Murietta - Scourge of California
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Murietta - Scourge of California |
| Original title | Joaquín Murrieta |
| Country of production | Spain |
| original language | Spanish |
| Publishing year | 1964 |
| length | 107 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | George Sherman |
| script | James O'Hanlon |
| production | Francisco Molero |
| music | Antonio Perez Olea |
| camera | Miguel Fernández Mila |
| cut | Alfonso Santacana |
| occupation | |
| |
Murietta - Scourge of California (original title: Joaquín Murrieta ) is a Spanish western with prominent American participation, filmed on the Iberian Peninsula. The work of Hollywood veteran George Sherman can in no way compete with the breathtaking Murrieta portrait of William A. Wellman from 1936 ( Robin Hood of El Dorado ), but thanks to his elite cast with the two in their fifties thanks to hers US actors Jeffrey Hunter and Arthur Kennedy have become an underrated jewel of the Euro-Western with great potential to become semi-stars . The real existence of a reluctant Californian rebel named Joaquín Murrieta is disputed; the view sometimes encountered in German that it is a purely literary invention contradict almost all important sources in the United States.
action
The Mexican farm worker Joaquín Murrieta goes to California with his young wife Rosita to participate in the gold rush. The southern neighbors in the terrain on the west coast that has just been captured by the Americans are not wanted, and the man in his white peasant clothes immediately feels that. Only the Deputy Marshal Harry Love shows some sympathy for the "Mex", who immediately procures tools for the precious metal search. After a long period of unsuccessful work at his prospecting site on a river, he surprisingly struck gold one day - Murrieta and Rosita could not be happy for long, however, because a trio of evil scoundrels were challenging them for ownership; when Murrieta rebels, he is knocked down, his wife raped and killed.
The widower swears revenge, but at first cannot find the trio; he spends the time as a skilled card player. Just as he is discussing with Love in a saloon the de facto non-existent chances of a lawful conviction of the murderers, the three enter the bar and Murrieta shoots them in cold blood. Love then has to arrest him, lock him in a cell next to the outlaw duo "Drei-Finger-Jack" García and "Kakerroke", whom he had recently caught. Kate, who has just opened a restaurant tent in Salinas, helps the three execution candidates to escape. And from then on, the still hateful Murrieta takes over the command of the gang of the "Three-Finger-Jack", which displeases him and leads to great friction. Murrieta lets go of law enforcement officer Love, who has since been captured by the Horde after a slaughter, out of old friendship.
The theft of chickens belonging to Kate, of all people, brings the barrel overflowing within the gang: Murrieta wants to hang "three-fingered Jack", which of course fails because the latter is not ready to say a final prayer; he is condemned with "cockroach" to bring back the poultry (whose beaks were bandaged beforehand). Murrieta accompanies the two to Salinas, meets the racist Buck Winters again, who at the very beginning of the event had completely unjustifiably accused him of stealing a mule; this time the Mexican kills the loudmouthed American, but is shot himself during the subsequent escape. Once more, Kate helps him escape the captors led by Love; At the grave of his Rosita, however, the Deputy Marshal is waiting for the seriously wounded man, wants to arrest him and hand him over to the executioner. Murrieta somehow manages to dissuade her ex-boyfriend, in return promises to disappear across the southern border without a single further crime - Love reluctantly agrees.
By the time he reached the bandits' sheltered camp in the mountains, Murrieta's condition worsened and he passed out. The dissatisfied "three-finger jack" uses this circumstance to break another wave of terror and thefts from the fence. Love then gathers a large farce, determined to eliminate the "Mex" and its bunch because of the supposedly broken promise. He has no inkling of any of these developments; When he wakes up from his coma, "Drei-Finger-Jack" brags about the latest forays, and the man who has just escaped death several times is devastated and wants to face the authorities the next morning. Contrary to his orders, the gang is ready to ride with him at daybreak. Those who break up do not get far, then they are caught in the fatal fire of an ambush set by Love. The Deputy Marshal himself shoots Murrieta, who can no longer explain his innocence in the recent robberies.
criticism
“Elaborately designed, yet only average, Spanish production by Hollywood veteran Sherman, broadly rolled out in the fight scenes,” writes the lexicon of international films . Joe Hembus sees the veteran American director Sherman "not at the height of his better Hollywood films." The Evangelical Film Observer describes the work as "good Western average, even if it is not psychologically satisfactory."
Web links
- Murietta - Scourge of California in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The film at mundocine
Individual evidence
- ↑ Murietta - Scourge of California. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ^ Joe Hembus: The Western Lexicon . Munich 1995. p. 451
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 348/1965