Review: The McMasters

Brock Peters plays an African-American Union soldier who returns home after fighting in the Civil War and finding himself targeted by racists and thugs led by one-armed former Confederate officer Jack Palance and his sadistic henchman L.Q. Jones. Burl Ives plays Peters’ former slave master, a genial and dignified man who is more than happy to allow the ‘free man’ (more a friend or son than slave or employee) to have half of his land. Unfortunately, getting hands to tend to that land proves difficult, with only a few Indians (including David Carradine) willing to work for a black man. This angers the rabble-rousing racists even more, leading to violent trouble. R.G. Armstrong plays a local shopkeeper who treats Peters fairly, but buckles under pressure from Palance. John Carradine turns up as a preacher, whilst Nancy Kwan plays the squaw given to Peters by the local Indian tribe.

 

Every once in a while, a fine B-movie slips through the cracks and gets forgotten about. So is the case of this 1970 western from director Alf Kjellin (better known as an actor, having a role in “Ice Station Zebra” with Jim Brown), which belongs to the group of films with African-American leads that came about just before the blaxploitation boom (Alongside films like “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song”, “tick...tick...tick”, “Cotton Comes to Harlem”, “100 Rifles”, “The Split”, and “Across 110^th Street” among others). Scripted by Harold Jacob Smith (who co-wrote the brilliant “The Defiant Ones” and the overrated “Inherit the Wind”), it’s no great masterpiece or anything, but the cast alone makes one wonder why the hell it’s so little-seen.

 

We start off with a pretty poor Sergio Leone title design rip-off by Sandy Dvore of “Blacula” fame (a terrific blaxploitation entry), but don’t hold that against this film. The murky print and droning, monotonous music score by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (“The Education of Sonny Carson”, “Thomasine and Bushrod”) are even worse, however. Things perk up once one-armed Jack Palance and racist L.Q. Jones turn up to threaten to steal the film. Palance isn’t on screen much, but he’s spine-chilling, whilst Jones is a slimy rat bastard here. He nearly approaches Billy Drago levels of snaky sleaze. Meanwhile, Burl Ives and lead actor Brock Peters have two of the greatest voices in all of cinema and great screen presences. Ives and Peters are both towers of strength and dignity here, whilst Palance’s role (and to an extent Ives’) reminded me a little of Palance’s bad guy turn in “Young Guns”. Peters (best known as the accused in “To Kill a Mockingbird”) reminds one of Sidney Poitier but with a shorter fuse, and just short of Jim Brown’s physicality. He makes for an interesting screen protagonist and it’s a shame he was only afforded a few leads in his time.

 

In a film where acting and casting is just about everything, we also get David Carradine is an Injun and veteran character actor R.G. Armstrong as a shopkeeper. The latter plays a more conflicted role than the villains he normally plays, and is as rock-solid as ever. Meanwhile, Carradine isn’t exactly convincing as an Indian, but he’s just about the only actor I can think of who would almost seem miscast playing a white guy, because we all remember him from “Kung Fu”. Even Nancy Kwan isn’t as ridiculous playing a squaw as you might think. She also bares her arse and breasts briefly, for those curious. I also think it must be written somewhere that any film with even a small appearance by John Carradine pre-1975 is significantly better for it. Here as a preacher, he doesn’t get many scenes, but that voice is still commanding. It’s bizarre that there’s a real reverend in the cast but it’s Carradine who plays the preacher in the film. Odd.

 

The idea of Peters as an African-American working pretty much hand-in-hand with his former white master Ives and then having his own squaw is a really interesting idea. For 1970 I bet it fucked some racist people up. Thematically, there is a similarity or two between this and “tick...tick...tick” in how Peters’ mere presence rubs white folks the wrong way. It was done better in that film, but this is interesting nonetheless.

 

Aside from one scene of animal lust shot from and distance and above by cinematographer Lester Shorr (Woody Allen’s “Take the Money and Run”, “The Phantom Tolbooth”), the film doesn’t have much style. In fact, it’s a bit ugly to be honest, and not just due to print damage. For me, the only major drawbacks are a lack of Jack Palance (who drifts in and out a bit too much for the central villain), and an ending that is crudely edited. Apparently there were two endings originally, one happy and one sad. The one chosen here is definitely the appropriate one, but it’s sloppily editing so that you can tell it has been tacked on, as one important death takes place off-screen (presumably because the other ending was the initial and preferred one by the director).

 

Still, I picked this one up for $5 sight unseen, and it proved to be money well spent. It’s a good B-grade film worth a look if you can manage to find it.

 

Rating: B-