Mon 9 May 2016
A Western Movie Review: LAND RAIDERS (1970).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[3] Comments
LAND RAIDERS. Columbia Pictures, 1970. Telly Savalas, George Maharis, Arlene Dahl, Janet Landgard, Guy Rolfe, Phil Brown, George Coulouris, Jocelyn Lane, Fernando Rey. Director: Nathan Juran.
As far I call tell, the title of this European-filmed Western has nothing to do with the story, but it’s an entertaining tale that I enjoyed more than I do most of the so-called “spaghetti westerns” of the same era. Not that it’s without its flaws, but both the direction and the camera work show more intelligent thought went into the making of this movie than most low-budget westerns of the late 60s and early 70s.
One visual point you may have to concede on, and admittedly it is a tough pill to swallow, is that Telly Savalas and George Maharis are brothers in this film, the latter embracing his Mexican heritage and the former doing his best to rise far above it. He is, even more than that, not only the richest land-owner in the area, southern Arizona, but he is also the greediest, with only the threat of the US Government taking his open land from him to use for an Apache reservation threatening his wealth and power.
To that end, his primary obsession is that of fomenting war against the Apaches, whom he considers vermin who must only be exterminated. Threatening this, there is a feud between himself and his brother, which has something to do with the woman the latter intended to marry.
Flashbacks, rather skillfully done, are therefore an important part of the way the story is told. On screen there is plenty of stampedes, runaway stages, scalping, pillaging, raping and even a bloody massacre to keep the action going in non-stop fashion. (Some of this appears to be stock footage from other films.)
George Maharis acquits himself well throughout. Bald, without a hat, Telly Savalas is more than adequate as one of the most evil men in the West, but with a cowboy hat on, I’m sorry to say that he just looks silly.
May 9th, 2016 at 9:24 pm
Nathan Juran mainly directed science fiction films in the 1950s, but was also a well known art director, having won the Academy Award for Art Direction for his work on John Ford’s HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY
May 10th, 2016 at 2:08 pm
This is only about half Spaghetti Western, and not really that. Few of the true Spaghetti Westerns had that many American and British names or American directors. It’s a little more in line with some of the Streudel Westerns (my name for them) being made by Robert Sidomak and others in West Germany — most but not all Karl May material.
In fact, though shot on location in Europe, this one is pretty much outside the whole Spaghetti Western milieu as far as look and feel, it’s much more a Hollywood film shot in Europe than a European film.
Have to agree about that hat though. Savalas did a few more actual Spaghetti Westerns — notably one opposite James Coburn — but he had sense enough not to wear a cowboy hat or sombrero in them.
May 11th, 2016 at 5:10 pm
I think that that people who put this film together may have been influenced by the spaghetti western genre, but if I suggested that it was one, I didn’t intend to. It’s better than most of them, in my opinion, with more emphasis on character than flashy gunplay.
While i’s not as good as many 50s westerns in that regard, I found enough substance to it to call it an above average western, by at least a tick or two.