One of my all time favorites.

Fresh and Exciting

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Burt Reynolds and Anne Margaret sizzle with on screen chemistry in Burt Reynolds first good movie.Up till this point Burt had been in mostly forgettable movies like "Operation CIA" and "Navajo Joe" or smaller roles in movies like "Angel Baby" and "Armoured Command". Here he shines as he does the type of light comedy for which would become his trademark. Without his trademark moustache his performance is full of charm and wit, with a twinkle in his eye, he is clearly enjoying himself. Plot In A Paragraph: Sam Whiskey is an all round nice guy, but with a loud, fast mouth that gets him in trouble. He is willing to try his hand at just about anything but when the attractive widow Laura offers him a job, he is to salvage gold bars, which Laura's dead husband stole recently, from a sunken ship and secretly bring them back to the mint before they are missed. But how shall he manage to get several hundred pounds of gold into the mint without anyone noticing??Of the rest of the cast, frequent costar of Burt Reynolds, Sweet Ossie Davies who I adore, is great here, like wise Clint Walker. Anne Margaret is gorgeous, and it's easy to see how she tempted Reynolds character to do her bidding!!

It's no mystery that Burt Reynolds is one of the most underestimated actors of our time. In this particular film, he gave us one of his best comedy-stilish acting ("no-one noticed it", he said) which makes this movie working. Burt's acting would be enough to make it watchable, but also Ossie Davis and Clint Walker fit well in their roles.For me the remarkable of this movie is a) the way it is directed and edited (it ain't dull for one second), although there are some silly situations (e.g. Burt firing with a machine gun to save his friends killing all his enemies without hitting his friends...), but hey, it's a comedy and it's not the story which is most interesting. It's the mood of the film and the way characters are portrayed. It contains a lot of fine jokes and dialogue ("I'm not riding this long way to bury your bird") and chemistry between Burt and Angie Dickinson is amazing. Also the more serious parts of the film (stealing the gold out of the fort) are working well.Also, there are some things which seem to be rare in a film: The fact that no-one of the "thieves" have intentions killing his buddies to keep the gold for himself. No, they even break in to return it back to the government! It's hardly believable, but it is that fact that make the film and these characters charming.I give it a 7 of 10

This is a forgotten Burt Reynolds film, that is not really that bad. This is some humor in Burt's character, and Ossie Davis, The two were paired again years later in evening shade. maybe united artists will put this on dvd, or at least tape.

Not even Reynolds is able to muster up charm in this fairly dreary western. Actually, though set in the wild west, the movie is more of a caper movie than a western. This wouldn't have been so bad had the capering been exciting and executed with vigor, but it isn't. Some clumsy filming techniques and the production values make it resemble a television production of its era.