The Appaloosa [Southwest to Sonora] *** (1966, Marlon Brando, Anjanette Comer, John Saxon) – Classic Movie Review 5406

‘Southwest to Sonora rode the lustful, the lawless… to live on the edge of violence!’

Marlon Brando stars in The Appaloosa [Southwest to Sonora] (1966) as Matt Fletcher, a Mexican-American buffalo hunter cowboy, who vows in a Mexican border church to lead a new life and settle down to breed horses.

Afterwards, he starts a stud farm with his beautiful horse of the title. But a Mexican bandit general Chuy Medina (John Saxon), who thinks that he has been after his woman, has other ideas. When his Appaloosa is stolen by Saxon, Brando sets out to recover the horse at whatever cost.

Director Sidney J Furie’s 1966 Western is pretentious but pretty looking, gorgeously filmed in Technicolor and Techniscope by director of photography Russell Metty, with an over-studied, brooding performance by Brando and the director matching him in grandiose style. James Bridges and Roland Kibbee’s interesting but slightly struggling screenplay is based on a novel by Robert McLeod. It remains an intriguing movie, one of Brando’s few virtually forgotten films.

In Britain we tried to unravel the title’s mystery by calling it the equally baffling Southwest to Sonora. Admittedly, The Appaloosa is an American horse breed best known for its colourful spotted coat pattern and Sonora is one of Mexico’s states, but that was all a bit specialised for UK audiences in 1966.

Also in the cast are Anjanette Comer, Rafael Campos, Frank Silvera, Alex Montoya, Emilio Fernandez, Miriam Colon, Larry D Mann and Argentina Brunetti.

Sidney Furie’s method of filming and his penchant for weird angle shots led to many problems on the set, upsetting Brando, who allegedly called him ‘a lousy director’.

Brando later said to Furie: ‘I thought you were a no-good double-crosser, but I saw the film and you have the great sense of the best visual directors. Let’s do another movie together.’

John Saxon, who earned a Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role, recalled: ‘This was to me a terrific role and something I was ready for, but he [Brando] was despondent. He said he had lent a whole bunch of money to his father, and what he was saying to me was that his father ruined his life by losing all of his money. He was kind of bored in the picture.’

The Appaloosa [Southwest to Sonora] is directed by Sidney J Furie, runs 98 minutes, is made by Universal, is released by Universal, is written by James Bridges and Roland Kibbee, based on a novel by Robert McLeod, is shot in Technicolor and Techniscope by Russell Metty, is produced by Alan Miller, is scored by Frank Skinner, with production designs by Alexander Golitzen and Alfred Sweeney.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5406

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