This is How Movies Should Be Made

Purely Joyful Movie!

One of my all time favorites.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

U.S. marshal Pernell Roberts is reluctantly joined by Pinkerton employee Leslie Nielsen in the search for a bank robber and possible murderer who has escaped to the Mexican desert; Sue Lyon, as the woman in love with the bandito, doesn't want him killed and makes the hunting party a trio. Low-budget Spanish production with American leads is technically inept--and far too low-keyed and solemn to make an impression--though it does have appropriately moody music from Janis Ian and interesting performances. Hirsute lawman Roberts manages to put some thought into his portrayal, while Nielsen (looking like Darrin McGavin) adds a little wily flavor. Lyon (still retaining the piercing bedroom eyes from her nymphet youth) struggles with an ill-conceived part, one which requires her to change from her cowgirl duds into a wedding dress in the sweltering heat. Director John Peyser probably intended this to be a psychological western, but he doesn't have the material nor the budget to expand on his deadly-serious ideas. The character conflicts which arise are clichéd, while the mercilessly elongated finale is ridiculously 'arty'. *1/2 from ****

"Four Rode Out" has one of those elements that I've seen in other Westerns, "Cry Blood, Apache" being one, where there's an entirely different type of terrain coming and going. I mean, where was that huge expanse of desert when Marshal Ross (Pernell Roberts), Brown (Leslie Nielsen) and Myra (Sue Lyon) first set out to capture renegade Nunez (Julian Mateos)? They rode out from and returned to the same little town, why didn't they just cover the same ground? Makes me crazy.Now I've read the other reviews on this board, and all of them describe Leslie Nielsen's character as a Pinkerton agent, so I have to wonder if I was the only one paying attention. There was a point at which Nunez fingered Brown as his ex-partner Krueger who was after the bundle they both stole from a bank with a third partner who was already knocked off by Krueger. So was Nunez trying to cause some confusion for Marshal Ross? I don't think so; Brown/Krueger was just a little too anxious to knock off his fellow travelers and high tail it with the money. His off screen rape of Myra was another hint that Krueger was a real bad apple.Now this all probably sounds a lot more interesting than the actual film. The picture uses up an awful lot of filler time with the party going up and down mountain terrain and dragging across the sun baked desert. Janis Ian's voice on a number of songs throughout lent some poignancy to the story, but quite honestly, I find her lyrics and style to be just too depressing most of the time.Just yesterday I watched "China 9, Liberty 37" on Encore Westerns in prime time, and was quite surprised to see a fully nude Jenny Agutter in a series of love scenes with Fabio Testi. So the idea that the word 'whore' was actually bleeped out of the dialog in this picture seems rather odd. But then again, there were a lot of odd things about this story. Too much sun will do that.

Four Rode Out is a European western to be sure not made in Italy so it does not rate being called a spaghetti western. It was made on the plains of Spain in the dry season as you'll see by the landscape. The same plains where the armies of Napoleon and Wellington rode back and forth upon.For a Spanish made production, three Americans were brought over to star in this essentially four person soap opera, Pernell Roberts late of Bonanza who plays a US Marshal on the trail of bandit Julian Mateos who has just robbed a bank where a guard was killed. Mateos not wanting to leave without a little nookie from girl friend Sue Lyon also accidentally kills her father in self defense when the old man caught Sue and Julian in the act. The third American is Leslie Nielsen, a really grungy character who is a Pinkerton man interested in recovering the money and the bounty on Mateos' head. He declares himself as accompanying Roberts on the hunt and Lyons follows them both to make sure her man is taken while he still has a pulse.Acting honors such as they are belong to Nielsen who turns out to be a far more loathsome character than even the viewer thinks when first meeting him. There's not much traditional western action after Mateos is taken alive no thanks to Nielsen. But on the way back the flaws come out in all the characters.Four Rode Out might have been better in American hands with folks who know what the western genre is all about. As it is it becomes more of a soap opera than a horse opera, not a recipe for western fans to like.

FOUR RODE OUT (1 outta 5 stars) Kind of a pathetic excuse for a western starring Pernell Roberts who gave up his role in TV's "Bonanza" to star in this... a movie which isn't even as good as an average episode of that classic series. Sue Lyon (mostly known for starring in Stanley Kubrick's "Lolita") plays the loyal girlfriend of a Mexican bandit (Julian Mateos) being hunted for the murder of her father. It wasn't really murder... the father killed himself after discovering that his daughter was sleeping around with a Mexican. Regardless, Pernell is determined to bring the bandit in for a fair trial. Leslie Nielsen also appears as a nasty Pinkerton agent with dollar signs in his eyes. Somehow they all wind up in the middle of the desert with little water and not much hope of making it back to the nearest town. Still, they find time for plenty of bickering, an impromptu wedding and even a strip show by the curvy Ms. Lyon. Looks like the kind of movie that could have been shot over a long weekend.