Stronghold

Excellent and strange western co-produced among Mexico and US that does not fall before other films of this genre directed by specialists as John Ford, Henry Hathaway, Delmer Daves or John Sturges. This film itself about enough in style to Allan Dwan or Rudolph Maté with an unmistakably Mexican flavor.

The presence of the great Spanish actress Sara Montiel and of the marvelous one Veronica Lake turn out to be very wise.

And there are, of course, all the ingredients of the western: pursuits, shots, horses, hard men and beautiful women.. Unforgettable.

During the early sound era in Hollywood several studios filmed simultaneous versions of their better films for a foothold in another language market. The practice was discontinued after about five years. Stronghold from the minor Lippert studios revived that practice with Veronica Lake in the lead in Stronghold and Mexican film star Sarita Montiel in Furia Rosa which was the same film. The practice was not revived after this film.

Stronghold has Veronica Lake as a southern sympathizing woman who has come to Mexico with her Mexican national mother after losing a brother during the Civil War. Foolish people think they'll forget their troubles in Mexico which is having its own Civil War between Maximilian and Carlotta and Benito Juarez and his supporters. But even before they're put ashore the women are kidnapped and used for ransom by the Juaristas to get silver from Lake's cousin Zachary Scott who is the local bigshot and Maximilian supporter.

What I found interesting about this film is that in America Maximilian and Carlotta are treated somewhat even handedly being presented as naive people taken in by the false promises of support from Napoleon III. But in a Mexican production which this Lippert film essentially is, the Austrian pair are the worst kinds of villains. Carlotta here is one evil woman and no doubt her flight into insanity would be applauded in a Mexican film before a Mexican audience.

Veronica Lake walked away from her contract with Paramount and this Lippert film was the best thing she could get three years away from the White Mountain studio. She's not bad in it and Zachary Scott is his usual sleazy villain and ruthless one at that. But this did not revive her career on the big screen. Lake did some television was off the big screen for 14 years until she made three more big screen efforts that added no luster.

Scott in order to capture DeCordova flooded his own mine and drowned several people. The flood scene was nicely staged something in special effects you would not normally get from a poverty row studio.

Stronghold is not a bad film, might have been better if a major studio had done it.

The previous commentary might lead people to erroneously believe that both Veronica Lake and Sarita Montiel appear in "Stronghold." Actually Miss Lake appears in the English version only (Stronghold) while Sarita Montiel substitutes her -playing the same part- in the Spanish version whose title is "Furia Roja." There are other casting differences -check entry for "Furia Roja."

Also it is interesting to note the differences in the final edits of both films. The Mexican version has a scene at the beginning which shows the leading lady (Sarita Montiel) still trying to defend her destroyed U.S. Southern plantation while her father's dead body is laid out at a chapel surrounded by slaves. Her brother,(Gustavo Rojo) who is fighting for the North, shows up to check on his family and she almost shoots him since he is wearing the enemy uniform. After the initial confusion, the lady informs her brother that she and their mother (Fanny Schiller) would be moving to their property in Mexico "to forget the horrors of the war and find peace."

The English version starts with both mother and daughter (in this case Veronica Lake and Fanny Schiller) in a vessel arriving in Mexico. My opinion is that the Mexican version is more complete and coherent.

Set in Mexico, "Stronghold" is informed by a sense of history and an original screenplay that manages to combine the best of action movie techniques with a genuine insight into the values and mores of Mexico. Its swashbuckling sense of heroism is never dull, or preachy, yet it contains a wealth of characterization and context that make most Hollywood historical films seem dry and sterile by comparison. Perhaps it escapes cliché in part by putting a USian woman into the lead. It is her gradual education into an understanding of Mexico that is the real story beneath the guns and ambushes.

This film deserves to be much better known.