Shalako **½ (1968, Sean Connery, Brigitte Bardot, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Peter Van Eyck, Honor Blackman, Eric Sykes, Alexander Knox, Woody Strode) – Classic Movie Review 4587

It is hardly surprising that there haven’t been many British Westerns (remember Carry On Cowboy?), but director Edward Dmytryk’s 1968 film Shalako seemed to be going places with a clever idea about a group of Victorian European big-game hunters in New Mexico, led by ex-cavalry officer Moses Zebulon ‘Shalako’ Carlin (Sean Connery), under attack by the Apaches.

The at the time much-hyped pairing of Connery and Brigitte Bardot as the cowboy and the countess called Irina Lazaar made Sixties audiences hold their breath. But alas the expected fireworks soon fizzle out, though Connery’s rugged individual turn and some of the support acting merit a look.

Dmytryk’s direction is surprisingly slackly paced, though he handles the action sequences with his usual tautness and skill. The film does not have the spark, style and excitement of the best of the spaghetti Westerns, but nevertheless, over the years, it has acquired cult status as a valued Sixties European Western, thanks no doubt in part to its iconic stars.

The screenplay by J J Griffith and Hal Hopper is based on the 1962 novel by Louis L’Amour novel, the first in a trilogy of L’Amour adaptations from producer Euan Lloyd, who was introduced to him by his actor friend Alan Ladd.

After L’Amour told Lloyd that Sean Connery would certainly ‘look tall in the saddle’, Lloyd met Connery and learned he was a Western fan since childhood. He was also keen to do the film for $1.2 million and 30 per cent of the profits out of the $5 million budget. Bardot was paid $400,000 plus 12.5 per cent of the profits. Lloyd hired Bond cinematographer Ted Moore and Bond stuntman and action scene arranger Bob Simmons.

Connery and Blackman (as Lady Daggett) appear together again after their fateful meeting in Goldfinger (1964). Also in the oddball cast are Jack Hawkins as Sir Charles Daggett, Stephen Boyd as Bosky Fulton (!), Peter Van Eyck as Frederick Von Hallstatt, Eric Sykes as Mako, Alexander Knox as Senator Henry Clarke, Valerie French as Elena Clarke, Julián Mateos as Rojas, Don ‘Red’ Barry as Buffalo, Rodd Redwing as Chato’s Father, Woody Strode as Chato, and Chief Elmer Smith.

It was filmed at Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, with sets designed by art director Herbert Smith, and also on location in the Tabernas Desert, Almería, Andalucía, southern Spain, where Harry Saltzman’s Second World War film, Play Dirty, was being filmed on the same locations, though set in North Africa. The two shoots mingled, and one time gypsy Apaches rode by mistake into an attack on a Long Range Desert Group.

Shalako was the 18th most popular film of 1969 but because of its high costs it lost $1,275,000.

[Spoiler alert] The TV version cuts the death of the cowboy sent to protect Bardot’s character and the rape and death of Blackman’s character.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4587

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

Stephen Boyd plays Bosky Fulton.