Nevada Smith *** (1966, Steve McQueen, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Arthur Kennedy, Suzanne Pleshette, Raf Vallone, Martin Landau) – Classic Movie Review 3,533

The robust 1966 Western prequel film Nevada Smith has the advantage of starring Steve McQueen in his prime, taking over Alan Ladd’s old role of Nevada Smith from the hit 1964 movie The Carpetbaggers based on the 1961 Harold Robbins best-selling novel. 

Producer/ director Henry Hathaway’s robust 1966 Western film Nevada Smith has the advantage of starring Steve McQueen in his prime, taking over Alan Ladd’s old role of Nevada Smith from the hit 1964 movie The Carpetbaggers based on the 1961 Harold Robbins best-selling novel. It is a big, epic movie, with lots of sweep and scale.

In a tailor-made prequel revenge Western, the naïve half-Indian, half-white cowboy hero Nevada Smith turns into a hardened killer as he tracks down the killers who attacked and murdered his parents.

Nevada Smith is a decent, acceptable Western, with some tense action. But it is often downbeat and nastily violent, with McQueen and old-time favourites Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Arthur Kennedy, Suzanne Pleshette, Raf Vallone and Martin Landau registering well if not quite at their best. A major problem for credibility is that Nevada Smith is supposed to be 16 but McQueen is 36 and he is only eight years younger than Gene Evans who plays his father.

John Michael Hayes seems to have had a struggle to carve out the new original story and his screenplay is patchy but has its moments. It shows Nevada Smith first encountering another character in The Carpetbaggers, Jonas Cord Sr (Brian Keith) and explores Nevada Smith’s background suggested in one scene in The Carpetbaggers. (Leif Erickson played Jonas Cord Sr in The Carpetbaggers.)

However, despite the screenplay problems, there is no denying that Lucien Ballard’s Eastmancolor and Panavision widescreen cinematography and Alfred Newman’s score are absolutely excellent, first class pieces of work.

Also notable in the excellent cast are Janet Margolin, Howard da Silva, Pat Hingle, Paul Fix, Gene Evans, Val Avery, Josephine Hutchinson and John Doucette.

Ladd was intended to play the role but died before filming started. How would that have worked as Alan Ladd played an older version of Nevada Smith in The Carpetbaggers and this is a later prequel?

Both Ladd and McQueen had untimely deaths at the age of 50.

It was shot on 46 locations in the Inyo National Forest, in southern California and south-western Nevada, and the Owens Valley of southern California in the Eastern Sierra mountains.

Joseph E Levine is executive producer. Nevada Smith runs 131 minutes, is made by Solar Productions, and is distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Release date: 29 June 1966,

It was remade as the 1975 TV movie Nevada Smith, with Cliff Potts as Nevada Smith, Lorne Greene and Adam West.

McQueen and Landau were the only ones accepted out of the 2,000 performers who auditioned for Lee Strasberg’s theatre school in 1955.

Pleshette said her love scenes with McQueen were awkward as they were long-term friends.

The cast are Steve McQueen as Max Sand/ Nevada Smith, Karl Malden as Tom Fitch, Brian Keith as Jonas Cord Sr, Arthur Kennedy as Bill Bowdre, Suzanne Pleshette as Pilar, Raf Vallone as Father Zaccardi, Janet Margolin as Neesa, Pat Hingle as Big Foot, Howard da Silva as Warden, Martin Landau as Jesse Coe, Paul Fix as Sheriff Bonnell, Gene Evans as Sam Sand, Josephine Hutchinson as Mrs. Elvira McCanles, John Doucette as Uncle Ben McCanles, Val Avery as Buck Mason, Sheldon Allman as Sheriff, Lyle Bettger as Jack Rudabough, Bert Freed as Quince, David McLean as Romero, Steve Mitchell as Buckshot, Merritt Bohn as Riverboat pilot, Sandy Kenyon as Bank clerk, Ric Roman as Cipriano, John Lawrence as Hogg, Stanley Adams as Storekeeper, George Mitchell as Paymaster, John Litel as Doctor, Ted de Corsia as bartender Hudson, and Joanna Moore as Angie Cole.

Howard da Silva was blacklisted after his March 1951 testimony to the House Committee on Unamerican Activities, in which he repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights. He did not work in feature films again until 1962 when he appeared in David and Lisa, followed by The Outrage (1964) and Nevada Smith.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,533

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/