07 · 25 · 24

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and other Series B westerns filmed in Morelos

Rafael Aviña

Beautiful locations in the State of Morelos such as Cuernavaca, Tepoztlán, Tlayacapan, and others, have been the setting for important westerns of great production such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) with Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Katharine Ross, or Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) with Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine. However, those same landscapes and those of other small towns in Morelos have hosted other production teams that filmed curious, entertaining, outstanding, or unknown low-budget movies, one of them turned into cinema classics, as is the case with The Magnificent Seven (1960).

Undoubtedly, one of the most famous westerns filmed in Morelos and inspired by Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) is The Magnificent Seven by John Sturges. It includes one of the most memorable soundtracks (nominated for an Oscar, by the way) composed for the big screen by the talented Elmer Bernstein. The main musical theme would be used by the Marlboro cigarette brand to give life to the “Malboro Man” in a universe of contemporary Western advertising. The plot of Sturges' film centers on the conflicts suffered by a community of humble peasants in Ixtlacan, a small Mexican town, who find themselves at the mercy of a ruthless band of outlaws led by the cruel Calvera (Eli Wallach) who constantly demand payment for their crops. Since they do not know how to defend themselves, they decide to hire the services of seven gunmen, seven ruthless mercenaries -Americans of course- each one with a special skill in the handling of weapons.

The reunion of figures such as Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Horst Buchholz, Robert Vaughn, and Brad Dexter, the villain played by Wallach, soon the ugly one in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966, dir. Sergio Leone) and several Mexican actors such as Jorge Martínez de Hoyos, Rosenda Monteros, with whom Chico (Buchholz) falls in love, or the inevitable child Mario Navarro, plus the beautiful locations of Morelos, built the myth of this epic western that would have several continuations and a contemporary version with Denzel Washington Jr, Ethan Hawk and Chris Pratt, among others, in 2016.

On the other hand, Bandido! (1956) directed by filmmaker Richard Fleischer, known for successful genre films like The Vikings, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, or Soylent Green, narrates a tale set in 1916, amidst the Mexican Revolution. An American adventurer and explosives specialist (Robert Mitchum), initially neutral, eventually allies with Colonel Escobar's rebels (Gilbert Roland) to intercept a weapons delivery intended for the Federal Government, which another American mercenary (Zachary Scott) aims to sell.

The presence of notable Mexican actors who used to appear in these productions such as José Torvay, Margarito Luna, Miguel Inclán, Rodolfo Acosta as Escobar's lieutenant, Víctor Junco, José Ángel Espinosa Ferrusquilla or Alfonso Sánchez Tello. Torvay tells Mitchum: “You have Mexican blood” and Mitchum replies: “If it goes with tequila, why not? Bandido! includes locations in Bavispe Sonora, Durango, Torreon, Taxco, Iguala, and Acapulco Guerrero, and of course in Cuernavaca, Tepoztlan, and Yautepec, in Morelos.

Finally, two low-budget productions: Allan Dwan's The River's Edge (1957) tells the story of Nardo Denning (Ray Milland), who is looking for a guide to take him on a “hunting trip” and arrives at the ranch recently acquired by Ben Cameron (Anthony Quinn) to live with his wife Meg (Debra Paget). Later, it is discovered that Denning is a swindler who intends to flee with a thick booty and that Meg, his lover, is willing to leave with him. All this is in a tale of tension and suspense with elements of noir and western thriller, with locations in Cuernavaca and nearby towns in Morelos.

In George Sherman's traditional adventure western The Last of the Fast Gun (1958), a gunfighter named Brad Ellison (Jack Mahoney) sets out on a difficult mission around 1880: to find a man who had disappeared in Mexico years before a wealthy American industrialist. However, he encounters several difficulties and a treacherous villain played by Gilbert Roland. Other Mexican or Mexican-based actors include: Eduardo Noriega, Jorge Treviño, José Chávez Trowe, Rafael Alcayde, and Francisco Reiguera. The cinematography is by Alex Phillips, and it was filmed in Taxco, Tepoztlán, and Cuernavaca; the ideal scenario of the “eternal spring” for Hollywood producers.