The Sunday Afternoon Western: The Revengers (Region 2)
The Wild Bunch meets The Dirty Dozen was probably how the studio execs were sold on this revenge western. A simple story - rancher John Benedict’s family are murdered and he recruits a group of convicts from a Mexican prison to make them pay - is enlivened by William Holden’s performance as the obsessed rancher.
After a quick introduction showing us his idyllic home life it’s not long before Benedict’s entire family are butchered my raiding Comancheros. He only takes enough time to bury them before riding off in pursuit of the bad guys, first with a posse and then, when they turn back after the trail leads into Texas, going on solo. Realising he’s going to need a little help he breaks a group of disparate felons out of prison and enlists their at first reluctant, assistance.
Holden is reunited with his Wild Bunch co-star Ernest Borgnine but unlike that classic, Borgnine is used here mostly for comic relief. Woody Strode as the one honest man in the bunch is as underused as Borgnine, in fact only Holden’s part has any real depth to it and that has more to do with his ability as an actor rather than the quality of the script.
Director Daniel Mann tried his hand at several different genres with some success. Horror (Willard), spy spoof (Our Man Flint), comedy (The Teahouse of the August Moon) , you name it he’d have a crack at it. He might have made a decent western had he been working with a better script, although there are moments of laziness like the transitional shots as the film jumps forward a year. Made up of riders in silhouette galloping back and forth across the screen with members of the gang having a poorly scripted conversation, full of exposition, over the top it’s made worse when Woody Strode is still impeccably dressed in the same bright purple shirt at the end of it.
Most of the band behave out of character at times merely to forward the storyline - one minute leaving the next coming back or trying to kill Benedict in one scene then saving his life in another. With a better writer this might have been explained, as it is we have to take it on faith.
And over everything is Pino Calvi’s score. Calvi clearly doesn’t believe in subtly enhancing a scene with his music, preferring instead to beat the viewer over the head and into submission. It never leaves you in any doubt what you’re expected to get from a scene; if it’s a comedy moment we get silly comedy music or cloyingly sentimental accompaniment for a romantic moment between Holden and Susan Hayward then.
This no doubt makes the film sound like a total dog but in fact it’s a passable timewaster that’s worth seeing for William Holden’s performance. Some actors could make a poor film watchable purely on star power alone and Holden is clearly one of them, he’s an actor who got better as he got older even if the films weren’t always worthy of him.
The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 but it’s non-anamorphic and lacks detail, here is also a strange flickering effect during some scenes. The mono sound is clear enough if unspectacular.
As with many of Paramount’s back catalogue releases this features no extras.
