Having recently been entertained by an earlier Gregory Peck Western about greed, "Yellow Sky," I watched a long and strange 1969 movie about greed in the prestatehood Southwest, "Mackenna's Gold." It stars Gregory Peck as Sheriff Mackenna who, after a mystical encounter with an Apache chief who has a map showing the way to a legendary cache of gold, is captured by the Mexican bandito called Colorado (Omar Sharif) and commanded to lead a mixed party of Apaches (including Julie Newmar!!!) and other outlaws (including Keenan Wynn playing Mexican) to the gold of the (Apache) spirits. The route from Monument Valley to Canyon de Chelly is remarkably long (maybe because it goes rather far out of the way to Grant's Pass in Oregon) and plot complications are many.

Townsmen, including Burgess Meredith, Edward G. Robinson, Lee J. Cobb, Raymond Massey, John Garfield Jr., et al. and two visiting Brits (Anthony Quayle and Robert Porter) hear rumors of gold and follow Eli Wallach to join the expedition and get rich quick. (Although it was recurrently supposed that Native Americans had concealed the fabled Seven Cities of Gold, tagging along with an Apache group was not something even the most greedy and intrepid Anglos undertook!)

There's also a dwindling cavalry squadron headed by Telly Savalas that is in pursuit of Omar Sharif, another hostage played by a charisma-lacking actress names Camilla Sparv, and Apaches attacking everyone It gets very "Lord of the Rings" near the end albeit with less convincing special effects. There's lots of western (mostly northern Arizona) scenery throughout (the last movie shot by Joseph MacDonald, whose best work was in "The Sand Pebbles") and an adequate Quincy Jones soundtrack. Plus, there's a pretentious ballad that is not as grating as those in some 50s and 60s westerns (even though it is sung by José Feliciano), but is grating enough. Plus, for no good reason, there is a narrator commenting with heavy-handed irony (a popular 1960s movie device borrowed from early cinema noire).

Gregory Peck was superb at conveying tough integrity and highly developed survival skills. J. Lee Thompson directed him in a much better instance, "Cape Fear," in the ridiculous and unthrilling Cold War thriller "The Chairman" and, in another screenplay by Carl Foreman (who wrote "High Noon" and the adaptation of Bridge on the River Kwai), in the popular 1961 action film "The Guns of Navarrone."

I was really disappointed when Omar Sharif revealed to Gregory Peck what he wanted to do when he was a millionaire. I was hoping that he was going to want to see the Pyramids, but he had a more conventional dream destination.

The DVD picture is very good. There are minimal extras, not even a trailer for the film (there are trailers for "The Guns of Navarone" and "Lawrence of Arabia"), though multiple choices of language for subtitling are available.


Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age