O Forasteiro

After delivering his prize bulls from Texas to a mysterious buyer in the Amazon, Glen Ford is reluctantly drawn into a dispute between a wealthy rancher, a beautiful women, homesteaders and Brazilian bandits. A vintage performance by Ford is complemented by Cesar Romero, as the bandit "El Gato." The sexy Abbe Lane pulls off a song in the middle of the movie that showcases her then husband, Xavier Cugat's, Latin score. Americans in the 1950's were fascinated with the Amazon, one of North America's last frontiers. With some great second unit wildlife shots, this is not Monument Valley. If you can enjoy an old time western, with its stoic hero and sharp moral choices, set in 1950's Brazil, then this one is for you.

Glenn Ford is out of money and land, but he has a contract to sell his string of bulls down in the Mato Grosso in Brazil. Except when he gets there, the man he's supposed to sell them to is dead. Ford deals with the man's successor, Frank Lovejoy, but finds himself in a range war, between Lovejoy, Ursula Thiess, whose father left her a tiny ranch and a string of cattle, and Cesar Romero, whom Lovejoy says killed his predecessor. But did he?

With talk about nesters moving in, this looks like an attempt to upgrade a western into the A category with an exotic locale. Indeed, Bud Boetticher shot some scenes in Brazil, before the money ran out. By the time additional capital was available, Boetticher and the original leading lady had moved on, and William Castle was called in to finish up, leaving Ford underplaying everything. The result is a very unkempt Romero steals every scene he's in, resulting in an erratically interesting movie.

Four years before he would be known as the master of the gimmick, William Castle directed this South of the border Western starring Glenn Ford, Cesar Romero, Abby Lane and Frank Lovejoy. In true William Castle style, tho let it be known it wasn't always his fault, The Americano was met with a number of problems. Not least that after being afforded a considerable budget by RKO standards, they ran out of money half way thru. With most of the shoot being in the Matto Grosso jungle in Brazil, where it's believed that Budd Boetticher took control of the shoot, they had to hop tail it back to Hollywood where the project sat in limbo for months. By the time of the reconvene, original choice for the role of Teresa, Sara Montiel, had moved onto Warner Bros and was no longer available after having her RKO contract cancelled for the film. In came Abby Lane and all the scenes with Teresa in had to be re-shot.

The plot sees Ford as Texas cowboy Sam Dent who agrees to take on a job of delivering prize Bulls to a mysterious buyer down near the Amazon in Brazil. However, when he gets there he finds that the man he was meant to meet has been murdered. Quickly making friends with Manuel (Romero), Dent finds that there is a range war going on and that bandits run rife in the area. Trying to stay neutral he finds that he may have to pick a side after all. Does he trust Manuel, a well known bandit by all accounts, be loyal to Bento Hermanny (Lovejoy) who has given him a roof over his head, or pitch in with the lovely Marianna Figuerido (Ursula Thiess) who he is starting to get sweet on? Either way it possibly spells trouble for him.

Amiable, if over used, story that becomes watchable due to the efforts of Ford (as cool as ever) and Romero (who walks away with the movie), The Americano is clearly not the movie the makers set out to make. It was a bold move to make a Western down by the Amazon, not least because the locale should have made for rich pickings. But the problems off screen are up there on the screen. It's photographed by William E. Snyder (Creature from the Black Lagoon/Flying Leathernecks) and the locale is not utilised at all. Shot in Technicolor, the jungle sadly looks grey and almost ashen. There's a little bit of good lens work for a fire sequence, but the majority of it is very poor. They may as well have just built a cheap jungle set at the California base where the rest of the film was shot. The editing is bad and some scenes are blighted by basic errors, watch as Ford is hand tied on his horse one minute then rides an escape in free hand the next! Then there is the awful performance of Thiess, so bad it's obvious why she didn't go on to have a career in Hollywood. This in spite of Howard Hughes manfully fighting her corner.

However, this is a film I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to my Western loving friends on proviso they don't expect too much. Ford and Romero are worth it, as is a couple of scenes such as a pitch fork fight and a dandy piranha dangle sequence. While for the boys Lane warbles and wobbles in a very engaging way. So a big case of not what it should have been, but not without its merits either, and certainly fun enough to adequately fill a couple of hours of undemanding time. 5.5/10

What an interesting story, this western made in Brazil. As also was Hugo Fregoonese's SAVAGE PAMPAS, made ten years later in Argentina. During those golden years for western, it was very rare that those films were not made in the USA, Mexico, Spain or Italy...The story however brings nothig really new, besides those new settings for an American western. Good pace, solid acting, convincing directing elements; only the story is not flawless. Frank Lovejoy is excellent in this film; I don't remember he made other films with Glenn Ford, besides this one. William Castle will abandon this kind of films a few years later for his famous horror gimmick films cycle. His best part.

I won't write 4 paragraphs about the plot. I wanted to see this movie again from another perspective. In the 50s to 1966 when Eric Fleming was killed in Peru filming an adventure movie, studios did some live filming on field locations because the tourist industry, airlines, people with vacation money wanted to see Panama, Brazil, Morocco etc. I like to watch on location movies with Ford and other actors. This one is good for the location filming but shallow. Glenn Ford displays again his excellent horsemanship. he was considered of the top 3 riders of that time. 2 high jumps and 3 running mounts. I can watch a whole movie of him riding. This is 1 movie where its not about him in a romance, so his acting has more character. For as much as this story could have contained, it was spread out evenly. Glenn was great, movie is good.