Way of a Gaucho ** (1952, Rory Calhoun, Gene Tierney, Richard Boone, Hugh Marlowe, Everett Sloane) – Classic Movie Review 12,918

The good-looking 1952 Technicolor action adventure film Way of a Gaucho, starring Rory Calhoun, Gene Tierney, Richard Boone, Hugh Marlowe, and Everett Sloane, is most notable for its location shooting in Argentina.

‘Surging with the Fury and Romance of the Argentine Pampas!’

Director Jacques Tourneur’s 1952 20th Century Fox Technicolor action adventure film Way of a Gaucho is based on a 1948 debut novel by Herbert Childs, and stars Rory Calhoun, Gene Tierney, Richard Boone, Hugh Marlowe, and Everett Sloane. It is most notable for its location shooting in Argentina.

Rory Calhoun plays Martin Penalosa, a young South American gaucho who kills a man in a duel and is forced to join the army under the tough Major Salinas (Richard Boone). But he deserts and forms an outlaw band of gauchos attacking the railroad that is encroaching into the Pampas. He battles vengeful lawman Salinas, who has quit the army and become chief of police, and falls for aristocratic Teresa Chavez (Gene Tierney) and settles with her in 19th-century Argentina.

This semi-Western from talented director Tourneur is largely forgettable, with Calhoun and Tierney on the dull side. But it looks extremely good thanks to the Technicolor location filming in Argentina, brilliantly shot by Harry Jackson, and the meticulous, expensive production. Producer Philip Dunne’s eventful script has its moments, and the star support cast of Boone, Marlowe and Sloane are very lively.

The film-makers found shooting in Argentina difficult, with the script overseen by the Minister of Information and the studio battling a tense relationship with the government.

Filming began October 8, 1951 and it was released on October 16, 1952. The budget overran by $413,000 and the film cost $2,239,000, but took only $1.4 million at US cinemas.

Fox were spending frozen assets. They had built up large amounts of money in Argentina which they were unable to spend outside the country because of currency controls.

The cast are Rory Calhoun as Martin Penalosa, Gene Tierney as Teresa Chavez, Richard Boone as Major Salinas, Hugh Marlowe as Don Miguel Aleondo, Everett Sloane as Falcon, Enrique Chaico, and Roland Dumas.

Dunne said: ‘We believe we’ve got a good picture. We’ve made everything authentic for the period. [Fox studio head] Darryl Zanuck told me he wanted to make a great picture. He got one.’

The studio wanted Tyrone Power to star, but he had been put on suspension after refusing to star in Lydia Bailey, and was replaced by Rory Calhoun. Gene Tierney replaced Jean Peters, who was ill.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,918

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