Review of Vera Cruz (1954) by Randy T — 10 Jul 2010

â??Apacheâ?? director Robert Aldrichâ??s â??Vera Cruzâ?? is interesting not only as an incomparable example of a westernâ??one that Sergio Leone claims inspired himâ??but also for the headaches that it created for both Mexican officials as well as Hollywood filmmakers who went south of the searching for atmospheric locations. Unlike previous westerns, Aldrich and co-scenarists Roland Kibbee and James Webb, working from a Borden Chase story, made one of the earliest soldier-of-fortune oaters with heroes who display proficiency with firearms of any kind and can hit well-nigh impossible targets. Interestingly, Gary Cooper plays the sainted good guy hero, while leering Burt Lancaster portrays the lusty anti-hero. These two drifters form an uneasy alliance against both the Mexicans and the French. Unfortunately, the depiction of Mexicans was so racist that Hispanic audiences rioted in the theaters. Reportedly, some spectators tore their chairs out of the floor and hurled him contemptuously at the screen. Mexican officials changed their way of dealing with filmmakers after the â??Vera Cruz.â?? A censor was assigned to films thereafter and they sought to stress the innate dignity and superiority of Mexicans over everybody else.

â??Vera Cruzâ?? opens with the following written prologue: â??As the American Civil War ended, another war was just beginning. The Mexican people were struggling to rid themselves of their foreign emperorâ??Maximilian. Into this fight rode a handful of Americansâ??ex-soldiers, adventurers, criminalsâ??all bent on gain. They drifted South in small groups. And some came alone.â?? Former Confederate colonel Ben Trane (Gary Cooper of â??High Noonâ??) enters Mexico, but his horse goes lame. He reins up at a cantina and admires two horses. The owner of one of the horses, Joe Erin (Burt Lancaster of â??Brute Forceâ??), walks outside about the time that Ben is appraising the horses. Joe sells him the other horse for $100 in gold. No sooner have they hit the trail than a column of mounted Austrian lancers pursues them. Ben displays his incomparable marksmanship at full gallop and shoots the gun out of a soldierâ??s fist.

Ben doesnâ??t understand all this hostility until Joe informs him that the soldiers are chasing them because Ben has stolen the commanderâ??s horse. The lancers dismount and fire a volley at Ben. He plunges his horse before the bullets strike him. Erroneously, Joe believes that Ben is dead and loots his horse. When Ben tries to loot the old colonel, the wily Southerner surprises him with a six-gun in the stomach. He appropriates Joeâ??s horse and leaves Joe afoot. They encounter each other again not long afterward in the same Mexican town, and Joe convinces Ben to join them to fight in the revolution. Ben explains, â??I lost everything but my shirt in the civil war.â?? Together they ride with Joeâ??s men to a rendezvous with the Emperor Maximillianâ??s envoy, Marquis Henri de Labordere (Caesar Romero of â??The Cisco Kid and the Ladyâ??), and everybody gets a surprise when a revolutionary Juarista general, Ramirez (Morris Ankrum of â??The Saracen Blade), arrives to make his own offer to the Americans. Ramirez orders his soldiers to show themselves and the walls surrounding the area where Ben, Joe, and the others are standing bristle with armed Mexican natives. Joe exploits the moment when he spots a group of children. Ben suggests they get the children to safety, and Joe orders Donnegan (Ernst Borgnine of â??The Dirty Dozenâ??) and Pittsburgh (Charles Bronson of â??The Magnificent Sevenâ??) to get the kids into the church out of the line of gunfire. Joe uses the welfare of the children to compel Ramirez and his army to withdraw. Labordere tells Ben and Joe that they can ride with them to Mexico City to see the Emperor and strike deal.

In Mexico City, Ben and Joe show off their skills with both rifles and six-gun. The imperialist Emperor Maximillian (George Macready of â??Coroner Creek) and Labordere enlist them to act as an escort for Countess Marie Duvarre (Denise Darcel of â??Tarzan and the Slave Girlâ??) for her trip to Vera Cruz. Maximillian and Labordere have no intention of paying them. During the journey on the first day, Ben and Joe both notice the deep wheel ruts that the carriage hauling the countess makes at a river crossing.

Later, after they have put up for the evening, Ben and Joe discover a concealed compartment in the floor of the coach that yields a small fortune in gold. â??Each of one of those six boxes contains a half-million dollars in gold,â?? Countess Duvarre informs them after she finds them in the stable with the wagon. She explains that the gold will be used to hire mercenaries. It is important to notice that the anti-heroic Lancaster hero has changed out of his black shirt into a white shirt when they embark on escort duty. Symbolically, this means that Joe is showing a little goodness. Later, when he betrays Ben, and they shoot it out with predictable results, Joe is dressed in solid black from head to toe. Anyway, the three of them plot to steal the gold and share it. Meanwhile, the Juaristas are shadowing their every move. Eventually, a pretty Juarista Nina (Sara Montiel of â??Run of the Arrowâ??), makes friends with Ben.

Lancaster's own company, Hecht-Lancaster Productions, produced â??Vera Cruzâ?? on a $1.7 million budget. Despite uniformly negative reviews, â??Vera Cruzâ?? grossed more than $11 million worldwide. The amorality of the characters, especially Lancasterâ??s lascivious villain who would cut his own motherâ??s throat for anything, along with the surfeit of violence, makes this western a prototype for Spaghetti westerns. Cooper and a charismatic Lancaster make a strong pair of heroes who cannot trust each other. Aldrich directed flawlessly, and this lively 94-minute, Technicolor western never wastes a second.

Aldrich made what qualifies as the first modern style western. Only a handful of decent westerns about reign of the Emperor Maximilian have been made and this is the first and the best. Inevitably, greed shatters the make-shift partnership between Gary and Burt. Lancaster is downright mischievous as a black-clad gunslinger and his cutthroat gang boasts several big names before they make their reputations, including Charles Bronson, Jack Elam, Jack Lambert, and Ernest Borgnine. The plot bristles with twists and turns.