The Wonderful Country
Having fled to Mexico from the U.S. many years ago for killing his father's murderer, Martin Brady travels to Texas to broker an arms deal for his Mexican boss, strongman Governor Cipriano Castro. Brady breaks a leg and while recuperating in Texas the gun shipment is stolen. Complicating matters further the wife of local army major Colton has designs on him, and the local Texas Ranger captain makes him a generous offer to come back to the states and join his outfit. After killing a man in self-defense, Brady slips back over the border and confronts Castro who is not only unhappy that Brady has lost his gun shipment but is about to join forces with Colton to battle the local raiding Apache Indians.
Wuchak@Wuchak
_**Robert Mitchum caught between Mexico and America**_
A man from Missouri now living in Mexico and working for shady officials breaks his leg while conducting business in a West Texas town across the river. He has time to consider his future options, which include maybe joining the Texas Rangers and possibly hooking up with the unsatisfied wife of a straitlaced officer (Julie London & Gary Merrill). Meanwhile his bosses in Mexico blame him for a lost shipment of firearms.
“The Wonderful Country” (1959) is similar in tone (not plot) to “Vera Cruz” (1954) and “One-Eyed Jacks” (1961), but lacks their compelling stories to make it great.
This is still a worthwhile Western. It’s realistic and weighty with a few meaty dialogues and gems to mine, not to mention it’s nice to see a black character in an old Western (Leroy 'Satchel' Paige). It just needed a more focused script to tie everything together for a more absorbing experience.
The film runs 1 hour, 37 minutes, and was shot entirely in Mexico (Chihuahua, Sonora and Durango).
GRADE: B-
CinemaSerf@Geronimo1967
This is really just a film for Robert Mitchum fans. He is "Brady", a hard-nosed drifter who manages to get embroiled in some gun-running on the US/Mexican border, then to break his leg, then to have to fight off the designs of Julie London's "Helen" (who happens to be married to a Yankee captain - Gary Merrill). The film is certainly not dull - aside from some gently smouldering scenes from Miss London, poor old "Brady" is constantly jumping ships with aplomb - trying to stay just one step ahead each time. The dialogue is sometimes quite pithy, and there are plenty of action scenes. Mitchum brings some charisma to the screen, but London should have stuck to singing, her acting never had very much depth to it. The rest of the film is just a little bit too busy - too many characters, too many complications and by the end I wasn't sure if I was really so very bothered.