While providing backing for independent writer-producers like Billy Wilder, Walter Mirisch also shepherded various less ambitious war movies and westerns, notably sequels to his mega-hit The Magnificent Seven. The war pictures were made cheaply in England. The westerns were usually produced in Spain, imitating to some degree the Italo western craze that in 1969 was just beginning to taper off. Made on a sizable budget, 1970’s Cannon for Cordoba can boast great cinematography, higher production values and a more impressive cast than most spaghetti oaters.
Joining the trend toward high-end action thrillers like Where Eagles Dare, Cannon for Cordoba delivers on its promise for plenty of noise and action. To produce, Mirisch brought in Vincent M. Fennelly, whose background was almost completely in TV westerns, but who had just finished Guns of the Magnificent Seven, the second of three sequels directed by Paul Wendkos. The accomplished action star George Peppard keeps the picture on its feet, even though his big-studio career was in something of a free-fall. Peppard had been perfect as an insolent air ace in the giant production The Blue Max, yet he then turned up in much less worthy thrillers, especially at Universal. Then on a severe penny-pinching kick, Universal for a few years filmed everything in the cheaper half-frame Techniscope format, which made their movies look especially bad when pan-scanned on TV. Cannon for Cordoba is thankfully in full-gauge Panavision. It may not be first-rank goods, but it certainly looks good.
Stephen Kandel’s original screenplay is a week pastiche — either that or all of its good ideas were dropped during the shooting. Just before WW1, the murderous Mexican generalissimo Cordoba (Raf Vallone) is raiding border towns in Texas. General Pershing (John Russell) can’t use the regular army in Mexico, so he turns to an elite detail of adventurer-criminal-soldiers to go after Cordoba. Leading the secret mission is Capt. Rod Douglas. The first incursion is a disaster. Acting as double agents in Cordoba’s command, Douglas and his first officer Jackson Harkness (Don Gordon) must watch Cordoba’s sadistic commander Svedborg (Hans Meyer) roast Jackson’s brother alive. Cordoba learns where Pershing is keeping six new howitzer field cannons and prepares a new raid to steal them. Douglas gets word of an impending raid back to the Army, but it does no good — Cordoba’s men take the entire camp and make off with the train carrying the guns. Now Douglas is given a save-face mission: find and destroy the stolen cannon, and bring General Cordoba to justice. The skilled commandos are joined by the Mexican Army officer Antonio (Gabriele Tinti of Flight of the Phoenix, and the Mexican woman Leonora (Giovanna Ralli), who wants revenge against Cordoba for raping her and killing her family. As his men prepare to sneak into Cordoba’s hilltop fortress, Douglas comes up against two problems. Betraying the mission, Leonora immediately turns Antonio over to Cordoba. To carry out her personal vendetta, she pretends that she wants to be the generalissimo’s woman again. And the hotheaded Jackson Harkness has still not forgiven Douglas for letting his brother die, and promises to kill him when the mission is completed.
Cannon for Cordoba has sweeping action and rather good, if impersonal, direction by Paul Wendkos. He and the camera crew led by Antonio Macasoli keep the film frame alive with bold trucking shots and smart compositions. He also uses a camera crane frequently and well, insuring that there’s never a dull frame of film. George Peppard also seems right on task at all times. To join Cordoba’s ranks, Douglas pretends to be a rogue freebooter. Thus he spends the first couple of reels outfitted and behaving much like Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name. Yet Peppard is not diminished — he projects his cynical and arrogant persona through most every situation.
The film is ’eminently watchable,’ which is limited praise. As if knowing that the audience will be undemanding kids and adults, it makes little or no claim on the thinking half of the brain. The ruthless cynicism then in vogue (thank you Misters Leone and Peckinpah) motivates torture scenes that surely disturbed the seven-year-olds that rushed to see the picture. Unlike films by those directors, and Richard Brooks’ The Professionals, we aren’t supposed to think about character motivation. Raf Vallone’s villain simply ‘wants those guns’ and grins as he anticipates another night with the luscious Leonora, and that’s all we ever learn about him. General Pershing and his nervous politico Colonel Hammond (Lionel Murton of The Battle of the River Plate) seem vitally committed to the fight, but disappear halfway through the picture. Crooked Gringo landowner Warner (favorite John Larch) is actually in league with the Mexicans, and is eliminated without too much fanfare.
Giovanna Ralli’s fiery avenger Leonora is decorative but unconvincing — she looks as if she spent her youth on the Italian Riviera, not suffering under the whip of a Mexican tyrant. That Douglas ends up respecting her action — even after she betrays his mission — is an odd touch that aligns with messy personal motivations in other Paul Wendkos movies, from The Burglar to The Mephisto Waltz.
This being a PG picture, the filmmakers have to find some excuse to tease sex scenes without crossing the line. Francine York provides a cooch dance in a costume that would be better suited for TV’s Laugh-In. But he way Douglas avoids being mauled by some prostitutes, and the way he remains strictly platonic with Leonora, put his credentials as a macho hero in some doubt. Oh, wait, the original poster compensates with artwork showing Douglas using one of the howitzers as if it were a shotgun — giving him a bigger tool than John Shaft or Truck Turner. At the end of the line for brainless action thrillers, Cannon for Cordoba substitutes firepower for passion.
Several roles would seem to have been cast from director Paul Wendkos’ TV pals. Nico Minardos’ Peter has hair and glasses that make him look like an anachronistic Albert Brooks plunked down in Revolutionary Mexico. The promising Pete Duel has a spirited attitude that brightens up every scene he’s in; his Andy is the class clown of this particular Dirty Half Dozen. But it’s practically Duel’s only theatrical film role — he would soon enjoy a hit with his own TV series, and then die unexpectedly in a suspected suicide.
The movie also has a heavy Italian contingent. Giovanna Ralli has a Mirisch connection through Blake Edwards laugh-challenged comedy What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? but I found no similar contractual linkage for star Raf Vallone. The roguish Aldo Sambrell has a small role but several close-ups — he’s ubiquitous in Italian, English and American films shot in Spain. I’ll bet he had a good agent; when we interviewed him back in 2004, he insisted that he was the ‘Marlon Brando of Spain.’
Some Italo movies around this time used the Mexican revolution to make political statements, usually rather obviously. In reality, a contingent of Pancho Villa’s troops did indeed cross the border and raid a couple of towns, which did prompt a U.S. Army incursion into Mexico and some bloodletting. Cannon for Cordoba only political statement is that Mexicans are sneaky and violent. Cordoba and his outfit aren’t revolutionaries, nor are they government troops. He’s instead his own nation, more like a villain in a James Bond movie. As if not wishing to risk bookings in Germany, Cordoba’s sadistic European advisor-commander Svedborg is Swedish. We know he’s sadistic, because Cordoba clearly says, “This is my most trusted commander. He is a sadist.” No character shadings there.
As I’ve tried to emphasize, Cannon for Cordoba is kinetic, noisy and great to look at. It maintains interest despite its flaws, but is ultimately undermined by a lack of finesse. The infiltration of Cordoba’s fortress is simply silly — the Mexicans have been told they’re under attack, yet throw a standard drunken bash to allow the commandos to waltz in and blow everything up. Svedborg is told that the prisoners might escape; he does nothing. After a lot of fireworks, the finale seems rushed, with unmemorable, perfunctory exits for heroes and villains alike. But hey — the film delivers the promised explosions, shootouts and violence.
