high june: rio conchos

Posted on by The Beard

RIO CONCHOS (1964) is an American western produced by David Weisbart. It was written by Joseph Landon and Clair Huffaker based on her novel GUNS OF RIO CONCHOS (1958). The director was Gordon Douglas (THEM! [1954]; IN LIKE FLINT [1967]; THEY CALL ME MISTER TIBBS [1970]). It stars Richard Boone, Stuart Whitman, and Tony Franciosa. 

Cast

Richard Boone as Lassiter

Stuart Whitman as Captain Haven

Tony Franciosa as Rodriguez

Jim Brown as Sergeant Franklyn

Wende Wagner as Sally

Major Lassiter – an ex-Confederate army officer – has a private war going with the Apache. They killed his wife and daughter. He is using a stolen U.S. Army repeating rifle he bought from a man named Pardee. There is concern that Pardee or someone like him will sell these stolen rifles to the Apache thereby shifting the balance of power. 

The army arrests Lassiter and will only free him if he agrees to lead a small scouting group into Mexico to find the rifles. The group consists of Lassiter, Haven the army captain who lost the rifles in the first place, Franklyn a buffalo soldier, Rodriguez who is Lassiter’s man, and later on an Apache woman who they call Sally. 

Fighting their way thru bandits, Apaches, and gunmen they eventually do find Pardee and he is in fact selling guns to the Apaches – including those who killed Lassiter’s family. What is Lassiter’s reaction when he finds this out? Do our heroes stop Pardee? Do they get the rifles back? What about the Indian girl?

You are going to have a lot of fun watching this movie and answering these questions for yourselves. 

  • This is the film debut of Jim Brown. At the peak of his football career he gave it up to become an actor. 
  • RIO CONCHOS was released while Tony Franciosa was starring in a sitcom called VALENTINE’S DAY (1964-1965). To publicize the movie he recreated his character Rodriguez in an episode. 
  • This was Wende Wagner’s debut and she gets an “introducing” credit.

Dislikes

  • And once again the evil Indians are the bad guys. However, this time it is a bit offset by having an Indian girl as one of the heroes. 
  • There is a baby in this movie. I’m not going to go into details – spoilers! But I don’t do babies in movies. 

Likes

  • I love Richard Boone and I think he is a highly underrated actor. I love him in HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL (1957-1963) and if you have never seen this show you have to check it out. I also loved him in HEC RAMSEY (1972-1974), as the bad guy in BIG JAKE (1971), and just about anything else I’ve seen him in. 
  • I enjoyed seeing Wende Wagner. She played Miss Case in THE GREEN HORNET (1966-1967). She and Bruce Lee were the best thing about that show. Interestingly enough, in RIO CONCHOS she has no lines whatsoever in English. 
  • Big Jim Brown is in this movie. In fact, this is his first movie. Thank God it wasn’t his last because I loved watching his movies in the 60s and 70s. If you want a treat check out a movie he made calledKENNER (1960). I love this movie!!!

RIO CONCHOS, like DUEL AT DIABLO (1966) which I reviewed last week, are great westerns that did not do well initially but have stood the test of time. Some westerns easily become dated. Some, upon a second viewing, have you asking yourself what was it I liked the first time? I have watched RIO CONCHOSat least a half a dozen times and have loved it every time. That is saying a lot for any movie. 

RIO CONCHOS is a damn good western! It’s a little off beat – the heroes are not your typical western heroes. It’s very violent. Not Sam Peckinpah violent – those movies come a little later on. But it ain’t comic book violence either. What it has is a good story, told with gusto, and played to the hilt by the various actors. You lose yourself for two hours – and isn’t that what movies are supposed to do? 

It should come as no surprise that I enthusiastically give RIO CONCHOS four gray geeks on our rating scale. Excelsior!

Well, that is it for this time buckaroos. I thank you kindly for keeping me company. I appreciate it when we visit together. Nex time I’m thinking of taking a look at THE COMANCHEROS (1961) a movie that is similar to RIO CONCHOS in many ways. Until then, Hasta la vista!

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Published by The Beard

I’m Eliseo Figueroa Jr. and you’re not. I was born in Saint Francis hospital across the street from Saint Mary’s Park in the Bronx. I was born there because that was where my mother was and I wanted to be near her. My parents came from Puerto Rico and moved to New York City when they were kids. My dad spoke fluent English – with an accent – but he’d had a stint in the army and had mastered the language. However, he needed a little work on reading and so everyday on the way to work he would buy a comic book and read it on the subway. In those days they were ten cents, a quick read, you could fold them and put them in your pocket, and when you finished you threw them away. Back home my mom would tell my dad to read me a story to put me to sleep. My dad had no desire whatsoever to read me any of my baby books so he read me one of his comic books instead. While other kids dreamed of Mother Goose, the Old Lady who lived in a shoe, or Little Red Riding Hood, I dreamt of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. And this went on for years. When I got older I asked him to give me the comic books. At that point he stopped throwing them out and I had a comic book collection even though I still didn’t know how to read. During the day I would make my mom read me my comics over and over again. I was dying to learn how to read and had been told that you learn to read in first grade. I remember being so excited the first day of school for the first grade. I couldn’t contain myself. I thought it was like magic – poof! – I was going to come back home and be able to read all of my comics. My mom had to sit me down and explain that it was a process. That over time I would learn how to read and by the time I finished the first grade I would be reading. I must say I was disappointed but more determined than ever to master this thing called reading. Over the years my comic collection grew (my dad had to keep building bigger and better shelves) and so did my interests. I mastered reading and went on to read books. I discovered the library where they actually let you borrow books – what a concept! And my interests in literary science fiction and fantasy expanded to include television and movies. Yes, I was and still am a full-blown geek! By the way, I’m the beard in our little duet. I have a goatee and no moustache. In all that time while growing up my dad never once complained. How could he? This was all his fault and he knew it. One time we were in a store where I was purchasing some comics and it all came to twenty bucks. As my dad was paying the man the owner commented on how much I was spending on comic books. My dad’s reply was, “Well, at least he’s not on drugs!” Science fiction, fantasy, horror, secret agents, giant monsters, and more are my drug of choice. Anyone who has ever sat in a darkened theater and has had their heart start racing in excitement as the music to STAR WARS begins to play knows exactly what I mean.