Wings of Eagles" and I believe it to be the same one used in the Disney film "Summer Magic" with Haliey Mills and an episode of "Green Acres". It was later owned by a friend of mine and is in a California collection.

POWDERKEG is a made-for-television movie that acted as the pilot episode of the short-lived western TV series BEARCATS! This show paired a grizzled and middle-aged Rod Taylor with a young and muscular Dennis Cole as a couple of adventurers in the American west in the early days of the 20th century. This episode sees them being sent to take care of a Mexican gunslinger who's taken a train full of hostages and is threatening to execute them if his demands aren't met. It sounds fun, but it really isn't; the planning of the mission takes forever and there are endlessly long-winded dialogue scenes between the villains which drag the pace down interminably; I found it almost unwatchable at times.

In the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the Mexican outlaw Chucho Morales (Fernando Lamas) hijacks a train with seventy-three passengers that become his hostages and asks the law student Ricardo Sandoval (Reni Santoni) to write a ransom note. He demands that his brother Paco Morales (Michael Ansara), who will be hanged in a couple of days, be released. He kills one passenger that was trying to protect his daughter Beth Parkinson (Tisha Sterling) and drops his body off the train on a station with the note. Ricardo, who is the son of the military Pablo Sandoval (Jay Novello), asks in the note to call Hank Brackett (Rod Taylor) and his partner Johnny Reach (Dennis Cole) to rescue them. Pablo meets the owner of the railroad Cyrus Davenport (John McIntire) and brings Hank and Johnny. Hank presents a daring plan, and Davenport asks the governor to switch Paco per the hostages. The problem is when Juanita Sierra-Perez (Luciana Paluzzi) poses as Paco's wife to visit him in jail and kills him to revenge her family. Now Hank's bold plan is the only possibility to rescue the hostages alive.

"Powderkeg" (1971) is a great pilot of the unknown series "Bearcats!". The plot is an entertaining western, with funny and violent scenes. Chucho Morales spending the night with Beth Parkinson is probably the worst, but subtle, scene without the need of any graphic scene. Rod Taylor and Dennis Cole are very funny in their roles and the gorgeous Luciana Paluzzi is in her heydays. The bandit Chucho Morales, performed by Fernando Lamas, is scary. This film was released in Brazil by an obscure distributor and terrible image but is worthwhile watching. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Barril de Pólvora" ("Powderkeg")