Monday, May 7, 2012

Savage Pamapas (1966)


Robert Taylor stars as an army Captain in Argentina who is tasked to bring several coaches of women to the fort where he is stationed. The trouble is that the area is being menaced by the bandit Padron who is making a deal with the local natives to get rid of the army. Padron is also filling out his gang with deserting soldiers who are fed up with the tough rule of the general.

While this film hits a good number of typical western cliche's you have to give it a many points by simply setting the action in Argentina. Say what you will mere setting seems to add a great deal of interest to the film simply because it's never certain how it's going to go...

Certainly I never expected the blood in this film. There is a great deal of it, which while obviously fake, still manages to up the ante and make you really believe that the film is playing for higher stakes. Speaking of stakes, I also didn't expect the gruesome end for one character toward the end of the film (you'll have to see the film to know what I mean).

You have to credit stars Robert Taylor, who turns in an excellent world weary performance as Martin, our hero. At the same time Ron Randall's villainous turn as Padron is positively chilling as a man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants or kill, painfully, anyone he wants dead.

This is a film to keep an eye out for. I caught it on Encore Westerns a couple of times in pieces before managing to actually sit down and see it from start to finish. I really liked the film and I'm looking to add it to my collection since it's a film I want to revisit sooner rather than later.

No comments:

Post a Comment