Wig and Mustache

We promised to watch more Yul Brynner, so: Villa Rides (1968). I’m not sure it really counts, because he has hair, as well as a mustache.

It stars Robert Mitchum as an arms dealer who flies a biplane into Mexico with guns for a Mexican army general (Herbert Lom) for the fight against Villa. His plane broke its landing gear, so he has to trek to the nearest village to get it repaired. The soldiers come and hang everyone they consider “opposition”, including gentle noble Fernando Rey.

Meanwhile, Brynner as Villa, along with his henchmen, Charles Bronson are waiting to attack until the soldiers have made martyrs for the revolution. Mitchum is attracted to Rey’s beautiful daughter. But before he can get too far, Villa “marries” her to show that he does not consider her to be disgraced - also, to get her into bed, and possibly to trump Mitchum.

So, we get some romance and several battles against the army. At one point, they capture a band of soldiers and pen them up. Bronson has them let out a few at a time. They will be allowed to go free if they can make it over a wall before he shoots them. They don’t make it over the wall. So Bronson played a cold-hearted killer.

In the end, Villa is overthrown by trusting his president. Will Mitchum give up his neutrality and profit-seeking to help his revolutionary friend?

So, though we love us some Robert Mitchum, and came for the Brynner, and got some extra Charles Bronson, we didn’t think much of this. There was a weird mix of comedy and violence, and the romance was sort of tossed aside for the male bonding stuff. Not terrible, though.