In Mexico, at the dawn of the automobile, modern bandit Santiago burglarizes train freight cars and falls in love with a poor farmer's wife. After pulling a robbery, Santiago and his partner are fired upon and the partner dies from his wound. Santiago hires a young land-owner, Maunel Lopez, to take him to town, where he delivers to loot to a fence, Guntz. The latter tries to cheat Santiago and he then takes it all by force. He and Manuel go for a time on the town before returning to Manuel's farm. Manuel, having a taste of the good life, plots to kill Santiago. Manuel's wife, Maria, is shocked and fed up and begs Santiago to leave and take her with him. As they start to leave, the Police and Guntz show up and take Manuel and attempt to make him talk by threatening to hang him. Santiago intervenes and shoots Guntz and is mortally wounded himself, but manages to send Manuel and Maria on their way before he goes off to die alone. There is something very likable about this low budget, "poetic" story of an aging outlaw who comes upon the small farm of an ambitious peon and his willful wife. The atmosphere is a bit thick perhaps, constant philosophizing in a "poetic" Spanish accent, with a guitar playing in the background. But Kennedy is particularly good as the outlaw, worldly-wise and mellow with flashes of toughness, anger and cynicism. The other players carry their weight well enough, though Iglesias sometimes goes a bit overboard with his characterization of the naive, greedy young man. There's not much to the story, but it's well told. Here, certainly, is a film that, whatever its ultimate virtues, is unique. Though the subject makes it a Western, the style (as well as the Mexican setting and the apparent thirties time-frame) makes it something completely different. This is the sort of film one expects from Ulmer's reputation; small but personal. I really did like it, but I don't know if I would go as far as Francois Truffaut: "Poetic and violent, tender and droll, moving and subtle, joyously energetic and wholesome… reminds us inevitably of Renoir and Ophuls." Santiago (Arthur Kennedy) is a good-hearted bandit…if there actually is such a thing. And when he meets up with Manuel and his wife, he leads the very meek Manuel into life on the wild side. While Manuel has always been very righteous, soon he starts to enjoy the idea of wealth and soon his true, violent and selfish side comes out after making this new friendship. But he's not the only one affected by Santiago's arrival…as soon Manuel's wife, Maria, has fallen for this new mystery man! What's to come of all this?<br/><br/>While this could have been a nice little morality tale about greed, it suffers in several ways. Its pacing is not great and has some slow moments or scenes that could have been excised. At times, the Mexicans seemed awfully silly and stereotypical. Also, occasionally the acting is a bit overwrought…though I must admit that I was surprised that Kennedy was actually pretty good in the lead…playing the Bandito.
Kelgal replied
344 weeks ago