Rio Conchos **½ (1964, Richard Boone, Stuart Whitman, Anthony Franciosa) – Classic Movie Review 10,850

The US Army sends a scruffy gang of adventurers to recover a shipment of rifles stolen by renegades to sell to the Apaches, in the action-filled 1964 Western film Rio Conchos, starring Richard Boone, Stuart Whitman and Tony Franciosa.

The US Army sends a scruffy gang of adventurers to recover a shipment of rifles stolen by renegades to sell to the Apaches, in director Gordon Douglas’s action-filled two-fisted American Cinemascope Western film from 1964, Rio Conchos. It stars a solid team in Richard Boone, Stuart Whitman, Tony Franciosa [Anthony Franciosa], Edmond O’Brien, and Jim Brown in his movie feature debut.

There is some below-par acting from a normally interesting cast, but Richard Boone holds it together with a grimly determined performance as an ex-Confederate Army officer, Jim Lassiter, out for revenge on the Apaches who massacred his family,.

It is based on Clair Huffaker’s 1958 novel Guns of Rio Conchos, which is not dissimilar to the 1961 film The Comancheros (for which Huffaker co-wrote the screenplay) and the 1956 film The Searchers, both of them John Wayne films.

The script by Joseph Landon adds crude humour to lusty action, and the film is energetically directed by Douglas, who seems more involved than some of the actors. Jerry Goldsmith’s soundtrack is a big asset.

Also in the cast are Wende Wagner, Warner Anderson, Rodolfo Acosta, Barry Kelley, House Peters Jr and Vito Scotti.

It is an almost male cast. Wende Wagner (Daily Sentinel secretary Casey Case in TV’s 1966–1967 The Green Hornet) plays the main female role of Apache girl Sally in a black wig, but has no English dialogue.

Most of the action of the film takes place in Mexico, and it was filmed in Moab, Utah, though the Conchos River. Filing took place at Professor Valley, Fisher Towers, Castle Valley, Arches, and Dead Horse Point in Utah.

Rio Conchos runs 107 minutes, is made and released by 20th Century Fox, is shot in Cinemascope by Joseph MacDonald, is produced by David Weisbart, and is scored by Jerry Goldsmith.

Release date: October 28, 1964.

The 20th Century Fox studio said the film needed to earn $5,300,000 at the box office to break even, but it took only $4,610,000. Gold Key Comics published a film tie-in comic book in 1964, so Fox might have made some extra money from that.

The cast are Richard Boone as Major James ‘Jim’ Lassiter, Stuart Whitman as Captain Haven, Tony Franciosa as Juan Luis Rodriguez aka Juan Luis Martinez, Edmond O’Brien as Colonel Theron ‘Gray Fox’ Pardee, Jim Brown as Sergeant Franklyn, Wende Wagner as Apache girl Sally, Warner Anderson as Colonel Wagner, Rodolfo Acosta as Apache chief Bloodshirt, Barry Kelley as Croupier at Presidio, Vito Scotti as Bandit chief, House Peters, Jr as Major Johnson, Kevin Hagen as Major Johnson, aka ‘Blondebeard’, Robert Adler as Pardee Soldier, Timothy Carey as cantina owner Chico, Abel Fernandez as Mexican Guard, and Mickey Simpson as Bartender.

Boone is billed before Whitman during the film’s opening credits, but Whitman’s name is first, though lower, on the poster.

Rio Conchos was released by Shout! Factory on DVD on 21 June 2011 in a double feature with Jim Brown’s Take a Hard Ride (1975).

Goldsmith’s soundtrack was released on CD in January 2000.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,850

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