Savage Pampas Review

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SAVAGE PAMPAS (1965)
Cast:
  • Robert Taylor
  • Ron Randell
  • Ty Hardin
  • Marc Lawrence
  • Laya Raki
  • Rosenda Monteros
  • Ingrid Öhlenschläger
  • Henry Avila
  • Laura Granados
  • Felicia Roc
  • José Nieto
  • Isabel Pisano

Director:

  • Hugo Fregonese

Music:

  • Waldo de los Rios

Savage Pampas (Pampa Salvaje)

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A western set on the pampas, the Argentine grasslands, home of the gaucho. It was one of the last productions of Samuel Bronston, who had been responsible for a series of large scale epics, filmed in Spain, like El Cid, King of Kings, and 55 Days in Peking. The failure of The Fall of the Roman Empire had almost ruined his production company. To turn the tide, he teamed up with a couple of South-American entrepreneurs for this large-scale remake of a 1946 Argentine movie, Pampa Barbara. The premise sounds very promising. Robert Taylor is captain Martin, an officer in the Argentine army who’s in command of a frontier garrison in the open plains of the Argentine interior, dominated by Indians and bandits. His main problem: A bandit called Pardon (I beg your …) pays off the men sent out to capture him, not with money, but with women, the one thing the men miss most in their remote army base. Martin is then granted permission by his superiors to boost morale with the help of prostitutes. When a group of nine is released from jail, Martin selects a group of soldiers to escort them to the fort, but it’s a long and perilous journey across the pampas …


Thanks to a costly promotion campaign, the film was released worldwide, but it wasn’t very successful. It simply fell short to impress as one of those large-scale Bronston spectacles, and as a western movie, it got lost in the flood of spaghetti westerns. There are similarities to William Wyler’s Westward the Women (which also starred Robert Taylor), but the virtuous women who are destined to marry single frontiersmen have been replaced by prostitutes who are supposed to entertain lonely soldiers. Because of these prostitutes, some have even drawn parallels with Ferdinando Baldo’s Blindman, but the similarities seem fortuitous and this is definitely a movie of a different nature. According to most reference books the film was shot in Spain, but IMDB says Argentina. I’m not sure. To me the landscape looks more Argentine than Spanish, but I’m not familiar with every corner of the Spanish countryside, and I’ve never been in Argentina. Anyway, the cinematography of the – rather unspectacular - landscape is superb and the film looks stunning.

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A cast from all four corners of the world is headed by a handful of (minor) American stars, still a sine qua non for making a western in the mid sixties. Fregonese had also directed the 1946 version. He was an Argentine of Italian descent, who had worked in his home country as well as in Hollywood and Europe. Savage Pampas has some of the charm of a Hollywood cavalry western from the fifties, but also some of the violence of the American or British pseudo spaghettis shot in Spain in the late sixties (some of the action reminded me of Shalako). The ending – two leaders fighting it out while their men are watching – seems inspired by the Karl May westerns. And yes, Fregonese was hired to direct one: Old Shatterhand (1964) (By the way: Shalako has a similar Karl May ending). In other words: Savage Pampas is a mishmash of styles and influences, and yet it manages to be refreshingly different.


Actually, this is not a bad movie. It’s a bit long, and long-winded, but it has good atmosphere and strong characters. Taylor is in the twilight of his career and looks a bit old and worn-out for his physically demanding role, but his stoic appearance suits his character very well. His captain Martin is a stubborn, uncompromising military man, yet one with a heart for the rugged man under his command and the women he’s trying to get safely to the fort. Ty Hardin is also quite good as a journalist and anarchist (who’s been given a choice: army or jail), who slowly wins the captain’s trust and friendship. His hat and coat are remarkable, making him look like some sort of South American version of Abe Lincoln. Even the prostitutes are all but one-dimensional. This clearly was a prestigious movie for the Argentine film industry. The costume design is impressive, even if some of the hats and headscarves may have some unintentional comical effects. The score was written by (a then still relatively unknown) Waldo de los Rios. He had composed a symphonic score with choral pieces and a special percussion section with instruments created by himself, but in the studio most of his compositions were shortened and De los Rios was very dissapointed. He later prepared an album with six suites using the original compositions. Fans of the composer say it ranks among his best work (1).



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--By Scherpschutter

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