The Proud and Damned (1972)

Great Film overall

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The acting in this movie is really good.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The Proud and Damned is written and directed by Ferde Grofe Jr. It stars Chuck Connors, Cesar Romero and Andres Marquis. Music is by Gene Kauer and Douglas M. Lackey, and cinematography by Remegio Young.1870 and five ex Confederate mercs arrive in South America and become embroiled in another Civil War of sorts...Pretty poor offering, a pic that was completed in 1969 but wasn't released until three years later, one can only think that after viewing it, some financial backer saw it for the dud it is and refused release! The plot principal is sound, the fact it's a Western filmed in Columbia and set in South America (the place unnamed) is an interesting point of note, plus Connors and Romero at least have fans from which to launch potential for cult fandom. But hopes of a good film are dashed quite early.Is being boring a valid criticism? Well yes it is, and this is a snore bore. The cast turn in auto-cue acting, all of them saddled with direlogue, the editing is messy, and the musical score irritating as it fluctuates between sorrowful guitar to bandido marching music, with some flamenco type jolly that's out of place as well, and what little action there is is laughably constructed. A bold turn of events in the narrative is worth a point at least, as is the outcome of it all - though it doesn't really make grounded sense - but ultimately this is one that deserves to stay obscure. 2/10

Chuck Conners (who's always great) leads his group of good old rebels all the way to South America, into a nameless country where they're paid by a tyrannical general (and Charles Manson lookalike) to go to a rival town and report back whether or not the place will roll over easily if invaded.Once there, they realize the place is quite peaceful and defenseless, tempting some of Conner's men to stay.This is low-budget but well made with good locations, though it's soon hijacked by a silly subplot involving one of Chuck's nitwit boys becoming lovesick (after a minute or so) over a local girl, despite the fact that neither of them speak each other's languages!To further ruin things, Chuck Conner's is then banished from the town by mayor Caesar Romero due to a second silly subplot involving a gypsy girl and then promptly hung by the evil general! Did his contract run out before shooting ended?!This is well directed throughout but the final battle between the towns is poorly staged and not worth seeing since Chuck got killed!

The Proud and the Damned is an historical-fiction western starring Chuck Conners and a relatively unknown, but not bad, cast. The film appears to have been filmed in the Chihuahuan Desert, though the setting is inexplicably identified as South America early-on.Conners leads a group of refugee confederate soldiers traveling through a country in the middle of its own civil war. Apparently, Conners' boys have taken a few odd jobs as mercenaries en-route, and both sides in the present conflict want their help.The film is essentially an American-made spaghetti-western, without the plot convolutions and tension (or Clint Eastwood) that made this genre so interesting. About mid-way through the story, the film meanders and seems fated to fizzle into oblivion rather than going out with a bang, but it does eventually wander back to its track. The script is occasionally bloated, but not bad. Once in a while, the film actually presents some interesting anthropological points. The acting is surprisingly OK. And the sets, scenery and cinematography are good.It won't kill you. This is a much more entertaining western than I had anticipated. However, I will limit my recommendation to fans of western movies.

Chuck Connors and Cesar Romero head an otherwise unknown cast in this tale set in South America in 1870, as Will Hansen (Connors) leads a group of four ex-Confederate soldiers now plying their trade as mercenaries. Hansen is the only member of the band that seems to have any hint of a hard edge, the rest are just a bunch of good old boys with no drive or direction of their own. The South American setting could be just about anywhere since no country is ever named, but it might just as well have been Mexico for the portrayal offered by the two opposing forces. On one side, General Alehandro Martinez offers Hansen and his comrades pay in exchange for information on the opposition in the valley town of San Carlos. Cesar Romero is the mayor there, determined to protect his town, but one wonders from what. The conflict between Martinez and Romero is never made known, maybe that's why Hansen and his men have no emotional involvement in the proceedings.It would be difficult to describe the action in the film - there is none. There are two romantic angles involving Hansen and a gypsy woman, while one of his men named Ike (Aron Kincaid) tries to woo a senorita from the local convent. If the film's pace wasn't slow enough as it was, it's accentuated by the doleful strumming of a guitar from time to time, bringing one's attention to the fact that nothing is going on.All doesn't go well for Hansen though, since he missed his appointment with General Martinez, he'll have to pay for that indiscretion. That prompts his men to think for themselves for the first time, and they take a stand with the citizens of San Carlos. You'll have to watch the film to see how far that goes, but even amidst the flying cannonballs, it's kind of anti climactic. One never feels any empathy for this bunch, and that's what makes the movie largely forgettable.If you're a Chuck Connors fan, you'll be better served by any single episode of his "Rifleman", which will have more story and excitement to it in twenty six minutes than this hour and a half sleeper. The only thing I found interesting in the film was how much Connors appeared to have aged in the decade since the Rifleman series ended. Oh wait, maybe it happened during the filming!