A la poursuite du soleil d'or

With a title like Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold, you would be forgiven for thinking you were in for a sword-and-sandal actions flick, especially given the popularity of that revived sub-genre in the mid 80's. But surprisingly this one turns out to be a hybrid of the western and adventure genres, so you have to at least acknowledge that it is at the very least coming from a slightly different direction to most. Its director Matt Cimber had made a film the previous year for Crown International Pictures called Hundra, which was a feminist fantasy adventure of sorts. The star of that one, Laurene Landon, returns here in the role of the title character Yellow Hair. She and her brother, the Pecos Kid, are whites who were raised by Apaches. They take on a tribe of mysterious Mayans and an army of Mexicans in their quest for gold.

I thought it was really interesting that this one opens in a theatre with the audience anticipating the feature we are about to watch. All the main characters are introduced with their names on screen, after that we crack on into the action, with the film-within-a-film thing returning at the end with a cliff hanger which shows scenes from next week's instalment (scenes that obviously were never returned to). I guess this could be considered under the bracket of the Paella western given its Spanish origins and filming location. It also stars a few familiar faces from Italian/Spanish westerns, including Aldo Sambrell who appeared in every instalment of Sergio Leone's 'Dollars Trilogy', needless to say in this one like those he plays another bad tattie, in this case a mute henchman. But I think what stood out most to me about this one was the whole story thread about the lost civilisation, who lived underground and carried out weird and sinister rituals – this stuff I guess must have been inspired by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, although both movies were admittedly released the same year so it may just be a coincidence. Whatever the case, I thought this one had enough oddness about it to give it pass marks. Don't expect anything great but you will at least get something slightly different.

YELLOW HAIR AND THE FORTRESS OF GOLD is a Crown International release, which we all know what that means: acting, production values, dialogue are all questionable. Seriously, this movie looks like one of the bigger budgeted CI flicks but that doesn't mean the movie itself is better than the average CI release. While watching it, the film reminded me more of Spaghetti Westerns than the Indiana Jones type of movies it's being advertised as. The title and the video's cover box are very deceptive. YELLOW HAIR AND THE PECOS KID is a more apt title. Though there are some moments about a lost civilization and treasures, the whole stale flick is nowhere near the type of action seen in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, even if both movies use old time serials as their source of inspiration.

The film itself was dull and creaky. Lotsa slow motion gun action, typical in Westerns made in the 1960s. Seeing that this movie was made in the 1980s, YELLOW HAIR has a very outdated feel to it. Spaghetti Westerns weren't being made in the 1980s anymore. It's seems the producers of this stillborn action/western weren't aware of this. The acting was mostly bad. The ineffectual heroine, Yellow Hair, is unfortunately nicknamed "Yella" throughout the movie. The whole film is politically incorrect but not in a fun P.I. way. Some of the stunts involving horses were obviously harmful to the animals. All in all, a pretty forgettable and pointless Spaghetti Western film, deceptively advertised as an action movie.

There are some reviews on this site that give Yellow Hair one star. That's uncalled for as this is not a bad movie. It's no Seven Samurai, but let's be honest with our expectations on a movie called 'Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold'. This movie doesn't deliver Oscars, but it does deliver a funny script with plenty of gun-play and Spaghetti Western caricatures of good and bad guys (or gals!).

It promotes itself as a 'Lost Ark' style adventure movie, and that is more than a little misleading, as this could have just as easily been a Corbucci or Tessari film. I would let that go, however, and just enjoy a goofy throwback with a high entertainment value.

Rating: 26/40

Director Matt Cimber kicks off Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold in the style of a Saturday morning serial adventure, introducing the viewer to his characters (to the cheers of an appreciative audience) before plonking the viewer in the middle of an ongoing story. It's a lively way to start proceedings, but that's where the fun ends, the exploits of half-breed Yellow Hair (statuesque blonde Laurene Landon) and lovable rogue The Pecos Kid (Ken Roberson) proving stupefyingly tedious despite plenty of noisy action—shooting, explosions, fights and chases, including the obligatory classic stagecoach stunt that sees our heroes falling between the horses.

One can't fault Cimber for trying, I suppose, but his terrible script, lacklustre direction and unengaging characters make for a virtually joyless experience. The shambolic plot meanders aimlessly throughout, there's way too much boring conversation, the comedy is exceptionally weak, and star Landon displays little in the way of acting ability. About the only aspect I enjoyed was the occasional spot of mean spirited violence: a commanchero is thrown off his horse over the edge of a cliff, another is slowly lynched, and one poor guy has his head dipped in molten gold before being decapitated.

In the tradition of the serials it seeks to emulate, the film ends on a cliffhanger, suggesting that a sequel was planned: thankfully, it never materialised.

I'm only reviewing this because so few people have. It's not worth seeking out but could help pass an empty 90 minutes without too much pain.

Laurene Landon is a big, strong, beautiful woman who started getting cast in Amazon roles following the success of 'All the Marbles', where she played a wrestler and mostly left the acting to Peter Falk. A good thing, that, because LL is not the greatest actress and no-one in this movie is much better. The story is derivative spaghetti-western, sort of merged with Flash-Gordon-style serial and Indiana-Jones-style temples, gold etc. Nothing original apart from the female tough-guy but nothing too stupid either.

Direction, script, etc are reasonably competent and the budget must have been fairly high given the scale, effects quality, etc. The cast seem to be enjoying themselves, it's actually funny for the viewer in places and some of the ideas, like the brushwood snakes, weren't bad at all. Why they didn't use some of that budget to hire real actors is anyone's guess.

LL delivers as usual with lots of enthusiasm, but if you want to watch her doing this kind of tough-girl stuff, Hundra is a better movie in most respects.