Review: The War Wagon

Ex-con John Wayne seeks revenge on rich bastard Bruce Cabot by gathering some men to help rob his title stagecoach. Kirk Douglas is his old acquaintance who has actually been hired by Cabot to kill Wayne, but decides to join his old buddy instead and go after the big money. Howard Keel is Wayne’s somewhat hapless Indian friend, Robert Walker Jr (son of the great Robert Walker from Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train”) is the young explosives expert who drinks too much. Character veteran Keenan Wynn, meanwhile, is the inside man. Nice bit part by Bruce Dern as one of Cabot’s men near the beginning (Dern, of course is the man who infamously killed The Duke in “The Cowboys” and received many a death threat for his troubles).

 

Not-bad 1967 Duke vehicle has the virtue of having comedy-western veteran Burt Kennedy (“Support Your Local Sheriff!”, “Hannie Caulder”) at the helm, but the comedy here is often dated (cue Keel as a supposedly smart-arse Indian. I didn’t laugh once!), and the title vehicle is unfortunately not utilised nearly enough.

 

Still, it’s interesting to see just how much Walker looks like his dad, scene-stealer Douglas is fantastic (and that leather shirt is just about the damndest thing I’ve seen in a western) in the film’s best role, and The Duke is pretty loose here, too. Well, loose for him (The film works best in their initial exchanges). Chances are, if you love The Duke, you’ll like this an awful lot (he kinda sorta plays a baddie in this one, but he’s also the only guy we’re truly rooting for), and there is a very fine example of the standard ‘saloon brawl’, you won’t want to miss.

 

The screenplay by Clair Huffaker (“The Comancheros”, another OK Duke vehicle from the 60s) has elements of the heist movie thrown in, but not enough for my liking. The Dimitri Tiomkin (“High Noon”, “The Alamo”) score is fine, but that Frankie Laine-wannabe title song by the talentless Ed Ames is terrible.

 

Rating: C+