The Professionals is a 1966 American Western film directed by Richard Brooks. A kidnap-rescue adventure set in about 1917, it features a small group of experts heading into Mexico to free the Mexican-born wife of a wealthy Texan from several hundred bandits. The film is based on the novel A Mule for the Marquesa by Frank O'Rourke.
Plot
Rancher J.W. Grant (Ralph Bellamy) hires four men, who are all experts in their respective fields, to rescue his wife, Maria (Claudia Cardinale) from Jesus Raza (Jack Palance), a former Mexican Revolutionary leader-turned-bandit.
Team leader Henry "Rico" Fardan (Lee Marvin) is a military specialist, Bill Dolworth (Burt Lancaster) is an explosives expert, the horse wrangler is Hans Ehrengard (Robert Ryan) and Jake Sharp (Woody Strode) is a scout with traditional Apache skills. Fardan and Dolworth, having both fought under the command of Pancho Villa, have a high regard for Raza as a soldier. But they are hard and cynical professionals so they have no trouble killing him now.
After crossing the border the team track the bandits to their hideout. On the way they witness the brutality in the period after the Mexican Revolution as soldiers on a government train are massacred by Raza's small army. The professionals follow the captured train to the end of the line and retake the train from the bandits. Some of the team then moves onto the bandit camp and begin observing Raza and his followers - including the washing habits of buxom soldier, Chiquita (Marie Gomez). At nightfall, Fardan infiltrates Raza's private quarters but he is stopped from killing the Mexican by, Maria, the kidnapped wife. Under diversionary tactics of Dolworth and Sharp, Farden escapes with Grant's wife.
But when they get back to the train, they find that their luck has run out as it has been retaken by the bandits. After a shootout, the team is forced to retreat into the mountains hotly pursued by Raza and his men. The professionals finally evade capture after using explosives to bring down the walls of a gully, thus blocking the path. Nevertheless Raza is relentless, and is captured by the professionals, battered and wounded.
Eventually the four professionals, Maria and Raza reach the US border to be met by Grant and his own men. It is then revealed that the professionals have not rescued Maria but in fact have actually kidnapped Raza's mistress. She is in love with the Mexican but Grant "bought" her for an arranged marriage; she escaped and went back to her "true love". He then hired the professionals to get her back. As Maria hugs the wounded Raza, Grant callously turns to one of his men and says, "Kill him". But before the man can shoot, the gun is shot out of his hand by Dolworth.
Farden tells Grant he has not earned the right to kill a man like Raza. Grant says he made a deal and he has no right to break the agreement. He calls Fardan a bastard who retorts, "Yes, sir, in my case an accident of birth. But you, sir, you are a self-made man."
The professionals collect the wounded Raza, put him on a carriage and with his wife at the reins send them both back to Mexico. They then collect their things and follow on horseback.
Production notes
The film was written and directed by Richard Brooks, who was nominated for Academy Awards for directing and writing. The cinematography, by Conrad Hall, was also nominated for an Oscar.
During the filming of a scene where Maria attempts to escape through a canyon wired with dynamite, Claudia Cardinale's stunt double was badly injured. Cardinale, who had never ridden a horse before, performed the stunt herself in the final cut and escaped uninjured.
It was shot on location in Death Valley and the Valley of Fire, showing the latter prominently. During filming, the cast and crew stayed in Las Vegas. Actor Woody Strode wrote in his memoirs that he and Lee Marvin got into a lot of pranks, on one occasion they even shot an arrow into Vegas Vic, the famous smiling cowboy neon sign outside The Pioneer Club.
The railway scenes were filmed on Kaiser Steel's Eagle Mountain Railroad. The steam locomotive seen in the movie currently resides on the Heber Valley Railroad.
Memorable Quotations
At the beginning of the movie, while hiring the team, Grant repeatedly refers to himself as "a self-made man", a common phrase of the time to indicate his wealth had not come from inheritance. Other quotations:
- Fardan: "So what else is on your mind, besides 100-proof women, 90-proof whiskey, and 14-carat gold?"
- Dolworth: "Amigo... you just wrote my epitaph."
- Maria Grant: "Go to hell!"
- Dolworth: "Yes, ma'am. I'm on my way."
- Dolworth (to Ehrengard): "You light this fuse and dynamite — not faith — will move that mountain into this pass. Peace, brother!"
- Dolworth to Fardan, "Well, I'll be damned."
- Fardan: "Most of us are."
External links
