Review: The Train Robbers

Train robber’s widow Ann-Margret hires tough guy John Wayne to uncover $500,000 in buried gold her husband buried in the desert, with a $50,000 reward. The rest of the loot will be returned to the bank to get everyone off her back and restore the family name somewhat. The snag is that others involved in the robbery will be looking to retrieve it, too. Wayne is accompanied by a small posse that includes right-hand man Ben Johnson, long-time buddy Rod Taylor, and Taylor’s young-ish hired helpers Christopher George and Bobby Vinton. Ricardo Montalban turns up briefly from time to time in a role that isn’t fully explained until the very end.

 

A good cast goes somewhat to waste in this 1973 latter-day John Wayne vehicle from writer-director Burt Kennedy (“Welcome to Hard Times”, “The War Wagon”, “Support Your Local Sheriff!”) . It’s good-looking, has some particularly good moments of action, but otherwise interest comes and goes just a little too often. Duke looks to be ailing, Charismatic and rugged Aussie ex-pat Rod Taylor surprisingly seems to fade into the background, and Ricardo Montalban gets about three minutes of screen time chomping a cigar throughout, and one moment of dialogue right at the end. Christopher George does his best with a nondescript role, he’d fare better in other Duke films (“Chisum”, and especially “El Dorado”). Ben Johnson, perhaps filling in for Wayne regular Ward Bond, ends up walking off with the whole thing easily. In fact, Taylor’s one good scene is with Johnson (who brings authority and authenticity that can’t be taught), where they talk about getting old. Taylor’s also a part of Duke’s best scene, a funny bit where he takes out his frustration with Christopher George by punching Taylor, who hired him in the first place.

 

There’s no mistaking that Duke doesn’t look nor sound good here, about three years before his death. It’s a little tough to watch him, to be honest, and yet he still manages to make Rod Taylor fade into the background of any scene they share (Though, let’s face it, Taylor was doing fuck all else worth a damn at the time, so he probably jumped at the chance to be in a John Wayne flick). As for Ann-Margret, my general feeling about her has always been to wonder why you’d cast her if Carroll Baker was available. Same basic type, but Baker’s talent far exceeds Ann-Margret’s (Though Baker’s choice of projects over the years has occasionally been extremely questionable). At any rate, my general feeling holds true here, as Ann-Margret just isn’t terribly appealing or interesting to me.

 

Disappointing western given the cast involved, this one really only works in action-mode, which just isn’t quite often enough. It all leads to a kind of joke ending that frankly pissed me off a little bit. It seemed somehow flippant and insulting, committing character assassination, for what exactly? Veteran character actor Ben Johnson is terrific, however, as is the rousing music score by Dominic Frontiere (“Chisum”, “Brannigan”, “Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold”) doing his best Elmer Bernstein (“The Magnificent Seven”).

 

Rating: C+