Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: a western produced and starring Robert Mitchum.
After a few masterpieces to his credit and this, in very different registers – from the thriller The Enigma of the Chicago Express, to the thriller The Strangers in the City, via the adventure film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea -, director Richard Fleischer tried his hand at the western genre in 1956 with Bandido caballero.
The plot of the film takes place in 1916, in the middle of the Mexican Civil War and follows the character of Wilson, a mercenary won over to the cause of the rebels, who is about to steal the cargo of an arms trafficker (Zachary Scott). to help Colonel Escobar (Gilbert Roland). Along the way, he falls in love with Lisa (Ursula Thiess), the trafficker’s wife.
For the lead role, Richard Fleischer hires Robert Mitchum, whom he met on the set of John Farrow’s Finished Laughing. The latter, who also officiates as a co-producer via his company DRM Productions, brings all his nonchalance to the dark and cunning hero, impassive in all circumstances.
Shot on the very spot where revolutionaries and government troops clashed, Bandido caballero is also striking in its authenticity – most of the Mexican extras having experienced these events in particular.
Bandido caballero by Richard Fleischer with Robert Mitchum, Ursula Thiess, Zachary Scott…
Tonight on M6 at 9:10 p.m.