RIO CONCHOS

US, 1964, 107 minutes, Colour.
Richard Boone, Stuart Whitman, Anthony Franciosa, Jim Brown, Edmond O' Brien, Rodolfo Acosta.
Directed by Gordon Douglas.

Rio Conchos is a fast-paced action western. It is similar in plot to The Comancheros of 1961 which starred John Wayne also with Stuart Whitman.

Two officers have to travel to Mexico to prevent an ex-Confederate soldier from selling arms to the Indians – and trying to foment some of the rebellion that caused the civil war.

The film is tough, the stars, especially Richard Boone, are also tough. Anthony Franciosa was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance as a Mexican outlaw paroled to accompany the mission.

The screenplay is based on a novel by Clair Huffaker who wrote novels which were turned into westerns including Seven Ways from Sundown, Flaming Star, Posse From Hell. He wrote the screenplay for The Comancheros.

The film was directed by Gordon Douglas, a veteran of action films and many westerns. They include The Great Missouri Raid, Only the Valiant, The Iron Mistress, The Big Land, Fort Dobbs. He also directed the remake of Stage Coach. During the late 60s he made a number of interesting detective films with Frank Sinatra: Tony Rome, The Detective, Lady in Cement.

1. Was this a successful Western? A good action-Western? What were the principal Western conventions that it used? how well?

2. The contribution of wide screen and colour? Musical background, location and action-photography?

3. How was Lassiter the central character of the film? The initial shooting of the Indians and response to this? the massacre and the revelation of his family's massacre, the theme of vengeance and memory and pursuit to death? Could the audience be in sympathy with him? mixed sympathies? Was it right that he be condemned to death? The details of his Southern background, loyalties, military rank? Why did he agree to help with the mission of guns, the exercise of his shrewdness and saving the group? His relationship with Haven, Rodriguez and his death, the final fight with Bloodshirt? Self-sacrificing in his death? Was Lassiter a well developed character and well explored? a man of a brutal West?

4. How did Haven contrast with Lassiter? The North, the Civil War, loyalties, as incompetent theorist, the guns? His arrest of Lassiter? His relationship with Franklin? Learning how to manage? His relationship with the Indian girl? The growing reliance on Lassiter? The fact that he survived?

5. What was communicated in the character of Rodriguez? His happy-go-lucky attitude in prison, the threat of death, the Mexican background? His wanting to survive? Yet his continued duplicity and betrayal? Was his death inevitable? A loser? Over-confident in himself? a good performance and portrayal?

6. What did the character of Franklin add? The black man and race theme? Was it explored? How was it integrated into the film?

7. The influence of Pardee in the film? How was he finally seen? His living in the past? Wanting to relive the Civil War? Inevitable destruction?

8. The portrayal of Bloodshirt? the other side of Lassiter? The inevitability of their fight? The theme of revenge and violence?

9. The West of the film was peopled by Indians, with Blacks and whites. Comment on the interaction and the racial themes.

10. The themes of fighting and violence, the power of guns, gunpowder, explosions and death? Was this too violent a West or was it real?

11. How much insight into the life and times of the West and its people did the film give? Or was it just another Western?