The Professionals (1966)

*** out of ****

Hollywood has made more extremely bad westerns than they have with just about any other genre of film, which is why I always place a high value on a good one when I find it. “The Professionals” isn't one of the absolute best, but it is definitely a very good one.

Set along the southern US border some time between 1915 and 1920 (during the latter part of the Mexican revolution), Ralph Bellamy (best known to my generation as Randolph, one of the villainous Duke brothers in “Trading Places”) plays Joe Grant, whose wife has been kidnapped by Mexican revolutionaries. He offers Rico Fardan (Lee Marvin) and his team $10,000 each to travel to Mexico to rescue her. Rico is the ideal man for the job as he used to be part of the revolution and knows the territory as well as knowing Jesus Raza, the kidnapper. Rico is the brains of this operation, with the team members played by Woody Strode and Robert Ryan. They add a demolition expert to the team (one of my favorite actors, Burt Lancaster) and set off to earn their fee. The leader of the Mexican revolutionaries is played, in what would today be a racially questionable piece of casting, with typical menace by Jack Palance.

Upon reaching their destination they find Maria, the damsel in distress. But there's a problem – she's not in distress. She has taken up with Raza and actively resists rescue. Played by Claudia Cardinale, Maria spends the entire movie bra-less (given Cardinale's history, I suppose she burned it). Beautiful and buxom, she would seem right at home in any Russ Meyer movie. But despite her desire to remain with Raza, the team snatches her and begins their escape back to earn their reward. Raza and his cronies follow hot on their heels.

When watching any older movie, I try not to impose any modern movie-making values on it. Most would consider the cinematography here to be brutally simple, and it occasionally leaves you wondering what part of the battle you're looking at. However, given the era it was good enough to receive an Oscar nomination. The stunts are excellent though, often involving high rock faces that a modern actor would have to be safety harnessed for, and some explosions that look like they were very close calls. I'm sure a modern version of this story would end up looking better on screen, but given the era this was a complicated shoot and it does work.

Marvin and Strode I found to be splendid in their roles but Ryan seems very out of place. Perhaps it was because he was playing a hero instead of his usual villain, but he definitely wasn't the ideal actor for the role. And Lancaster, despite his lengthy pedigree in western movies, always seemed to me to be too gentlemanly to play an effective roughneck. I always preferred him in more modern roles as a professional (a doctor or a lawyer), which he comes across as even as a gunman.

Despite those minor flaws it's the storyline that sells this film. There are twists and turns in the plot, some flipping of the villains and heroes, and overall it provides you a terrific, action-filled watch. Sidenote - I was caught off guard by an unintentionally hilarious moment – about 1 hour 40 minutes in, right after Palance calls out “Franscico!” In particular keep an eye on the horse in the middle of the screen.