Pancho Villa

Fast and funny account of Pancho Villa's invasion of the United States in order to get revenge on an unscrupulous arms dealer that double crossed him, only to get side-tracked by various mishaps and distractions.

Telly Savalas and Clint Walker are great as the smarmy Villa and his number one crony but Chuck Conners is wasted on the caricatured role of a gung-ho Colonel racing to repel Villa's army. All his scenes (particularly the fly in the mess hall) are cringe-worthy in their silliness!

All the fun is somewhat spoiled by the (historically accurate) sight of foreign invaders murdering US soldiers. These scenes would have been better off if they had been whitewashed as they undermine Savalas' "lovable rogue" performance, though it probably played better in those early-seventies days of "radical chic" than it does now.

Overall, the film is so fast-paced that you never slow down long enough to realize how dumb it is until the ending credits roll and Telly starts singing to you!

comedy, western,cartoon, music and Telly Savalas. in one film. a film about nothing except easy amusing. because each character is only caricature. few fight scenes are not worthy spice for this salad.and poor Pancho Villa is absent. his story is only subject for not very inspired party. is it a disappointment ? no way ! it is only slice from a time.small experiment for a kind of public, ironic piece about USA and different form of cartoon about a really Mexican hero.nothing more. after 40 years it can be a curiosity. but the purpose is entertainment, discover of a good actor as clown and few drops of comedy with French nuances.

Telly Savalas put on a passable (but no better than that) performance as Pancho Villa, the notorious Mexican bandit/revolutionary in this account of Villa's raid on the town of Columbus, New Mexico in 1916. Villa is not really a historical figure who I'm overly familiar with, so I won't say much about the historical details of the film. As a movie, this isn't great, although it has a smattering here and there of both action and humour. Chuck Connors' performance as Colonel Wilcox, commander of the U.S. Army base near Columbus struck me as a bit over the top, and Clint Walker as Villa's Gringo sidekick Scotty didn't really do very much for me. The movie is obviously a pretty low budget effort of limited technical quality. For a movie with a runtime of only slightly over an hour and a half I have to say that this movie dragged in places, particularly in the last 20 minutes or so. Villa's raid into the United States was an interesting (if, in the overall scheme of things, not especially important) historical sidebar, and probably deserved better treatment than this. 4/10

Released in 1972 and directed by Eugenio Martín, "Pancho Villa" is a Western farce starring Telly Savalas as the eponymous Mexican revolutionary general who decides to "invade" America with his raid on Columbus, New Mexico, a town three miles from the border, on March 9, 1916. Clint Walker plays his right-hand man, Scotty with Anne Francis as the latter's wife in a troubled marriage. Chuck Connors plays the US Army officer assigned to repelling the raid.

In real life, Pancho was commander of the northern division of the Constitutional Army and governor of the northern state of Chihuahua, Mexico. He was in line for leadership of Mexico and thus had the sympathy of the US Feds who ultimately forsook Villa in favor of his rival, Carranza, who defeated Villa in two major Mexican battles in 1915. Embittered, Pancho took his wrath out on America with his raid on Columbus, which was a slap in the face to the USA, resulting in the death of 8 American soldiers and 10 civilians. Woodrow Wilson retaliated by sending General Pershing and a punitive expedition into Mexico to apprehend Villa. They went pretty deep south of the border, capturing and killing several of Villa's lieutenants, but failed to capture the famous revolutionary himself. The Perishing expedition ended due to Mexican protests and the US entering into WWI. Villa died seven years later when assassins ambushed his car in Parral, Chihuahua.

The movie focuses on the Battle of Columbus and is an odd mixture of serious drama/violence and utterly goofy comedy, like the ridiculous kill-the-fly sequence, which I guess was to make fun of Connor's more-military-than-thou character. Due to the farcical elements it's hard to take the radical violence seriously. Is it funny to see Mexican citizens shockingly shot on the spot at Villa's whim? Is it funny to see American soldiers & civilians slain during the raid on Columbus? For me, this absurdly incongruous tone ruins the movie. Despite my cavils, "Pancho Villa" is somewhat entertaining as a what-were-they-thinking early 70's curiosity, not to mention Savalas & Walker are amusing as the protagonists and Connors as the often silly antagonist. As for Anne, she was still stunning. For anyone who's interested, Savalas sings the credits' song.

Obviously this movie shouldn't be taken too seriously, but it IS somewhat amusing, highlighted by a great train collision at the climax, not to mention the movie DOES inspire you to research the real-life events.

A joint English/Spanish/American production, the film runs 92 minutes and was shot in Spain.

GRADE: Borderline C-/C (4.5/10 Stars)

This is a semi-fictional chronicle of the notorious bandit Pancho Villa (Telly Savalas) . It is a witless recounting of Villa's American campaign with broaden focus about action and irony . Villa (Dorotea Arango , 1878-1923) sends his gringo pal (Clint Walker) as gunrunner into US , but he is betrayed . As he encounters every obstacles with MacDermott (Luis Davila) ; besides , there meets his beautiful spouse (Anne Francis). Then , Villa leads his merry men in the famous raid over an American fort after being double-crossed in a weapons deal . Crossing the frontier attacking firstly the checkpoint and bombing the cartel captioning ¨You are entering in United States¨ . Later on , it begins an intense charge over the Columbus headquarter . A cocky and megalomaniac colonel (Chuck Connors) attempts to battle against him .

This Spanish/American co-production paints an ironic , cynic portrayal of the famous leader following the exploits of Villa and his men formed by a peasant army into USA territory . The picture ignores the wealth of the authentic history and becomes yet another action/adventure/humor Western and this failed production doesn't deliver what it should . It is an average Western with comedy , tongue-in-cheek , action and plenty of shootouts , gun-play and some moments results to be quite entertaining . This Paella/US Western was regularly directed by Eugenio Martin who made terror films (Horror Express) and more Spaghetti Western (Bounty killer , Requiem for a Gringo and Bad man's river) , among others .

This uneven rehash about Pancho villa exploits is partially based on real events , the authentic deeds are the following : For a time Villa,who seemed in line for leadership of Mexico , enjoyed the sympathetic interest of the US government who then dropped Villa and supported his rival , Carranza . Villa's resentment resulted in the vengeance raid on Columbus . Villa slapped the United States in the face by mounting a surprise raid on the town of Columbus,New Mexico,on 9 march 1916, killing eight American soldiers and ten civilians.In retaliation , President Woodrow Wilson sent General Pershing and a Punitive Expedition into Mexico in hot pursuit of Villa.General Pershing's column included the Seventh Cavalry and Apache scouts, chased Villa deep into Mexico , the Americans captured and killed several of Villa's lieutenants but failed to catch the guerrilla leader . Because of Mexican protests , Pershing's command returned to the US.Villa was assassinated in 1923 when gunman ambushed his car .