Le mercenaire de minuit

Studio-slick story with talky screenplay, it starts when Confederate soldier named Matt Weaver (George Segal) goes back to his village after the Civil War, he encounters that his house has been sold by landowner Sam Brewster (Pat Hingle). Brewster hires enigmatic gunfighter Jules Gaspard d'Estaing (Yul Brynner) to deal with Weaver and charged with taking him out but d'Estaing's independent approach settles the issues in a very unorthodox manner . When Jules is assigned for cleaning up the troubled community , he suddenly shifts loyalties and turning the balance of power. Meanwhile , there takes place a lovely triangle among the main characters (Brynner, Segal and Janice Rule).

This is a tremendously exciting story of a gunfighter-for-hire who had only one more killing to go. It begins as a slow-moving Western but follows to surprise us with dark characters and solid plot ; resulting to be a striking piece. Long on dialog but contains an exciting final with surprising duel . The tale is almost grim , a killer comes to a town just in time to make sure its citizenry but later the events get worse . Short on action Western with Brynner as rare gunslinger who is hired as professional murderous to kill outcast Confederate George Segal. The highlights are the violent destruction of the town and the climatic showdown at the ending. Phenomenal and great role for Yul Brynner as avenger angel and bitter gunfighter, he's the whole show at the height of his iconic game . Vivid and lively musical score by David Raksin. Atmospheric cinematography in glimmer color by Joseph McDonald. The motion picture is professionally realized by Richard Wilson (Al Capone , Three in Attic). Wilson was a previous associate of Orson Welles in the Mercury Theatre days and made another good Western as ¨Man with a gun¨, starring Robert Mitchum and ¨Zane Grey¨ episodes. Watchable results for this offbeat Western.

One of those Westerns in which the townspeople come to wish they hadn't hired a gunslinger to do their dirty work. I had suspected that the version I saw on TV had been edited to squeeze into programme schedules, but this website gives the running time as 92 minutes and the TV slot (including commercials) was 105 minutes. One moment Matt Weaver has stormed into the night, furious that in his absence his home has been sold, the next he's become a feared outcast who's killed a man, instantly becoming such a threat to the townspeople that they have to hire a gunman. OK, the town has lost many of its men to the Civil War, but surely its citizens could muster enough courage and guns to do the job themselves? Brynner produces a sinister screen presence and dominates the cast, many of are low key. And several plot elements are understated; racism there may be in the town, but this is only evident when the hotel owner suggests that d'Estaing might be better suited seeking a room in the Mexican quarter; there's been many a better portrayal of a corrupt town boss than Pat Hingle's; and the lady to whom d'Estaing returns her pawned jewelry looks a bit too elegant to be down to her last dress.

d'Estaing's drunken rampage through the town came as a shock; the place must have been typical of many of the postbellum period, and its racism, venality and corruption as portrayed in the film didn't seem to justify a hired assassin's rage. It would have been better had d'Estaing been exposed to more overt racism than a patronising suggestion that he finds accommodation in a Mexican establishment.

No great surprises in the ending, but again it wasn't convincing when the Anglo-Americans united with the Mexicans in a gesture of respect.

Take away Brynner and this would have been an extremely average Western.

Largely on the strength of 'Al Capone' (1959), director Richard Wilson was considered sufficiently noteworthy during the mid-sixties to rate an entry in the Thames & Hudson 'Encyclopedia of the Arts' (1966).

This talky, awe-inspiringly pretentious 'adult' western (scripted by Wilson and his wife Elizabeth) that a few years earlier would have signalled it's seriousness by being in black & white (like 'High Noon' or '3:10 to Yuma') is instead shot in incongruously pretty colour by veteran cameraman Joe MacDonald on the Universal backlot, where Brynner later trashes the already flimsy-looking sets with suspicious ease.

Based on a 1957 TV play, it was made too early to be influenced by Sergio Leone, but was obviously influenced (as was Leone himself) by the samurai films of Kurosawa.

The cast was largely recruited from TV and the New York stage, some of whom - like George Segal and Strother Martin - became more familiar a few more years later; while David Raksin's woodwind score lingers in the memory.

I have always like westerns and would consider this one a must-see. It's quite dated in places with many of it's attitudes rooted in the 1950s and some really laughable dialog. But it's moral stance and it comments on society's treatment of it's poor, it's minorities, it's women, hits you like a slap to the face. It's always a pleasure to watch Yul Brenner at work and he really carries this movie. George Segal is okay as his presumed antagonist but the real bad guy(s) in this movie are not so easily identified. I was stunned to see how much of the plot of this movie influenced one of my favorite Westerns of all time - High Plains Drifter. The resemblance is uncanny - of course HPD does it better but still I have to recommend this to anyone who likes Westerns.

This is an underrated western with a great moral lesson about both racism and judging too quickly from appearances. The townspeople led by Pat Hingle in this northern leaning western town hire Yul Brynner to gun down George Segal who has returned from the Civil War after fighting for the Confederacy. George Segal has come back to claim his land and his woman, each of which has been taken by another.

AS the movie progresses it's slowly revealed that the Union leaning town is not what it seems to be. Pat Hingle plays a politician very common for 30 years after the Civil War, adept at what they called "waving the bloody shirt." Just demagogue away at who did what and where during the war and ignore the current issues both social and economic.

During the course of The Magnificent Seven, Yul Brynner's Chris Adams is referred to as a Cajun. Here he's given a proper Cajun name of Jules D'Estaing and when his secret is revealed, a whole lot of people in that town have to confront their own prejudices.

Makes for worthwhile viewing.