Nonureva Really Surprised!

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Billy Wiggins Unusual American-made, filmed-in-Spain melodrama that for intents and purposes can be considered a "Spaghetti Western", bearing many notes common to that genre.Pernell Roberts is a Marshal hunting a wanted Mexican man. Leslie Nielsen is a bounty hunter of sorts after the same man. Sue Lyon is the wanted man's white girlfriend. These three disparate characters head out to the desert where the wanted man is hiding. After his capture, the four must make their way back to town, all the while battling the elements and each other.The setup of the film reminded me of JAWS, with an initial setup followed by a long, protracted, isolated showdown. Not much happens after the first 20 or so minutes (the fugitive is captured rather quickly), so the drama of the pic comes out of the various tensions and shifting allegiances between the four people.Pernell is solid as an honest-to-a-fault lawman. Despite a lack of charm, he is a good foundation to lay the picture on. Julian Mateos has the least to do here, but brings a Tomas Milian-style empathy to his bandit. I wish we had heard more from his character, rather than him being somewhat of a device to move the story along. As Myra the girlfriend, Sue Lyon is appropriately lovestruck, defiant, and impetuous, leaning toward shrill overacting at times.By far the standout among the cast is the handsome, devilish Leslie Nielsen, whose Mr. Brown turns more and more creepy and craven as the story moves along. Early on, he is merely a callous and smug bounty killer; later in the show we are given reason to question his true allegiance.I might have found a way to trim 10 minutes of desert walking out of this; at times the film does drag its feet. However, these instances are contrasted by sequences of intense drama as the cast fight over water, hidden weapons, saddlebags of cash, etc.Not a hidden gem by any stretch but a solid C+, with special mention again of Nielsen's fine performance.Also of note is the title music performed in 1970s folksinger fashion by Janis Ian. A very unusual choice, adds to the unique character of the film.6/10 stars

classicsoncall "Four Rode Out" has one of those elements that I've seen in other Westerns, "Cry Blood, Apache" being one, where there's an entirely different type of terrain coming and going. I mean, where was that huge expanse of desert when Marshal Ross (Pernell Roberts), Brown (Leslie Nielsen) and Myra (Sue Lyon) first set out to capture renegade Nunez (Julian Mateos)? They rode out from and returned to the same little town, why didn't they just cover the same ground? Makes me crazy.Now I've read the other reviews on this board, and all of them describe Leslie Nielsen's character as a Pinkerton agent, so I have to wonder if I was the only one paying attention. There was a point at which Nunez fingered Brown as his ex-partner Krueger who was after the bundle they both stole from a bank with a third partner who was already knocked off by Krueger. So was Nunez trying to cause some confusion for Marshal Ross? I don't think so; Brown/Krueger was just a little too anxious to knock off his fellow travelers and high tail it with the money. His off screen rape of Myra was another hint that Krueger was a real bad apple.Now this all probably sounds a lot more interesting than the actual film. The picture uses up an awful lot of filler time with the party going up and down mountain terrain and dragging across the sun baked desert. Janis Ian's voice on a number of songs throughout lent some poignancy to the story, but quite honestly, I find her lyrics and style to be just too depressing most of the time.Just yesterday I watched "China 9, Liberty 37" on Encore Westerns in prime time, and was quite surprised to see a fully nude Jenny Agutter in a series of love scenes with Fabio Testi. So the idea that the word 'whore' was actually bleeped out of the dialog in this picture seems rather odd. But then again, there were a lot of odd things about this story. Too much sun will do that.

mrsolo1 Interesting film with a strong cast. Pernell Roberts is outstanding and should have had more starring roles. It is slow paced but keeps the viewer's interest. Only a weak script keeps this from being more memorable. Following the success of the spaghetti westerns some American companies took advantage of the Spanish locations and used mostly American casts. "Four Rode Out" has the look of a spaghetti western while avoiding the badly dubbed dialog that hurt the genre. The primary print currently circulating appears to be from a television movie package so some words get bleeped out here and there. Fortunately it is not a choppy as many were.

heybhc I kind of liked this slow-moving western, filmed in Spain's Almeria region. Technically this is a spaghetti western, a USA-Spain co-production, although only the location and one of the stars have any sort of Euro-Western pedigree. The music, by Janice Ian, is about as far from Ennio Morricone as you can get, although some of the banjo plunking is appropriate. Pernell Roberts is very good as the Marshal, after fugitive Julian Mateos (THE HELLBENDERS, RETURN OF THE SEVEN) who robbed a bank during which a teller was killed. Along for the ride are slimy Pinkerton man Brown played by Leslie Nielsen in a rare villainous role, and lovely Sue Lyon as Mateos' fiancé, who wants to see him brought in alive. They ride and ride, then ride some more, and finally pause for a brief action scene, then ride back the way they came, but now they're low on water. It takes patience to watch, but the actors keep our interest, and I was pleased by the ending. As half of a dollar DVD I felt my fifty cents was pretty well spent. Two puzzles though, all the listings for this flick say 1971 but the titles at the end claim 1968. I tend to believe the titles. Also, the version I saw bleeped the word whore when it was spoken, several times in the first few minutes. I wonder why?