Le trésor des sept collines

Gold of the Seven Saints is directed by Gordon Douglas and adapted to screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Leonard Freeman from Steve Frazee's novel. It stars Clint Walker, Roger Moore, Robert Middleton, Chill Wills and Leticia Roman. Filmed in Warnerscope, cinematography is by Joseph F. Biroc and the music is scored by Howard Jackson.

Jim Rainbolt (Walker) and Shaun Garrett (Moore) strike it rich and quickly find themselves pursued across the sun scorched lands by money hungry baddies...

OK! It's what can be termed as a poor man's Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It also has Roger Moore in a Western movie trying to do an Irish accent! And! It's also in black and white, which when you see how beautifully crisp Biroc's photography is - as the Utah landscapes scorch the eyes - seems such a waste of an opportunity. Yet there's a lot of fun here, some perky scripting and deftly staged action, even some genuine moments of suspense. While Chill Wills pops in for a dandy performance to please the Western faithful.

Leticia Roman is a token lady offering, the resolution is a bit of a damp squib, but Walker, Wills and Moore are darn fine company to be in, which in this case is enough to make time spent with this movie time well spent. 6.5/10

I like Clint Walker and roger Moore before he was 007 was interesting to see. I also like westerns, horses, gold, good and bad guys, dust, thirst, watching greed act out and guys guzzling booze. After all, this is a Western. Give it a shot

'Gold of the Seven Saints' reminded me quite a bit of 1948's 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre', but with more humour.

When horse thief Shaun Garrett (Roger Moore) is caught in the act stealing a horse and forced to pay for the horse, he pays with gold. Now, him and his partner Jim Rainbolt (Clint Walker) are being followed by a group of bandits, who demand half their gold.

With the weight of the gold slowing them down, Jim and Shaun decide to bury the gold. After a gunfight with the bandits, Doc Wilson Gate (Chill Wills) shows up, and attends to Shaun's wound, having been shot. He, too, would like a share of the gold, but unlike the bandits he helps Jim and Shaun.

They take refuge at the home of Jim's old friend, Amos Gondora (Robert Middleton), where they meet the lovely maiden Tita (Letícia Román), who allows for many humerous moments as both men vie for her attention.

However, it soon becomes clear Amos Gondora is also after the gold, and he pursues Jim and Shaun when they leave the following day. There's action and adventure all the way as Jim and Shaun is being pursuit be several people wanting the gold. And when it comes to gold, no 'good intentions' are good.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Clint Walker is a delicious hunk of a man and fortunately the film finds excuses to show off his muscular, hairy physique. I mean, this hunk stood almost 2m (6 foot 6 inches) tall with a 120cm (32 inch) chest!

Roger Moore was fabulous as Shaun, who served mostly as comic relief. I enjoyed the chemistry between Shaun and Jim as they stood together in the face of danger. I enjoyed this movie.

Western knock-off of "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" is entertaining if not as brilliant as it's source material. Clint Walker and Robert more find 125 pounds of gold nuggets and are on the run across the desert from various factions also wanting the gold. Walker is serviceable as the lead (I always thought he'd be perfectly cast as The Punisher), but it's a young Roger Moore (even before his breakthrough role as Simon Templar in "The Saint") who really brings life to the picture as a wily Irishman. It's nothing brilliant that you haven't seen before in any number of other western, but it's all done well and was never boring. Co-written by the great Leigh Brackett, who's worked on everything from "The Big Sleep" to "Rio Bravo" to "The Empire Strikes Back."

While on hiatus from their Warner Brothers series, Clint Walker from Cheyenne and Roger Moore from Maverick, the studio got them for this rather grim western Gold Of The Seven Saints.

Moore while buying a pack horse in town pays with a gold nugget that interests bandit Gene Evans. He comes after Moore and his partner Clint Walker with his gang. But Moore and Walker get help from an old running buddy of Walker's former bandit chief Robert Middleton and doctor/gunfighter Chill Wills.

Neither Walker or Moore are any kind of cowboy heroes. The 50s marked the adult western and these adults are no better than they ought to be. Even Clint Walker whom Warner Brothers had hopes of turning into a new generation's Gary Cooper.

Not much budget was spent on Gold Of The Seven Saints. But the players really deliver on this one.