Les orgueilleux

It is so obvious that Ferde Grofe Jr was more than inspired by Sam Peckinpah's WILD BUNCH and John Sturges' MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. It kas place in mexico where former Confederate soldiers, outcasts, cross the Mexican border before being tragically involved with a Mexican renegade geeral, brutal, blood thirsty high rate officer. Then our bunch will decide to save a poor village from the villain....Even a dumb could see what I am talking about. A typical seventies western. Counter culture best example. Melancholy, gloominess, lost ideals, friendship in bitterness....Everything I have always craved for in a movie. Ferde Grofe has never been a great not even a good director, but let's be indulgetnt and fair, he is not the worst ever either.

The Proud and the Damned is an historical-fiction western starring Chuck Conners and a relatively unknown, but not bad, cast. The film appears to have been filmed in the Chihuahuan Desert, though the setting is inexplicably identified as South America early-on.

Conners leads a group of refugee confederate soldiers traveling through a country in the middle of its own civil war. Apparently, Conners' boys have taken a few odd jobs as mercenaries en-route, and both sides in the present conflict want their help.

The film is essentially an American-made spaghetti-western, without the plot convolutions and tension (or Clint Eastwood) that made this genre so interesting. About mid-way through the story, the film meanders and seems fated to fizzle into oblivion rather than going out with a bang, but it does eventually wander back to its track. The script is occasionally bloated, but not bad. Once in a while, the film actually presents some interesting anthropological points. The acting is surprisingly OK. And the sets, scenery and cinematography are good.

It won't kill you. This is a much more entertaining western than I had anticipated. However, I will limit my recommendation to fans of western movies.

THE PROUD AND THE DAMNED is an odd, zero-budget western that was filmed in Colombia. That novelty value is about the only thing this has going for it as otherwise it's a completely routine oater that feels like a low-budget, low-effort riff on THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. The storyline involves a group of rather dull mercenary types who hole up in a small village during a revolution and soon find themselves getting involved in the action.

Although there's plentiful action in this movie, none of it is very good. It doesn't help matters much that the quality of the print I saw was absolutely pitiful, one of the worst-looking westerns ever. The Colombian locations are effective but the direction is very poor and this feels like an old 1930s-era film rather than a '70s movie. Chuck Connors and Cesar Romero co-star.

The Proud and Damned is written and directed by Ferde Grofe Jr. It stars Chuck Connors, Cesar Romero and Andres Marquis. Music is by Gene Kauer and Douglas M. Lackey, and cinematography by Remegio Young.

1870 and five ex Confederate mercs arrive in South America and become embroiled in another Civil War of sorts...

Pretty poor offering, a pic that was completed in 1969 but wasn't released until three years later, one can only think that after viewing it, some financial backer saw it for the dud it is and refused release! The plot principal is sound, the fact it's a Western filmed in Columbia and set in South America (the place unnamed) is an interesting point of note, plus Connors and Romero at least have fans from which to launch potential for cult fandom. But hopes of a good film are dashed quite early.

Is being boring a valid criticism? Well yes it is, and this is a snore bore. The cast turn in auto-cue acting, all of them saddled with direlogue, the editing is messy, and the musical score irritating as it fluctuates between sorrowful guitar to bandido marching music, with some flamenco type jolly that's out of place as well, and what little action there is is laughably constructed. A bold turn of events in the narrative is worth a point at least, as is the outcome of it all - though it doesn't really make grounded sense - but ultimately this is one that deserves to stay obscure. 2/10

"The Proud and The Damned" is a western that should be seen by any big western fan. You know the good guys from the bad guys by the way the dress (Good guys wear different clothes and the bad guys wear a funny-looking blue uniform with a red scarf around their necks). This film should have won an award for "best costume design" because every time i saw the bad guys running around in those unique, blue, western leisure suits, I laughed my head off and was immediately blown away with the artistic talent and creative efforts in thinking of those uniforms. We all know mexicans didn't wear those kind of clothes. The film has it's "shoot-outs" with cannons, it's original dialogue ("Hey Will, do you think they'll be waiting for us over by that hill of mud?...."You bet your tail!"), and it's daring anti-climax (The good guys lose) that makes it a very realistic piece of american/mexican cinema. Watch for Cesar Romero's final scene as he demands that Chuck Connors pays for the food that he and his men has eaten in a mexican whorehouse....( Cesar Romero)- "Pay for your food mister!" (Chuck Connors) - "The women and the sex we pay for but the food's free, Mr. Mayor cuase I say so." Marvelous