I first saw RIO CONCHOS way, way back in the day when CBS used to run movies on Thursday and Friday nights in prime time, long before cable and the VCR. I must have seen it multiple times in my early teens, because when I recently saw it again for the first time in decades, it all came back and I could almost recite the dialog right along with the characters.Made back in 1964, when cinemas-cope westerns like this were still commercially viable, RIO CONCHOS was the perfect movie to capture my young imagination, for it had undeniably tough guys on a dangerous mission where some, if not all of them, were certainly going to lose their lives. There was plenty of suspense and violent confrontations every ten minutes or so, all leading up to a truly explosive climax.Directed by old pro Gordon Douglas and with a great score by Jerry Goldsmith, RIO CONCHOS is about four men who must track down a shipment of stolen rifles before they end up in the hands of the Apaches; many have said this plot is similar to THE COMANCHEROS, made a few years earlier, and while that is certainly true, stories centered around keeping rifles out of the hands of Indians was a staple on just about every TV western at that time. What makes RIO CONCHOS so memorable are the protagonists and the actors playing them, starting with the unforgettable Richard Boone, who portrays Dan Lassiter, an ex-Confederate officer with an intense hatred for the Apaches who massacred his wife and children. This was one of Boone's few leading roles in a big budget movie and it fits him like a glove; with his gravelly voice and hard features, he barely had to act at all to convince us he is a man driven by hate and obsessed with revenge and willing to go through anyone to get it. But Boone is in good company, for RIO CONCHOS marked the film debut of Jim Brown, late of the Cleveland Browns, who while no great actor, always cut quite an intimidating presence on film. Brown plays a Sergeant in the Union Army along on the trek south in Texas to find the rifles with his commanding officer, Stuart Whitman, the man responsible for the theft in the first place and determined to restore his honor. Whitman was a dependable leading man in a lot of 60's films, but he is clearly overshadowed here. Anthony Franciosa rounds out the quartet as Rodriguiez, condemned to hang, but brought on the mission by Lassiter; a charming but devious character whose loyalty is always questionable. The interaction between these men is the heart of the movie, as the viewer is always wondering who will the first one to betray the others before they reach their goal.That goal is reached when they find the rifles in the hands of Theron Pardee, a Confederate General determined to restart the Civil War in Texas by using the well armed Apaches to decimate the Union forces for him. Before the action filled finale, we are treated to a tense shoot out in a saloon, a desperate battle with the Apaches at a remote ranch, an ambush by a gang of bandits, and a brutal torture scene where the heroes are dragged behind horses by the screaming Apaches. No wonder I loved this as a kid.Seeing RIO CONCHOS now, it is obvious that a lot of the acting is unnecessarily broad, especially Franciosa's wily Latin portrayal. The Indians are the usual rampaging savages and the Mexican outlaws are the stereotyped Frito Banditos. The supporting cast has some notable over actors in it, starting with Edmond O'Brien as Pardee, but that was his stock in trade, which was on ample display in two other classic 60's westerns, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE and THE WILD BUNCH. Vito Scotti, a familiar face from television is one of the bandits. Mexican actor Rodolfo Acosta is Lassiter's Apache nemesis, Bloodyshirt; Acosta was in HONDO and cornered the market on playing Indian Chiefs on TV horse operas, but he and Boone have a terrific confrontation in Pardee's memorable mansion without walls or a roof by the river. And that is the great Timothy Carey in an uncredited part as a bartender; Carey was a notorious scenery chewer, but he is so restrained here as to be unrecognizable. Wende Wagner is a strong presence as a captured Apache woman, a remarkable thing since her character does not speak a word of English.Boone, the veteran of HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, went on to play the villain in another great western, HOMBRE, and took on John Wayne in BIG JAKE and THE SHOOTIST; Franciosa would do most of his future acting on television, while Whitman would be little heard from after the '70's. Sadly, except for Jim Brown, all of them and RIO CONCHOS have been forgotten now, but they and the movie made quite an impression back in the day on a lot of impressionable kids like myself. But it's still out there, on cable, DVD and Neflix, begging to be rediscovered by a new generation.

For it's time, a remarkably grim and violent Hollywood western. It almost seems to sense the impending arrival of Leone and Peckinpah in it's blurring of the boundaries between good and evil and presenting the audience with conflicting characters beset by dubious motivations. In fact, it seems to bridge the gap in a transitional way between the old style of western and the newer, harsher, more explicit breed that was just around the corner.Richard Boone gives a powerhouse performance as an alcoholic ex-Confederate major on a personal mission to kill as many Apache as possible. The film opens with him clinically and precisely taking out an Indian burial party with a rifle. Sort of sets the tone. Boone ends up sidetracked into guiding Whitman's disgraced cavalry officer in pursuit of a rogue Confederate general supplying the Indians with rifles. It's an uneasy alliance played out in a doom-laden atmosphere of distrust and danger. There are some moments that still have the power to shock - Boone putting the ravaged white woman out of her misery at point blank range, the death of the rescued baby, etc.An overlooked classic, also featuring Jim Brown in his debut and Anthony Franciosa. Plenty of action and chewing of scenery, but it's really Boone's show all the way. He was a character actor par excellence and dominates every scene he appears in.

A tough western about stolen rifles and an undercover group sent into Mexico by the US Army to try to stop their sale to Apaches who would use them to kill whites. There is plenty of action along the way although most of it is there as filler. However, there are a few moments on the journey, a ferry ride across the Rio Grande into Mexico for instance, that explode off of the screen. In addition, if you want your Richard Boone quotient for the day, this film will definitely fill it. His part as a hardened Civil War vet who hates Apaches is memorable. Unfortunately, it's kind of trapped within the at times dubious confines of this movie. But, when the group actually gets to the guns, an elaborate plot unfolds with the great Edmond O'Brien as a Confederate general who leads a band of rebels and refuses to give up the fight and has the idea to let the Apaches (the ones that Boone hates with a vengeance) have the stolen guns so that they can kill whatever Yankees they might find. The driving force in all of this is hatred and vengeance, making this film pretty heavy going.

A large-scale if little-known Western which has several connections to the John Wayne vehicle, THE COMANCHEROS (1961) – the same studio (Fox), the same co-star (Stuart Whitman), the same screenwriter (Clair Huffaker), the same composer (Jerry Goldsmith) and, above all, a similar plot line (rifles belonging to the U.S. army are being stolen and sold by a band of renegades to the Indians) – but is sufficiently different in tone and approach to stand on its own considerable merits.The film is admirably served by a terrific cast: Richard Boone (in one of his best roles as a man hardened by the Apaches' massacre of his family), Anthony Franciosa (a surprising Golden Globe nominee as a charming Mexican rogue, but whose duplicity sees him killed halfway through the picture), Whitman (as the nominal hero, he's basically playing the part John Wayne had in THE COMANCHEROS!), Jim Brown (as Whitman's black lieutenant; watching this, I was reminded of 100 RIFLES [1969] – another Western of his that I recently acquired but have yet to catch up with), Edmond O'Brien (a relatively small but typically vigorous role as the Confederate Colonel waging his own private Civil War two years after the conflict ended) and Rodolfo Acosta (as the Apache chief and Boone's sworn enemy); it only lacks a substantial female presence (restricted to a young Indian squaw they meet on the way).The terrific climax sees Boone, Whitman and Brown eventually being captured and tortured by the Apaches with the Southern rebels looking on, but they are eventually freed by the squaw who has grown to respect them; subsequently, both Boone (who manages to settle his score with Acosta) and Brown are killed and the film closes with O'Brien seeing his dream of glorious reprisal literally go up in flames.Given that several minor Westerns have, thankfully, already been released on DVD, it is quite baffling why RIO CONCHOS is as yet unavailable on this format and, in fact, for my two viewings of the film so far, I've had to make do with Italian-dubbed TV screenings which, at least, presented the film in the correct 'Scope aspect ratio.