Spaghetti westerns were the rage in 1969, as long as the action was constant and the body count high. An Italo producer made a lucrative deal with MGM for a ‘Dirty Dozen western’ with the name star Peter Graves. International success was guaranteed with the casting of Japanese star Tetsuro Tanba. The Dario Argento story is generic, but the resulting film does have some decent action, a music score by Ennio Morricone, and the welcome presence of Bud Spencer, an actor so popular, he was billed first in some European countries.

The 5-Man Army
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date May 26, 2026 / Un esercito di 5 uomini / Available at MovieZyng / 24.98
Starring: Peter Graves, James Daly, Bud Spencer, Nino Castelnuovo, Tetsuro Tamba, Claudio Gora, Daniela Giordano, Annabella Andreoli, Carlo Alighiero, Giacomo Rossi Stuart.
Cinematography: Enzo Barboni
Art Director: Enzo Bulgarelli
Film Editor: Sergio Montanari
Music Composer: Ennio Morricone
Screenplay by Marc Richards, Dario Argento
Executive Producer: Roberto Palaggi
Produced by Italo Zingarelli
Directed by Don Taylor, Italo Zingarelli

We didn’t review the Warner Archives’ DVD of  The 5-Man Army back in 2012, and were curious to see it intact and restored — we knew it only from snippets caught on broadcast TV in the 1970s. Sergio Leone was of course the only sure box office bet in America for Italo westerns, but a surprising number of other imports filled their share of theaters. Producer Italo Zingarelli made his biggest splash with Terence Hill and Bud Spencer in They Call me Trinity and a quick sequel, but a year earlier Zingarelli pulled off an interesting deal, making an Italian western in Spain with an American director. As was often the case, an Italian name had to be the director on domestic prints, so Zingarelli took the credit. The producer made two decisions that guaranteed his show wouldn’t be forgotten. The music score is by Ennio Morricone, and the script was co-written by the soon-to-be famous writer-director Dario Argento.

It almost doesn’t matter who directed 5-Man Army for the show is mostly comprised of action scenes filmed by-the-book. The big set piece is a train robbery, that provides the show’s only real surprises. Climbing around and under a moving train is never ‘safe.’  The dullness of CGI has killed the fun of modern action films, but older films still thrill with Real People doing Real Semi-Dangerous things. Our senses came alert to see the film’s stars personally performing on and below all that dangerous railway hardware.

The story is so generic, a 12-year old could quote the borrowings from recent movies and a hit TV show. There is next to no originality in anything. During the Mexican revolution, General Huerta is to receive half a million dollars’ worth of European gold (?), which is being shipped by rail. Five colorful crooks are out to steal it. Criminal mastermind ‘Dutchman’ (Peter Graves) has made a deal with rebel leader Esteban (Claudio Gora of  Danger: Diabolik) to heist the gold and give it to the revolutionary cause. Dutchman’s reputation is so good, the mere mention of his name is enough to recruit a special team. Ex-acrobat and fugitive thief Luis (Nino Castelnuovo of  The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) crosses the border into Texas to find the other three. The hulking Mesito (Bud Spencer) is doing odd jobs on a farm. Gambler and munitions expert Augustus (James Daly) was once Dutchman’s partner in crime. Luis finds the last recruit ‘Samurai’ (Tetsuro Tanba) performing knife-throwing tricks for a sideshow.

The first hour sees our boys getting chummy over Mexican food, and establishing their characters, with exactly one salient quality per man. Mesito is strong and dumb, and likes to eat. Luis is sneaky. Augustus waxes philosophical and Samurai just stares with a stoic expression. Samurai is the only one to attract a groupie. Although Samurai just stares at the ground, the adoring Maria (Daniela Giordano) silently follows and serves him. The characters are so simple, they would serve for a Hanna-Barbera cartoon show. Co-screenwriter Marc Richards ended up writing for kids’ entertainments; his only credit previous to this show was for TV’s The Soupy Sales Hour.

5-Man Army has decent production values, but it’s not a movie to take very seriously. Even with the American director working on sets recording live sound, there’s not a smart dialogue moment in the whole picture. Every utterance is either bald exposition or an awkward klunker. Peter Graves adopts his standard ‘amused-serious’ delivery for every scene, the simplest way to keep things consistent. Now that we’ve all seen Graves with Lloyd Bridges and Robert Stack in the comedy  Airplane!, his ‘Dutchman’ might as well be airline Captain Clarence Oveur, taking a break from flying duty.

As little as we think of 5-Man Army’s artistic merit, we respect it as a shrewd commercial concoction. It’s the kind of movie that would play well in every foreign market. Who cares about the performances?  Audiences of 1969 knew Peter Graves from Mission: Impossible, a hit TV show broadcast in 70 countries and dubbed into 14 different languages. That connection lifted the movie’s recognition factor world-wide.

The film’s action follows the prevailing Spaghetti trend but avoids extremes. Mexican troops die by the dozen but there are no Peckinpah geysers of gore, no tortures and no sexual violence against women. The ‘cool’ cynicism starts right away, with the grinning Nino Castelnuovo clobbering a peasant over the head to steal a pass that will get him across the border into Texas. As the WAC’s version is a completely uncut print, it’s possible that we’re seeing a few bits originally trimmed to obtain an ‘M’ (later ‘PG’) rating.  Can’t keep the kids out of this show, no way.

The whole gang is captured at least twice, but each time they escape by foolish ruses and deceptions. Even when surrounded by twenty soldiers, they beat everyone to the draw, and prevail by tossing dynamite. No foes escape alive, but nobody is wounded, either — just killed outright, neat and clean. The one decently directed action scene sees Tetsuro Tanba bursting into a room and taking out 4 enemies with a flurry of samurai sword strokes. It’s not bad at all.

Tanba was usually billed as Tamba in non-Japanese films. He’d been acting for almost 20 years and had become a star in costume classics. His few foreign pictures began with major roles in two Lewis Gilbert films —  The 7th Dawn and then the 007 opus  You Only Live Twice. We’re told that the producers wanted Tanba to play the whole film in a Samurai robe, but that the actor refused. The key art for one of the film’s posters shows all 5 of the stars … with Tesuro’s face color registered as bright yellow.

Two years later, Toshiro Mifune wore traditional samurai garb for the French western Red Sun, acting alongside Charles Bronson, Ursula Andress and Alain Delon.

When the train robbery commences the movie becomes interesting, if not actually good. It’s an ‘impossible mission’ all right, as multiple steps in the ‘foolproof’ heist are just silly. Four thieves strap themselves to the undersides of railway cars, in plain sight of Mexican troops. The camera has to avoid angles on the train cars, because it’s obvious that they’d be spotted right away.

As we said above, the actual climbing between cars and walking on top are very impressive, because it’s the actual cast doing most of the shots. Even 50 year-old James Daly isn’t doubled for everything. Yes, of course there’d be nets and safety ropes. Even with precautions, it would be too easy for an oversight to end up in a fatality.

The train heist is certainly well covered, with many camera angles. The action stays on the level of an unimaginative comic book — it’s no problem at all to get rid of 20 alert guards, with nobody raising an alarm. Some critics praises the group for improvising when things go wrong, but the two problems that crop up don’t elevate the level of suspense. Augustus drops a metal ‘silencer’ that will muffle the sound of dynamite (?). Samurai accidentally falls off the train, and must sprint a mile cross-country to catch up on the railwa’s next switchback. We of course remember that same setup in Buster Keaton’s magnificent silent film  The General. If we could judge the terrain we might be impressed by Samurai’s feat, but the film coverage isn’t coordinated that way.

The finish is not strong either. We expect a series of double-crosses, but not for the movie to completely avoid showing the handling of the gold. After movies like  Plunder Road and  Goldfinger, audiences knew that transporting a half a million in gold would require more than one rickety old light truck. And are we supposed to understand that the gold has been shipped from Europe?  If so why is it in dust form, instead of gold bars?  (Sorry, just being obnoxiously literal here.)

The Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray of The 5-Man Army is a big surprise after seeing bits of poor-quality TV prints way back in the middle ’70s. The direction may be weak but the camerawork of Enzo Barboni  (Django,  Duel of the Titans,  Amanti d’oltretomba) looks great at all times. Some early scenes were especially good, looking like 4K streaming video.

The Ennio Morricone main theme plays over some fairly sloppy titles, using vintage Mexican photos of executions, etc.. The music score is catchy but not particularly distinctive. The Allessandro Allesandroni choir is well used, except for when peasants sing during an execution … they’re just too perfect.

According to the IMDB’s parents guide, the American release had no nudity, but this uncut print contradicts their description, and does retain a quick flash of forbidden skin. We mostly remember Daniela Giordano’s pretty eyes, which remind us a bit of Claudia Cardinale. Foreign ads demonstrate the popularity of actor Bud Spencer — on more than one European poster he’s presented as the film’s big star.  →

MGM helped bankroll many co-production action films during the James Aubrey years, and its nice to see brilliant new encodings of films, when the actual original theatrical prints weren’t very attractive. Because of the presence of Robert Mitchum and Rita Hayworth, we wonder if they’ll be bringing out the rather grungy and taste-challenged  The Wrath of God, from 1972.  Its one-sheet poster isn’t exactly Church-friendly.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

The 5-Man Army
Blu-ray rates:
Movie: Good – minus
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements:
Trailer.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One Blu-ray in Keep case
Reviewed: June 2, 2026
(7525army)

Visit CineSavant’s Main Column Page
Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: cinesavant@gmail.com

Text © Copyright 2026 Glenn Erickson