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Wild West Collection: Rio Conchos/Take a Hard Ride
R1 - America - Shout! Factory Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (10th September 2011). |
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The Film
 Cult DVD (and Blu-ray) distributor Shout! Factory has packaged two seemingly similar films together in a single-disc Double Feature called the “Wild West Collection”. I say seemingly similar because, really, the films are quite different. Yes, they’re both Westerns, but otherwise almost entirely unrelated. That is, except, they share one other commonality that I’m surprised isn’t being promoted more. One of the features – “Rio Conchos” (1964), directed by Gordon Douglas – is a fairly predictable, utterly conventional, genre picture, and a near carbon copy of John Wayne’s “The Comancheros” (1961) which was released in theaters a few years earlier and also starred Stuart Whitman. Based on a book and screenplay by “Comancheros” scribe Clair Huffaker, it has a slightly darker edge than the mostly-fun Wayne film, but maintains the adventurous sprit. The other film in this double feature is an oddly obscure Spaghetti Western and Blaxploitation mash-up from Italian director Antonio Margheriti. The second feature, called “Take a Hard Ride” (1975), is only conventional in its unconventionalness, notable among B-movie westerns for starring American Football great Jim Brown, who teams up with Fred Williamson and the legendary Lee Van Cleef. “Ride” is sort of awesome in a supremely bad way. Brown also appears in the first film, in his first ever role (it’s a small part, but not microscopic), and is the other, perhaps more interesting, connection between these two long-buried catalog titles besides their genre. The simple “Western Collection” billing strips this two-fer of what makes it unique, and I’m surprised then that Shout! hasn’t dubbed this a “Jim Brown Western Collection” instead. That name would almost certainly have been more eye-catching to the B-movie and weird-western loving film fan on the lookout for a new purchase. “Rio Conchos” “Rio Conchos” is one of the many forgettable CinemaScope Westerns churned out by 20th Century Fox in the middle sixties. The film is nowhere near awful, but the plot treads familiar ground and is quite similar in style and story, despite the absence of "The Duke", to Michael Curtiz’s “The Comancheros” (1961). This is unsurprising: “Comancheros” and “Conchos” screenwriter and novelist Clair Huffaker simply served reheated scripts based on the same basic story over and over, and, apparently, the studios were more than willing to pay for them. (One of Huffaker’s last films, “100 Rifles” (1969) is basically an inverse take on the same setup; so that’s three films based on the same premise. I’m sure there are more.) Richard Boone plays an emotionally wounded, generally unhappy, and appropriable angry ex-Confederate called Lassiter. When not passed out in a drunken stupor, the violent and volatile vigilante seeks revenge on the Apaches who burned down his home and took his family from him. Found with an Army-issue rifle that he took off of a dead Indian – a rifle that matches a set of one-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine others that went missing mid-shipment – the U.S. Army arrests Lassiter, and sends him to hang for theft of government property. In a bit of a reversal, co-star Stuart Whitman (like Wayne before him in their earlier collaboration) receives top billing despite technically playing second fiddle to a pair of lesser knowns. Whitman plays Haven, the U.S. Army Captain forced to side with criminals in order to find the ever-important shipment of stolen repeaters. Captain Haven, and a Buffalo Solider sergeant named Franklyn (Jim Brown, in his first feature film), join up with Lassiter and his knife wielding campadre Juan Luis Rodriquez Martinez (an amusing Tony Franciosa) to find those missing guns, eventually making their way into Mexico and squaring off against a madman played by Edmond O’Brien. Along the way they encounter pistol brandishing bandits, deadly Apache, and a wild warrior woman played by Wende Wagner (who has no dialogue, and wears an unconvincing black wig and bad skin tanner to appear Native). The film is well photographed by Joseph MacDonald, with the breathtaking backdrops of Moab, Utah and the Arizona desert appropriately framed in expansive Scope widescreen. The cast is unexpectedly strong, each turning in a performance that is commendable (Boone and Franciosa are especially praiseworthy). And the tone of the film is interesting, balancing the fun sense of adventure that is expected with a darker, more serious, sensibility that isn’t. The score by godly film composer Jerry Goldsmith is one of his earliest works and remains a highlight of the film. His unique motifs for each character – blends of ethnic eccentricity and strong, forceful, folk rhythms – are anchored by a memorable, but not overpowering, main theme. (Ennio Morricone’s work with Sergio Leone would soon change the landscape of Western film scores, but those films had yet to make their splash in the United States.) Before Goldsmith, American Westerns we’re still very much of the Elmer Bernstein style, relying heavily on one strong, usually unforgettable, main theme that was simply reworked at different points in the story. That Goldsmith’s theme in “Rio Conchos” really only exists as a bridge between darker, subtler, pieces for characters stands out as something special in the genre and era. “Rio Conchos” isn’t one of the great westerns. It isn’t some forgotten classic. Nevertheless, the film is an entertaining romp that’s helped along by strong action direction from Gordon Douglas, a few great character performances, and a wonderful score. “Take a Hard Ride” The paper-thin plot somewhere at the center of “Take a Hard Ride” is all about $86,000 in cash, the small group of people charged with transporting said monies down to Mexico, and a mass of misfits who want to take the treasure for themselves. A loyal ranch hand named Pike (Jim Brown), devious gambler named Tyree (Fred Williamson), mute Indian scout who also happens to be an ass-kickin’ karate expert (Jim Kelly), and a prostitute (Catherine Spaak) are the rag-tag group on their way down South. A bounty hunter called Kiefer (Lee Van Cleef) leads the salvo of savages hot on their trail, a pair of toothless idiots (one of them played by great character actor Harry Carey Jr.) and a murderous preacher with a Gatling gun hidden in his covered wagon in tow. And, really, that’s about it. “Take a Hard Ride” is a stripped down – often ridiculous – action film with a plot that only barely exists to stitch together a series of increasingly implausible action sequences involving center-town showdowns, gunfights on horseback, fisticuffs and karate chops, and the climatic explosion of a mine rigged with ten gillion tons of TNT. I have a feeling that Antonio Margheriti’s “Take a Hard Ride” will get a few nods in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming “Django Unchained” (2012). In fact, I can basically guarantee it will, and if it doesn’t, I’ll eat my hat (which, luckily, I don’t wear or own, so immediately forget my offer). Margheriti himself already got a mention in “Inglourious Basterds” (2009), via a subtle name drop by Eli Roth’s character as he introduces himself to Colonel Hans Landa at the premiere of “Nation’s Pride”. And the Italian director’s “Take a Hard Ride” is something right up Tarantino’s alley. It isn’t a particularly good film – nor is it outright terrible, and at the very least never, ever unwatchable – but the low budget B-movie is most definitely cheap, weird, and painfully obscure enough to be abnormally alluring and worthy of notice. I’d be shocked then if Margheriti’s odd combo of Spaghetti Western and Blaxploitation doesn’t somehow get homage from a man whose career is basically built upon black exploitation films, Italian Westerns, and strange cultish B-movies. Margheriti was one of the only Italian of his era that worked directly for the American studios. He helmed “Take a Hard Ride” for 20th Century Fox in 1975, reuniting with Van Cleef – with whom he previously shot another genre mixup called “The Stranger and the Gunfighter” (1974), featuring the rarely seen fusion of kung-fu and Spaghetti Western – and joined by the then trendy trio of black action stars: Brown, Williamson, and Kelly. The trio had just filmed “Three The Hard Way” (1974) a year earlier, and that film had performed well. Quick to capitalize on their success, Fox signed them to “Take a Hard Ride” – to be shot in the Canary Islands – and the rest, as they say, is history. The film shares little with its more characteristic Spaghetti Western brethren besides perhaps the snarling, villainous presence of Van Cleef, who obviously relishes his many tight close ups on display here. Thematically, and stylistically, “Take a Hard Ride” is neither really a true piece of blaxploitation, nor a conventional Western, or even a straight actioner. It’s exploitive, sure. Cheaply made, you bet. The expected racial commentary is rather unmistakable, embedded in the dialogue and scenarios (the Gatling gunning Preacher delivers plenty of vile comments like “Black is the Devils color, and they’re riding the Devils mission,” when speaking of the trio). And there’s no shortage of action; amidst the constant haze of gun smoke, there’s even a chase scene involving a decaying rope bridge (think “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (1984), but with less bald headed Indian sorcerers). What “Ride” is then is a strange, if unexpectedly agreeable, amalgamation of the three genres. Make no mistake “Ride” is enjoyable for its camp value, and its near-limitless ability to entertain. But as an example of actual, good, filmmaking, the film is admittedly not the best. In terms of story and writing the movie is, at times, laughably bad. And most everything else – from the questionable performances and stilted delivery of dialogue, to some of the strangest editing and camerawork you’ll ever see – ranges from cringeworthy to so awesomely inept that it becomes utterly fascinating to watch. “Take a Hard Ride” gets to a point where it’s just so unbelievable and ridiculous that you can’t look away (because you don’t want to; you might miss something amazing). And that is perhaps why “Ride” works. It definitely helps that the actors obviously know what they’re doing is totally ridiculous, and play it up accordingly. When Williamson is knocked down with a sweep to the leg in his inevitable fist fight with Brown – which seems the only logical way to end the film after an hour and a half spent in this weird world created by screenwriters Eric Bercovici and Jerrold L. Ludwig – he slowly gets up, calmly dusts his vest and shirt sleeves off with a swift three-tug maneuver, and takes a front-footed, two-fisted stance. The camera moves in with a slight zoom-pan, and he smiles, ready for more. That ten-second sequence should tell everything you need to know about “Take a Hard Ride”. It’s an especially cheesetastic ten seconds, in a cheesy B-movie that will delight a certain type of filmfan. And it – if what he says in the supplements are to be believed – was something Williamson came up with on the spot. The adventurous “Rio Conchos” may be the better-made film of the two here, but I found the complete absurdity of “Take a Hard Ride” even more entertaining. I think that makes the grades a wash, and this Double Feature worth checking out. “Rio Conchos” film grade: C “Take a Hard Ride” film grade: C
Video
“Rio Conchos” and “Take a Hard Ride” are crammed together on a single-sided DVD-9; each film is restricted to a single layer of that disc. Both films have been transferred anamorphically in their proper widescreen shape. This is the first time “Conchos” has been available in its original theatrical aspect ratio on home video. “Rio Conchos’” panoramic 2.35:1 CinemaScope image is the more impressive of the two by far, even though it’s ten years older than its space-hogging counterpart. “Rio’s” source is in much better condition, reportedly taken from a new high definition master. Fox – who’ve handed that master off to Shout! – seem to have taken great care of their old CinemaScope films (even the lesser ones). Colors are solid, definition is strong, and the picture is bright but not overblown, with natural contrast supported by a rich black level. Print damage is shockingly sparse, if still noticeable in a few patches (mostly just changeover cues, which are still intact). Obviously, when viewed on a larger screen this standard definition transfer doesn’t hold a candle to actual HD, and compared, again, to “The Comancheros” which I recently reviewed on Blu-ray, isn’t nearly as striking. But, for 480 lines of resolution, “Rio Conchos” offers a very good presentation – especially for a single-layer budget title. Keep this to a smaller screen size and you’ll be more than satisfied. “Take a Hard Ride” was originally released on DVD by Anchor Bay in 2006, and I’m almost positive this is the same transfer. Framed in a narrower 1.85:1 widescreen ratio, immediately betraying its lower-budgeted origins, the Italian B-movie will likely never look particularly remarkable simply because of the inferior film stocks it was shot on and harsher conditions it was shot under. But the repurposed “Ride” looks especially rough next to the near-pristine remastering of “Rio”. Colors are dingy and dusty, the image is flat with weak contrast, blacks appear obtrusive and crushing (some of the night scenes are just about unwatchable, they’re so dark), grain is thick and noisy, edge enhancement creeps into frame at inconvenient interludes, and the print is littered with an inordinate amount of specks, dirt, and damage at odd intervals. I’ve seen worse – a large portion of the film is simply unimpressive, not atrocious – but it’s pretty obvious that “Take a Hard Ride” comes from the older Anchor Bay master (or at least an older master, if not the one from the Anchor Bay disc), and is simply offered faults and all. Too bad Shout! (or Fox themselves) didn’t give the same amount of restorative care to the second title here. Graded separately “Rio Conchos” would earn a B. “Take a Hard Ride” would get a fairly dismal D+.
Audio
Both films charge onto disc with English Dolby Digital 2.0 dual mono tracks. There are no subtitles on either film. Again “Conchos” wins outright, offering much better dynamics that seem to transcend the single-channel delivery. Goldsmith’s folksy score (an early work for the legendary composer) expands nicely with startling clarity. Dialogue is intelligible. And most evidence of hiss, crackle, and pops have been cleaned up. The first film in this Double Feature sounds pretty good considering its near 50-years-old. I’d give the “Conchos” mix a C+ by itself. The audio grade of the disc is taken down by the track tacked onto “Take a Hard Ride”. The second film sounds like it was recorded through a tin can most of the time. I suppose the track isn’t a complete failure: dialogue isn’t garbled to the point of being unrecognizable as human words, and there are brief spots when the track isn’t hopelessly hollow, brittle, and seconds away from dropping out altogether. But so much of “Ride” – most disappointingly the score (another Goldsmith work) – just sounds cheaply recorded and harsh. The “Take a Hard Ride” mix gets a D (and not an F, or D-), but only because the entire film doesn’t sound like the attempted rape, and heroic rescue, of the prostitute from about 32:00 to 33:30. That minute and a half may just be the scratchiest and screechiest 90 seconds I’ve ever experienced on digital disc. It sounds terrible. The rest of the film sounds bad, but not nearly as appallingly awful as those 90 seconds.
Extras
Somewhat surprisingly this Double Feature has a couple worthwhile extras. I’m surprised because I expected barebones treatment, but unbelievably Shout! Factory has gone above and beyond and not only dug up the theatrical trailers for both “Rio Conchos” and “Take a Hard Ride”, but they’ve also commissioned two new featurettes for the latter film. The theatrical trailer for “Rio Conchos” (1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, 3 minutes 4 seconds) is taken from a tattered and torn print, and looks appropriately awful. The theatrical trailer for “Take a Hard Ride” (1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, 2 minutes 28 seconds) is in even worse condition. I think it might have been transferred from tape. The first featurette is titled “Spaghetti Soul: Interview with Fred Williamson” (1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, 16 minutes 22 seconds). The “Take a Hard Ride” star talks about transitioning from football to acting, with a brief stop over in architecture. The well-spoken B-movie actor discusses his career, his love of westerns, and making “Take a Hard Ride”. This is an unexpectedly informative and interesting piece, and fans should set aside some time to watch it. It’s barely more than fifteen minutes and more worthwhile than many special features three times the length. “Kashtok Speaks: Interview with Jim Kelly” (1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, 10 minutes 9 seconds) is the other featurette. Kelly talks mostly about his life and career in well-meaning latitude, and only briefly discusses “Take a Hard Ride”. Most interesting then are not his comments about “Ride”, but what he has to say about working with Bruce Lee.
Packaging
This 2-for-1 deal from Shout! Factory presents two films on one disc. The budget-minded Double Feature includes both “Rio Conchos” and “Take a Hard Ride” on a single, dual-layered, DVD-9. The disc is packaged in a clear Amaray keepcase.
Overall
Ignoring the quality of the actual movies themselves – both films are mediocre, if entertaining, cult pictures that will be enjoyed by a specific audience – this Double Feature is a bit difficult to pin down. One film offers surprisingly strong video and acceptable audio, while the second looks downright terrible in spots and sounds worse in others. Confusingly, the worse looking and sounding film has the better supplemental package. I suppose my overall conclusion comes down to a tepid recommendation for genre fans looking for something new (or old) to sate their appetite, based solely on the fact that Shout! Factory has offered a pair of obscure films in a well-priced package available at a very reasonable $14.95 MSRP. Excluding the “Extras” all grades below are averages.
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