Review: Nevada Smith
Although he later takes on the title name, Steve McQueen stars as a teenager whose real name is Max Sand. Max, of mixed heritage, watches his parents killed by a rotten trio of scumbag bandits (Karl Malden, Arthur Kennedy, and Martin Landau) and spends the rest of the film on a single-minded revenge mission. Brian Keith plays a paternal gunman who teaches the kid how to shoot, Iron Eyes Cody and Janet Margolin play native Americans (neither actor being native American), Pat Hingle is a prisoner, Suzanne Pleshette plays a potential love interest, and Raf Vallone turns up late as a priest who tries to get through to the vengeful title character. A lot of people can’t get past the casting of 35 year-old Steve McQueen playing a supposed 16 year-old in this 1966 western from director Henry Hathaway ( “True Grit” ). Having grown up watching “Beverly Hills 90210” I’m kind of an old hand at suspending disbelief with the ages of actors and their characters (Bit of a strange reference, j