Fella_shibby Quincy Jones' opening score and the theme song Old Turkey Buzzard are so emotionally powerful (especially combined with the magnificent photography) that sometimes I will just play the beginning of the film for my enjoyment. This grand, sprawling western is an entertaining picture with mega cast names that results in an enjoyable adventure. Don't  look on it as a typical western. It just happens to be set in a western setting. This movie is centered around GREED. Its directed by J. Lee Thompson (The guns of navarone, cape fear). The direction is generally good, there is some striking photography of the desert landscapes, and sequences such as the fight scene between Mackenna and Colorado and the final earthquake are well handled. We also have quality thespians like Omar Sharif (Hidalgo, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago). Eli Wallach ( The good, the bad n the ugly). Edward G. Robinson ( The Cincinnati Kid, The Ten Commandments). Raymond Massey ( How the West Was Won). Telly Savalas (dirty dozen, cape fear, on her majestys secret service). Burgess Meredith (Rocky, clash of the titans). Lee J. Cobb ( The Exorcist, Our Man Flint, 12 angry men, On the waterfront). Keenan Wynn (The Mechanic, Point Blank, The Night of the Grizzly), Anthony Quayle (Lawrence of Arabia, The guns of navarone) n Ted Cassidy ( The Addams Family, Poor Pretty Eddie). Screenplay by Carl Foreman ( The Bridge over the River Kwai, High Noon, Guns of navarone). Cinematography by Joseph MacDonald ( The Sand Pebbles, Taras Bulba). Edited by Bill Lenny.

James Hitchcock "Mackenna's Gold" is based on a similar theme to that of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", namely how people can be corrupted by the lust for gold. Unusually for an American Western, it had a major success in the Soviet Union, where the authorities doubtless saw it as a parable of capitalist greed, neatly ignoring the fact that it had been made by a capitalist corporation with the express purpose of making money. Whenever Hollywood satirises greed and lust for money, it generally does so for good business reasons. An old legend tells of a vast fortune in gold lost somewhere in the Arizona desert. The Apache Indians were well aware of the gold, but made no attempt to exploit it, believing that it belonged to the spirits and that their tribe would only prosper so long as left it untouched. The plot is too complicated to set out in any detail, largely because there are so many diverse groups and individuals in pursuit of the gold. The title character, Marshal Mackenna, is one of these, although he is sceptical about the existence of the treasure and is only in pursuit of it because he has been forced to accompany a gang of outlaws who believe he knows the location of the legendary "Cañon del Oro".The film might share a theme with "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", but in quality it is far inferior to John Huston's masterpiece. The main reason is that the plot is far too complex. Besides the two main leads, Gregory Peck as Mackenna and Omar Sharif as Colorado, the leader of the outlaws, the film features several big-name stars, including Telly Savalas, Lee J. Cobb, Anthony Quayle and Edward G. Robinson, most of them only in minor roles and some of them with surprisingly little to do. There are too many characters, most of whom end up dead, and it is very difficult to keep track of who is who, who has been killed, who has killed him, and why. The ending, with that sudden earthquake burying the gold forever, seems far too neat and schematic. On the positive side, the acting is not all bad. This is far from being Peck's greatest film, but he gives a reasonable performance as Mackenna, seemingly the last man of decency and integrity in a world driven mad with greed. Sharif is also watchable as the only Egyptian bandit in the Old West. (Actually, Colorado is supposedly Mexican; Sharif seemed to specialise in playing characters of every nationality except his own). There are decent performances in supporting roles from Savalas as a villainous Army officer and Julie Newmar as the Apache woman Hesh-Ke, a former lover of Mackenna. Newmar does not speak a word throughout the film, yet still dominates every scene she is in by charisma alone. The lovely Julie's talents clearly stretched much further than Catwoman in the "Batman" TV series, the role for which she is best remembered today. The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson, a British-born director who worked both in Hollywood and in his native country. His work tended to vary in quality, and although "Mackenna's Gold" is not his worst film it falls a long way short of the likes of "Yield to the Night" and the original "Cape Fear". (1969 was the year in which he also made the seriously weird "Country Dance", aka "Brotherly Love", about incest among the Scottish aristocracy, but his all-time worst must be the dreadful "King Solomon's Mines"). Yet in this case it would be unfair to blame Thompson for the relative failure of the film. His direction is generally good, there is some striking photography of the desert landscapes, and sequences such as the fight scene between Mackenna and Colorado and the final earthquake are well handled. The problem lies with the script, which was always going to be too much of a sow's ear for any director to make a silk purse out of. 5/10

JasparLamarCrabb Not awful but this film does dedicate an inordinate amount of time to the bickering between Gregory Peck & Omar Sharif. Sharif is a bandit who bushwhacks Marshall Peck with the hope that he'll lead him to a seemingly mythological valley teeming with gold. It's an arduous trek with run ins with the US cavalry, Apaches and A LOT of greedy townspeople. Directed in Panavision by J Lee Thompson, who makes great use of the wide screen. It's unfortunate that the script is so weak. A number of characters in this densely populated film don't even seem to have names. Peck and Sharif make good adversaries and the cast includes Camilla Sparv, Telly Savalas, Keenan Wynn, Julie Newmar, Ted Cassidy and narration by Victor Jory. There are cameos by the likes of Anthony Quayle, Burgess Meredith, Raymond Massey, Lee J Cobb and Edward G Robinson. The exciting score is by Quincy Jones.

Bob_Zerunkel This guy who got famous for standing around watching crazy people and occasionally commenting on humanity plays the lead, a man who stands around watching crazy people and occasionally commenting on humanity.So in the movie, this guy is ambushed by an Italian guy who was a leader of an Indian tribe. In the end the Italian guy dies and the other Italian Indians get mad.Then the guy who gets famous is captured by this Greek guy who heads the local Mexican gang which is made up of white guys playing Mexicans and/or Indians.Lurch just stands there, but Catwoman does her sexy killer routine.So far, after 40 years, that's as far as I've gotten. Peck is the slowest moving action hero known to man. Van Cleef, by the way, still gets that award in the villain and overall categories. Lurch is as good as needed. Catwoman is truly strange. The godawful music must have been written in 5 minutes (by one of the best in the business) and also recorded in 5 minutes (again, by one of the best.)...... Parts I didn't see because they happened after Minute 5 which is the point where my aneurysm always starts throbbing:The producers felt that having just one Greek in a Mexican gang was not enough so they import another guy later on. But two Greek guys is not enough to make an authentic Mexican gang.They bring in stars such as Edward G., but they had to poke his eyes out.From what I hear, this is sort of a messy road movie. You could remove the Mexican bandits or the townspeople or Telly and the army, and the movie would be the same. It is one of my lifelong goals to sit through this pile of manure. I failed again today. I plead unpreparedness. All my towels are white and with this aneurysm throbbing, I felt that I was looking at a potentially devastating laundry bill.This movie gets one star because I like Lurch