100 Rifles *** (1969, Jim Brown, Raquel Welch, Burt Reynolds) – Classic Movie Review 7930

Director Tom Gries’s 1969 spaghetti Western 100 Rifles [One Hundred Rifles] stars Burt Reynolds as Native Indian revolutionary Yaqui Joe, an outlaw being pursued by an American lawman Lyedecker (Jim Brown). But then both of them find themselves involved in the struggle between peasant landowners and a dictatorial general in Mexico, and Yaqui Joe finds himself being sought by the Mexican Army.

Set in 1912 Sonora, Mexico, 100 Rifles [One Hundred Rifles] is an above average ‘realistic’ late-Sixties Western, with Reynolds giving a charismatic turn as the outlaw, and Raquel Welch hamming it up terribly as the romantic interest, Sarita. The action sequences, which are as sharp as a knife, include some rather graphic violence.

Based on a novel by Robert McLeod, 100 Rifles [One Hundred Rifles] offers plenty of Sixties Western action thrills, war adventure and romance, and is a good, solid late-period Western, even if it is not up to the Clint Eastwood standard.

Also in the cast are Fernando Lamas, Dan O’Herlihy, Hans Gudegast, Michael Forest, Eric Braeden and Aldo Sambrell.

The screenplay is by Clair Huffaker and Tom Gries.

It is made in Spain in Madrid and Almería, Andalucía.

When top-billed star Brown said he was not keen on being so close to the edge of a cliff to film their fight, third-billed Reynolds replied: ‘If we fall, the newspapers will say Jim Brown and unknown actor die.’

UK releases are cut by four seconds to remove two horse falls.

Reynolds said: ‘I did like working again with Raquel’ on the 1972 cop movie Fuzz.

RIP much-missed Burt Reynolds (1936–2018), the last good ol’ boy movie star.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7930

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