Cannon for Cordoba

The trouble being a hero is the morning after.

Cannon for Cordoba is directed by Paul Wendkos and written by Stephen Kandel. It stars George Peppard, Giovanna Ralli, Raf Vallone, Pete Duel, Don Gordon, Nico Minardos, John Larch, John Russell and Francine York. A Panavision/De Luxe Color production, music is by Elmer Bernstein and cinematography by Antonio Macasoli.

"In 1912 the border between Texas and Mexico was aflame with the raids of Mexican bandit hordes who called themselves revolutionaries. To combat them the American government dispatched General John J. (Blackjack) Pershing to deal with the bandit raiders, one of the most dangerous of whom was General Hector Cordoba!"

A Paella Western crammed to the brim with machismo and action, Cannon for Cordoba is in desperate need of re-evaluation by the Pasta Western loving crowd.

The big problem the film has is that it is so indebted to a number of other "men on a mission" movies, it has struggled to gain credit for actually doing the format well. Undeniably the viewing experience is greatly helped if you are like me, a fan of such films like The Guns of Navarone, The Dirty Dozen, Where Eagles Dare, The Professionals and The Wild Bunch etc, because this is basically the Paella version of those films. Shot on location in Spain, with what now would be called a modest budget, it's pacey, explosive, pleasing in visuals and very well performed in the traditional Pasta Western sense. While the grim textures come courtesy of torture, sexual hostility and terrorism.

Plot basically entails U.S. Army Captain Rod Douglas (Peppard) taking a very small gathering of miscreants over the border into Mexico, their mission is to infiltrate Cordoba's (Vallone) mountain stronghold and destroy the cannons claimed by Cordoba's bandits earlier in the play. The threads that run through the plot see one of the group holding a grudge against his leader, another that has the lady of the mission operating on justifiable reven...