Main Cast: Florencio Amarilla, Per Barclay, Carlos Bravo, Jim Brown, Elisha Cook, Jr.
Release Year: 1970
Country: US
Run Time: 102 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Jim Brown and Lee Van Cleef team up for this western set on the Mexican border. Brown is Luke, who escapes from a chain gang after learning that a fortune in gold is hidden in the Mexican fortress of El Condor. He joins up with the snake-eyed crook Jaroo (Lee Van Cleef) and together they round up a tribe of Apaches, headed by Santana (Iron Eyes Cody), to attack the fort -- convincing the Indian renegades that the fort houses food and guns greatly needed by the Apaches. During their first crack at taking the fort, Luke and Jaroo are captured by the fort's commandant, Chavez (Patrick O'Neal). Claudine (Marianna Hall), the wife of the commandant, falls in love with Luke and she aids them in their escape from the fort. Later on, she is instrumental in getting Luke and Jaroo's band into the fort -- diverting the gaze of the fort's defenders by disrobing in front of a well-lit bedroom window. Chavez escapes, but Santana is shot by Jaroo after discovering that Jaroo deceived him. With Santana shot, the Apaches leave the fort, carrying the food and ammunition. Now the only ones left to defend the defenseless fort are Luke, Claudine, and Jaroo. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
Produced by Hungarian André de Toth, El Condor belongs to that oddity of the very early '70s: a Hollywood Western imitating an Italian Western imitating a Hollywood Western. The death in the late '50s of the American B-Western genre had basically forced European filmmakers to produce their own variation of the one true American film genre. Hence the birth of the German "Potato Westerns" starring the likes of Lex Baker, and, by the late '60s, the emergence of the so-called spaghetti Westerns, filmed by mostly Italian directors in Spain. More adult, in execution if not in themes, than their Hollywood counterparts, the Italian sagebrush tales enjoyed a startling popularity in the U.S., especially among the drive-in trade. Covering all bases, El Condor even spoke to the ever increasing African-American audience that also attended the so-called blaxploitation-thrillers by starring former football hero Jim Brown, and, typical for the times, Brown's ethnicity is never even referred to. Lee Van Cleef gets to play a variation on the old comic sidekick and Mariana Hill takes off her clothes amidst the general carnage. But when all is said and done, El Condor remains ersatz spaghetti Western, whose Mexican locations are no more authentic-looking than the usual spaghetti Western vistas filmed on the island of Mallorca. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Angel del Pozo - Lieutenant; Marianna Hill - Claudine; Iron Eyes Cody - Santana; Peter Lenahan; Patrick O'Neal - Chavez; Ricardo Palacios - Chief Mexican Bandit; Julio Pena - Gen. Hernandez; Gustavo Rojo - Col. Aguinaldo; George Ross - Guard for Convicts; Patricio Santiago - Julio; Charles Stalnaker; Lee Van Cleef - Jaroo; Dan van Husen - Bandit; Rafael Albaicin - Officer; Raul Castro - Indian; Imogen Hassall - Dolores; John Clark - Prison Guard Captain
Credit
Julio Molina Juanes - Art Director, Julio Molina - Art Director, Russell Vreeland - First Assistant Director, Tony Tarruella - First Assistant Director, John Guillermin - Director, Walter A. Hannemann - Editor, Jack Slade - Editor, William H. Ziegler - Editor, Maurice Jarre - Composer (Music Score), Henri Persin - Cinematographer, André De Toth - Producer, Steven Carabatsos - Screenwriter, Larry Cohen - Screenwriter
