Review of El Condor (1970) by Stuart K — 30 Apr 2014

Directed by John Guillermin, (Shaft in Africa (1973), The Towering Inferno (1974) and Death on the Nile (1978)), and produced by André de Toth (House of Wax (1953)), this adventure-western might seem quite dated by todays standards, but it's one of the best westerns to come out of Hollywood at the time, even though it follows the template of a lot of Spaghetti Westerns made around that time.

Set in 19th Century Mexico, it follows the exploits of escaped black convict Luke (Jim Brown) who teams up with eccentric gold prospector Jaroo (Lee Van Cleef), looking for gold. Jaroo hears of a vast heavily armed fortress which is said to contain a large cache of gold.

They end up recruiting a band of Native Americans, led by Santana (Iron Eyes Cody), to perform attack waves on the fort, but the fort, ran by Chavez (Patrick O'Neal) seems to be well handled to tackle the Native's attack waves, so Jaroo decides to plan a stealth attack, and they're able to get Chavez's mistress Claudine (Marianna Hill) on their side to help with their planned attack.

Shot in Andalusia, Spain, where many Spaghetti Westerns were made during the 1960's, it's a good film with a good plot and Brown and Van Cleef make a good double act throughout the film, and there's some good action sequences too.

It also has a good score by Maurice Jarre, which helps add to the atmosphere.