The Revengers

William Holden, my candidate for the perfect American born leading Man with a series of hit films such as Sunset Blvd, Golden Boy, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, Picnic, Bridges of Toko Ri, The Bridge On The River Kwai, The Horse Soldiers, Suzie Wong, made this film at the near end of his fabled career. Directed by Daniel Mann, the film was shot in Mexico, and some of the scenes and photography to me seemed a bit murky, but it could have been the print I saw. Released by Cinema Center Films which tried to become a major studio, the action is fast paced. The film features 3 Oscar winners Holden, Ernest Borgnine and in a small cameo Susan Hayward. The Producers should have enlarged the role Ms. Hayward played. After all the tough lady we all know and love would have been part of the posse.

A fine film that could have been better.

Indians led by a renegade kill William Holden's family, so he rides from Colorado to Mexico to pick out violent prisoners to lead in a vengeful raid.

This western remake of THE DIRTY DOZEN has some fine performers in its ranks, including Ernest Borgnine (who overacts), Woody Strode, Arthur Hunnicutt and, in her final film role, Susan Hayward sporting an Irish accent. There's a nice bit of writing, involving points that the earlier, better known movie often slides over: here, the violent criminals are not team players. The ending may look like they ran out of money for the production, or as if Holden wanted to get back to drinking in Africa, but it's decently set-up, and there are plenty of explosions.

Cinematographer Gabriel Torres shoots springtime Mexico in a style that suggests the Hudson Valley school of painting as it evolved in the second half of the 20th Century.

At first glance this would seem to be just another violent western of the same class as "The Wild Bunch". Look more deeply into the characters and you will find several interesting changes over the course of the movie. Each character shows a human and sometimes frail side that belies the hard person that they have become.

Definitely a cut above the average B western this US/Mexico production holds interest and features good production values. Daniel Mann's direction is solid with fine looking cinematography from Gabriel Torres, Oscar nominee screenplay writer Wendell Mayes (Anatomy of a Murder '59) lifts the dialogue slightly above average. William Holden has an active role for his age as a ranch owner and family man, driven to seek revenge and is well supported by Woody Strode and Ernest Borgnine, with Susan Hayward coming out of retirement to join the cast - scenes with Hayward and Holden are particularly well done.

Maybe not a great Western, still, far better than many others of its kind. The film did not fare well but just looking at the original advertising poster would turn most people off (promoted like a cheap Italian/Spanish thing) should have been sold much better.

A homesteader's family are wiped out by a renegade Injun party and he vows his revenge

" Wow Theo . That sounds like so many other dire generic Westerns . Tell us why you gave it seven out of ten "

Easily explained . It's an old fashioned premise done in the New Hollywood style . Hollywood had done way with the dichotomy of good and bad and decided to paint everything in grey . Some people have mentioned both THE WILD BUNCH and THE DIRTY DOZEN in their comments and you can see some very obvious parallels as the protagonist hires some cut throat prisoners as a posse and you're left with a feeling this might simply backfire on him

Another aspect is the rather bloodthirsty element . New Hollywood had torn up the Hays Code rulebook and consigned it to history a few years earlier and THE WILD BUNCH was responsible for this more than any other film and whilst it doesn't have the same directorial style as Peckinpah would have brought to the movie it's enjoyably mean enough to appeal to audience members who aren't keen on the genre