The Magnificent Seven Ride

Dir: George McCowan

1972

**

The last of the The Magnificent Seven sequels isn't the worst in my opinion but it was right to call it a day after this. I actually liked the story better than the three previous films but while the film started off really well, it soon descended into something quite unwatchable and cringe-worthy. Chris Adams is now played by Lee Van Cleef and I like his version very much. After Yul Brynner turned into George Kennedy it was only right that they cast someone completely different in the role and not many people do harsh but fair cowboy better than Van Cleef. I liked Adam's reluctance to form another posse at the beginning of the film and I liked that his only motivation was bloodthirsty revenge. This time round, rather than relying on and recruiting friends, Adams blackmails his most skilled enemies into fighting alongside him, which I thought was refreshingly original. The other six magnificent fellows all have interesting traits, considering that they are all introduced together in a relatively short amount of time and all are performed nicely by the eclectic cast. The big bad guy, the feared 'El toro', has no lines in the film whatsoever and is almost unimportant to the scheme of things, all you need to know is that he's nasty and has lots of men and that's it. It works well and shakes off the need of repeating old ground. What I disliked about the film the most though was the victims. In the previous films the target has always been farmer's villages. It is the same in this instance except all of the men have been killed fighting, the Seven are defending their women who can't fend for themselves. The Seven arrive to find the women of the village beaten, raped and widowed and agree to help them. However, within hours of their arrival, the women all seem to forget their recently murdered husbands, the fact they've all been raped and the impending danger and focus all their attention on the advances of their seven saviours. Adams also forgets the fact that his love has been raped and murdered and gets it on with the village’s leggiest. The women swarm the men like horny zombies, with each man having at least three women on their arms at one given time. At one point Adam's asks the men to pick their favourite women to help them 'load their weapons' and I'm afraid the film was all over for me from then on. It was a woefully bit of writing that ruined what was a surprisingly good film, considering it was the third sequel of a superior classic.

Carter's Army (AKA Black Brigade)
Dir: George McCowan
1970
***
George McCowan's 1970 War drama is not quite a Blaxploitation film in the classic sense but it is definitely a precursor to what the sub-genre would become. In truth, it's a larger budget away from being quite the War classic. The story and heart is an important part of social history, there are moments, particularly the final scene, that are as powerful as any award-winning mainstream drama. The cast are brilliant, not one person delivers a sub-standard performance, far from it in fact, Stephen Boyd, Robert Hooks, Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor are all very convincing, it's just a shame that the quality for recording was so poor. The editing is absolutely awful but I think George McCowan is unfairly seen as a terrible director, it's true he made some dire films but this is usually down to poor story and small budget, for what he had I thought he always did a good job, all things considered. Carter's Army, or Black Brigade as it was more commonly known, is certainly one of his better efforts.