Shalako

Rewatched one of my all-time favourite Westerns this week: Shalako from 1968. This had a cast which certainly defined 'eclectic': Sean Connery, Brigitte Bardot, Jack Hawkins, Honor Blackman and, most bizarrely of all, Eric Sykes. With a cast like that you could be forgiven for dismissing the film as merely a curiosity as many critics have
- but I think it stands up as a really good, and surprisingly gritty, adventure. Connery fits the title role well and comes across as a believable cavalry scout (even if his Scottish accent remains unexplained). I always liked the basic premise of wealthy Europeans 'on safari' in the Wild West and coming unstuck through their own arrogance. The best of these Europeans is undoubtedly Honor Blackman, thoroughly enjoying her role as the no-good wife of Jack Hawkins. The one disappointment is that having reunited the stars of Goldfinger, Connery and Blackman share almost no screen time - a shame given their thrilling chemistry as Bond and Pussy Galore.
Woody Strode is a menacing Chato and I was fascinated to learn recently that he was part Blackfoot and Crow.
The pace moves along well in this movie and there are some good interactions between Connery, Bardot and Peter van Eyck as the leader of the aristocratic hunting party.
I will have to hunt out a DVD version of this though. The version I saw this week was shown mid-afternoon on a Sunday so Honor Blackman's gory murder at the hand of the Apaches (forced to swallow her own pearl necklace) was cut entirely.
The film isn't perfect but I still love it - partly it reminds me of late-night treats as a kid when my dad would let me stay up late with him on a Friday or Saturday to watch stuff like this or the Dirty Dozen.

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