Le Californien

This is a fair movie to say the least. Not one of Charles Bronson's better movies. Only the die-hard Bronson fan might want to check it out. Look for a very young Kurt Russell in the film also.

Guns of Diablo was originally a two part episode from the short lived series The Travels of Jamie McPheeters in which Charles Bronson was a regular.

The series was a juvenile that served to introduce audiences to young Kurt Russell who got his first real notice in the show though it only lasted a season. The Pulitzer Prize winning novel from where the series was adapted concerned a journey west on a wagon train seen through the eyes of young Jamie. Bronson was the wagon-master for the train.

Bronson and Russell goes into town for supplies and meets a part of his past he'd like to both remember and forget at the same time. The part to remember is a lost love in the person of Susan Oliver. The part to forget is three hard case brothers named Macklin, one of whom has lost a right arm, courtesy of Bronson and who is now married to Oliver.

I have to confess I was somewhat surprised at a flashback, scene where both Oliver and Bronson are in a state of semi undress by a creek. It's rather obvious even to juvenile viewers what's been going on and I can hardly believe it was allowed in a program aimed for kids.

The episodes were edited together and released as a feature film to take advantage of the growing popularity of both Russell and Bronson. Still it betrays it's television origin, although from this film you wouldn't know that Russell and not Bronson who was the star of the show.

"Guns of Diablo" currently has a rating of 5.7...which is rather on the low side. I was surprised, as I loved this film and nearly gave it a 9! It's original, well acted and directed as well as quite enjoyable.

The film begins with Linc (Charles Bronson) leading a wagon train across the country during the old west period. When a member of the expedition is badly injured, they decide to stay put for a few days to enable him to recover as well as allowing Linc to go into town to get provisions. He takes a precocious young man (Kurt Russell...who is excellent here) with him and although the trip should have been uneventful, they walk into a hornet's nest of sorts. This is because some sociopathic brothers have moved there and they run the place...and they would love to kill Linc. Can he and the boy survive this hellish town and the trio of bullies waiting to exact revenge?

The film really delivers in many ways. It's tense, exciting and really interesting. Bronson is simply terrific in one of his earlier starring roles and as I mentioned before, young Kurt Russell is shockingly good. Overall, a real sleeper which deserves to be seen.

Charles Bronson is not listed for "The Adventures of Jaime McPheeters," a September 1963-March 1964 series, but he played Linc Murdock in that show (with Kurt Russell in the title role and Dan O'Herlihy as his father) for the last 18 or 20 episodes after another actor left. I've seen snippets from this film and may have it on home video, but my cataloging leaves much to be desired.

Although the movie is in color at a time when color TV shows were relatively rare, I think it's either a two-part series episode given theatrical release or a movie feature quickly spun off from the series. Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide doesn't list it. Perhaps someone can hunt down the show (perhaps I could do it myself from a source book I know) and put it into IMDb.

Guns of Diablo (1964)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

By the numbers Western will work a lot better if you're fans of Charles Bronson and Kurt Russell. In the film, wagon trail leader Linc Murdock (Bronson) and his young pal (Russell) head into town for some supplies but once there Linc sees the woman (Susan Oliver) who he fell in love with years earlier but also the three brothers who kept them apart and now want him dead. This feature was taken from episodes of "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters" and you can see in various scenes that it has a TV look. While there's nothing overly special here I think fans of Bronson and Russell with enjoy their performances enough to make this film worth viewing. What we've got here are two TV episodes built around some new footage, which includes a pretty risqué love scene between Bronson and Oliver, which was clearly added for the European market where this film mostly played. This and the rather violent shoot-out at the end are two of the better sequences but we also get a pretty good open with the wagons trying to cross a violent river when Bronson must jump in to save a man. Another good sequence is a 20-minute flashback where we see how Bronson came to be so hated. This here was taken from the TV episode but it actually features some pretty good cinematography and nice drama. Bronson actually turns in a pretty good performance here as he gets to throw in some romance as well as tender drama, which is something he wouldn't get to do decades later when he was appearing in various Canon films. He works well with Oliver and the two have great chemistry together and really sell the love story side of the film. Russell is also very energetic here and makes for a good sidekick to Bronson. Seeing the two (now) legends together was a lot of fun and I think fans of both will enjoy seeing them here. The supporting villains aren't written too well and John Fiedler (12 ANGRY MEN) doesn't come off too well either. Douglas Fowley gets some good scenes with Russell as the elderly man who claims to be a millionaire. If one comes to this film expecting a John Ford production then they're going to be disappointed. If you have 79-minutes to kill and are a fan of the cast then I'm sure you'll at least stay entertained from start to finish.