Missing No Longer: THE QUIET GUN (1957) and BARQUERO (1970)

 
Quite an eventful month for Western fans.  Within a four week period, two long requested cult favorites will finally be surfacing on DVD and Blu-Ray.  As luck would have it, both films star two of the Golden Boot Awards' inaugural class: legendary badass Lee Van Cleef and the great Forrest Tucker, who needs no introduction here.

Tuck was still known for playing truculent villains and taciturn heroes when he starred in Fox's RegalScope feature THE QUIET GUN in 1957.  (Not for long; his image-changing roles in AUNTIE MAME and THE MUSIC MAN were only a year away.) While his Republic vehicles had bigger budgets and his British science fiction efforts (THE CRAWLING EYE) are better known, for my money THE QUIET GUN is Forrest Tucker's best leading role, period.

Tucker plays Rock River's Sheriff Brandon, a gruff but fair-minded man who, like Marshal Will Kane, upholds the law in a town that doesn't deserve his efforts.  Rock River is plagued by bigotry and corruption, and those two elements collide to take the lives of a city attorney and Brandon's estranged friend (Jim Davis).  It's up to the Sheriff to stand alone against vigilante justice and to investigate the sinister motives behind unwarranted harassment (for "moral" reasons, mind you) that resulted in tragedy.

THE QUIET GUN was adapted from the novel Law Man by Lauran Payne, whose OPEN RANGE MEN was filmed with much greater success at the box office some forty-six years later.  While THE QUIET GUN found little notice initially, its reputation has grown over the years.  Toby Roan calls THE QUIET GUN "maybe the best of the RegalScope Westerns" and DVD Talk's Adam Tyner and High-Def Digest's Matthew Hartman are among others sharing my enthusiasm for it.  Thanks to Olive Films, THE QUIET GUN is now out on both DVD and BluRay as of March 31.  Mara Corday and Kathleen Crowley also star.

Jim Davis and Mara Corday in THE QUIET GUN

If THE QUIET GUN isn't the DVD release that I've been waiting on the longest, the month's other new arrival almost certainly is: 1970's BARQUERO, which will be coming to us courtesy of Kino Lorber on April 28th.

BARQUERO was the very first film review here at the Horn Section, and I've revisited it since to sing the praises of Marie Gomez for Forgotten Films' Crushathon.  Tucker and Van Cleef co-starred for the first time in thirteen years, with billings reversed.  By 1970, it was Van Cleef who was playing tight-lipped leads, with BARQUERO being his triumphant return to American films after six star-making years in Italian westerns.

No surprise that the ultraviolent BARQUERO is heavily influenced by the films Van Cleef became famous for.  There's also an unmistakable WILD BUNCH vibe, and you'd be hard pressed to find more of a "guy movie" cast.   Formidable (if mentally unstable) opposition to Van Cleef is provided by Peckinpah's go-to actor, Warren Oates.  Oates' right-hand man is Sinbad himself, Kerwin Mathews.  Armando Silvestre and John Davis Chandler (another Peckinpah regular) are among Oates' mercenaries, and Mariette Hartley provides temptation for our antihero.

BARQUERO ended up being Forrest Tucker's final theatrical western, and the ant-eating, bearded Mountain Phil was one of his best supporting roles.  He's just as violent as the two leads, able to smile affably mere seconds after slicing a man's throat.  Director Gordon Douglas was a last-minute replacement for Robert Sparr, who was tragically killed in a plane crash while scouting Colorado locations for the film on August 28, 1969.  Cinematographer Gerald Finnerman was the sole survivor of that crash (spending several years in full metal body brace afterwards).

Despite the appeal of its cast, BARQUERO was even more neglected than THE QUIET GUN, as it was never even released on VHS in the U.S. before this month.  In fact, it was largely ignored altogether, until Showtime and Encore Westerns began airing it in the 2000's, earning the film its long-deserved cult following and eventual home video release.

I didn't see a single review written in 1970 that made note of BARQUERO as a Vietnam allegory.  Hartman has a another take, seeing an Old Testament theme in the proceedings.   Patrick Bromley at DVD Verdict and Ian Jane at DVD Talk have offered their reviews this week as well.  My 2006 review is here, and I have to say it's a proud moment for the Section to have our very first spotlighted film out on DVD and BluRay on April 28th.  If the print on MGM HD Channel is any indication, the release should look fantastic.

More Film and TV reviews to come, as always!

Crush-A-Thon: Marie Gomez of BARQUERO (1970)

This is the Horn Section's contribution to the Jennifer Connelly Memorial Crushathon hosted by our pal Todd at Forgotten Films!  By all means check out the earlier entries in this great idea for a blogathon, which started on Thanksgiving and has contributions from several of us in blogger land.

As always, I am honored to be invited, and I highly recommend checking out the archives at Forgotten Films.  Here is today's post as it appears at the Blogathon there.

I've written about my own celebrity crushes from time to time (Tamara Dobson and Diana Sands, R.I.P.) so for Todd's blogathon I chose another lovely lady who captured my attention way back when but hasn't had her moment in the sun at the Section yet.  Until now, that is.

BARQUERO was a childhood favorite of mine despite being very hard to find for three decades after its 1970 arrival.  Never released on VHS and yet to make it to DVD, this ultraviolent (over a hundred deaths--go ahead, count 'em!) Western barely rated a blip in Maltin's Film Guide and could only occasionally be seen in late night superstation showings.

Once Showtime (and later Encore) began airing BARQUERO regularly around the turn of the century, fans discovered a hidden treasure.  BARQUERO boasted a great cast headed by Leone (Lee Van Cleef) and Peckinpah (Warren Oates) cult favorites and arguably the best late-career role for Horn Section patron saint and 1950's Western icon Forrest Tucker.  The benefit of hindsight also revealed this western's commentary on the Vietnam War that was completely missed by mainstream film reviewers at the time--I could not find one review from 1970 commenting on this.

Lee Van Cleef is a lucky man

Fortunately BARQUERO has become much easier to see on Retroplex, Encore Westerns and (for a time) Netflix Instant in recent years, but we're still waiting on that long-overdue DVD release, something I already covered back in 2006 when I made BARQUERO the very first review here at The Horn Section.  Yes, this was  "Why the Hell isn't this on DVD yet?" Number One.  As you've surely noticed from the leads, this is a guy's movie through and through, complete with requisite eye candy.

Mariette Hartley is top billed among the fairer sex, but with all due respect to her, I barely remembered she was in it afterwards.  In the eyes of this young man, the pretty redhead was out va-va-voomed by a wide margin, thanks to the presence of Marie Gomez as Nola, girlfriend of the titular character played by Lee Van Cleef.

In the film Hartley wasn't impressed, telling Travis the Barquero that he'd "never known a real woman" and further asserting that the tomboyish Nola is "half a man".  Come on!  Obviously a bunch of meowing about the competition.  It's easy to see that Hartley's claims are just sour grapes when the busty Latina lass makes her first appearance.  How sexy was Marie Gomez in this film?  Put it this way: I can't stand smoking, but I thought she was smokin' even when greeting us with a cigar in her mouth.

Beyond her obvious attributes, one quickly understands what the taciturn Van Cleef sees in her.  She makes her way through the town of squatters with the same paucity of words the Barquero gives his customers, effortlessly commanding the attention of most of the men ("Take your time" is her response to the overeager blacksmith) and showing palpable disgust with the self-appointed religious leader with a single brief expression.

Not once during BARQUERO's 113 minute running time does Gomez' Nola become a damsel in distress.  Quite the contrary. She handles her impressive rifle as well as any of her manly co-stars, firing quickly and accurately during the shootouts with Oates' mercenaries over Van Cleef's barge.  When the aforementioned religious leader suggests burning the boat and tries to rally support to do so, it's Nola who quickly quells the coup by threatening to shoot him herself.

"She will!" confirms the man to her right.  Judging from the crooked preacher's reaction, he didn't need the echo.  Nola and Travis are bonded by toughness, self-sufficiency and a decidedly secular outlook.

Hartley's husband is the lone settler who doesn't make it across the river, and she offers herself to Van Cleef in exchange for a rescue.  This is an intriguing development: Van Cleef takes Hartley up on the offer....

...and Gomez is cool with it, to the point of bringing him coffee afterwards and smiling knowingly at Hartley when the Barquero returns to her.

Van Cleef might wander from time to time, but he won't leave Ms. Gomez for very long, and her expression tells us that she knew it all along.  Even Mariette Hartley didn't stand a chance against her.

Nola's intriguing and mysterious, and you could say the same for the actress portraying her.  BARQUERO was my first exposure to Marie Gomez, and this preteen sought out other credits for his newfound crush.  Unfortunately I found there were few other credits to peruse, especially in those pre-IMDB days.  (How did we ever live without it?)

A Leonard Sillman discovery who began her career as one of his New Faces of 1962, Gomez soon made her prime time acting debut on DOBIE GILLIS (of all things) in the 1962 episode The Ugliest American.

Uncredited appearances in MARRIAGE ON THE ROCKS and DO NOT DISTURB followed, but her film career really took off four years later with her Golden Globe nominated splash in THE PROFESSIONALS (1966). 

Ms. Gomez became familiar to U.S. television viewers through her popular recurring role as Perlita in NBC's THE HIGH CHAPARRAL (1967-1971), but also guest starred memorably on HONDO, I SPY and THE WILD WILD WEST among others.

Marie in THE WILD, WILD WEST (1967)

Then she vanished after a too-brief five year heyday, with another good big-screen role in Ivan Tors' THE DARING GAME (1968) and then BARQUERO, her last screen credit to date. 

On TV's HONDO (1967)

Marie Gomez' busty figure also made her a popular magazine model during the last half of the swingin' Sixties.

Rockin' it in THE PROFESSIONALS (1966)

I was reminded of her every time I revisited BARQUERO, and the beautiful French-Spanish starlet remained mysterious well into my adulthood, finally resurfacing in 2005 to be interviewed for the DVD release of THE PROFESSIONALS.

THE HIGH CHAPARRAL, 1968

She also made it to the 40th anniversary cast reunion for THE HIGH CHAPARRAL in Studio City, California in 2007.  It was during an interview there that we learned where Marie Gomez had been all these years: mostly, doing charity work for orphans in Mexico and for The Lord's Lighthouse.   Hopefully the near future will bring Gomez' participation in the extras for BARQUERO's long overdue DVD release.

Onscreen, she shone briefly (just eight years) but unforgettably.  She may not be the most mysterious of my childhood crushes any longer, but whether she was brandishing a rifle or just plenty of attitude, Marie Gomez is still one of the sexiest and most memorable.


Film Review: BARQUERO (1970)

Why the hell isn't this on DVD yet? Number 1







BARQUERO (1970 United Artists) Starring Lee Van Cleef, Warren Oates, Forrest Tucker, Marie Gomez, Mariette Hartley, Kerwin Mathews, John Davis Chandler, Ed Bakey. Directed by Gordon Douglas.

Oates is the psychotic, ruthless leader of a gang of former military (now mercenary) comrades. His plan is to rob and wipe out an entire town before escaping across the river to Mexico with the booty of guns and money. While he and his gang take care of the town, he sends 3 advance scouts to secure the use of Van Cleef's barge for safe passage across the river. Van Cleef is briefly captured, but a timely assist from mountain man Tucker thwarts this part of Oates' plan. Van Cleef and Tucker quickly evacuate the townspeople and boat them to the Mexican side, setting up a standoff. Oates, now stranded on the American side with the cavalry surely coming, wants to use the boatman's barge to cross the river and then burn it.  Van Cleef cares little for the "squatters" and even less about their protection but refuses to give up his boat under any circumstances.

You'll have to suspend your disbelief a time or two, and Douglas, though solid, lacks the style of a Leone or Peckinpah for this material. These flaws aside, BARQUERO is an action packed western with breathtaking Colorado scenery, a tension-building score by Dominic Frontiere and sturdy performances by three of the genre's stalwarts.

As the title character Van Cleef plays his usual unsmiling hardass, but with some shadings to his character. Once a mountain man like Tucker, he built his barge to conquer the river and roam free on both sides of it.  However, in doing so he inadvertently rooted himself. With a route across the river in place, people began settling on the American side, building a small town and church (to his dismay).  Sentiment?  Van Cleef might well be bringing the squatters with him simply to sleep with Hartley.  Oates is as ruthless as Henry Fonda's Frank in Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. Ruling his men with an iron hand yet haunted by his past, Oates is over the top at times but always fascinating to watch.

In a role that would have gone to Gabby Hayes or Edgar Buchanan a generation earlier, 6'5" Tucker (a leading man throughout the 1950's) is much more physically imposing than those actors while losing none of their humor. Whether pausing for candy canes in the middle of a shootout or interrogating the enemy near an anthill (in arguably the best scene), Tucker is very funny and all but steals the film.

Also leaving quite the impression, the (sadly) rarely-seen Marie Gomez (THE PROFESSIONALS, HIGH CHAPPARAL) as the barquero's sharp-shooting, cigar smoking, busty and incredibly sexy girlfriend and John Davis Chandler as one of Oates' slimier accomplices.

Since this is a western from 1970, it isn't too surprising to find a plot that serves as an allegory for U.S. involvement in Vietnam.  Here we have military commander Oates with superior firepower facing an enemy full of civilians that has home field advantage.  Oates stubbornly sticks to his plan despite having alternatives presented to him by second-in-command Kerwin Matthews and also despite the fact that he is battling mother nature and time in addition to the boatman (who he underestimates considerably).

Screenwriters William Marks and George Schenck were certainly daring in having the callous Oates serve as their metaphor for the Americans. When we first see him he's enjoying the favors of a prostitute who he subsequently kills in the process of massacring the entire town. When Van Cleef rebuffs his transparent offer to buy the barge, he immediately turns ugly and threatens to dam the river with dead bodies.  Finally, when faced with the reality of an unwinnable stalemate, he turns to hallucinatory drugs as an escape, becoming increasingly unbalanced, and even willing to kill his own men to avoid submission.

Political statements aside BARQUERO works as well as any American version of the spaghetti western--as these things go it is a much more interesting film than say, HANG 'EM HIGH, standing up to repeat viewings. MGM/UA has yet to put this out on DVD but it has been turning up regularly on Showtime Extreme and Encore Westerns Channel in recent years. As arguably Van Cleef's best leading role it is well worth searching out.

So, why isn't it on DVD yet?

Honestly, I have no idea. It's very violent, has a great cast and script...really, has everything except a "sexy" director for this material (for lack of a better word). This is a quintessential 'guy' movie that also has a thoughtful political subtext. Very underrated IMO.

Why it should be on DVD:

Van Cleef and Oates are western icons of the era and each has his own cult following;

Long overdue and has never even been released on VHS(!);

Repeated cable showings have given the film considerable recent exposure;

Marie Gomez recently participated in the extras for her 1966 film The Professionals and could provide some great "behind the scenes" information on this film as well.