Vera Cruz (1954)

Gary Cooper is Benjamin Trane and Burt Lancaster is Joe Erin, two men handy with a gun who find themselves in Mexico, trying to cash in one the revolution there as patriots under Juarez try to oust the Emperor Maximilian.

But that’s about all they have in common. Erin is a bandit, his exploits well known in the U.S., with a band of henchmen riding by his side.

Trane is a former Confederate officer who made the mistake of fighting his last battle on his own land. Now he’s looking to raise the money to rebuild that Louisiana plantation.

The two Americans are hired by Maximilian to escort a stage carrying lovely Marie Duvarre (Denise Darcel) through rebel territory to Vera Cruz. Seems she has a yearning to visit Paris. The fee for protecting her: $50,000.

Deep wheel tracks in the mud confirm what’s obvious: That stage carries more than a countess.

In fact, it’s loaded with $3 million in gold, money bound for Europe to supply Maximilian’s army.

Trane and Erin immediately begin plotting on how to separate that gold from its rightful owners.

Marie wouldn’t mind helping and sailing off to Europe a rich woman.

And so begin the double crosses as all three try to find a way to walk away with more than one-third of the gold.

But the Mexican rebels know about the gold, too, and they desperately need it to finance their cause.

Review:

The action scenes provide the highlights to this Robert Aldrich film. They include an exciting ambush of the stage and its escort of lancers as it leaves a mission and a final assault on a regular army garrison in Vera Cruz.

The acting is hit and miss. Cooper is solid as always. Lancaster is barely tolerable and hardly likeable in his role as a smiling villain whose advice on how to live life amounts to three words: Trust no one.

That said, the plot twists that come with all the double crosses planned by the three leads is said to have influenced future Spaghetti Western directors, including Sergio Leone.

Oh, and let’s not forget Sara Montiel, who plays Nina, a lovely pick pocket. She has more than a stolen wallet up her sleeve as well.

She hitches a ride with the Vera Cruz bound caravan under the ruse of going somewhere where there are more pockets to pick. In truth, she wants to help the Juarez forces wind up in possession of the $3 million in gold.

Erin’s gang includes Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam and Charles Bronson, who was still using his real name, Charles Buchinsky at the time. Also along for the ride is Archie Savage, a famed African-American dancer. The scenes in which he displays those skills seem silly in the context of the film.

A couple of pieces of trivia: Tony Martin recorded a theme song that is referenced in the opening credits, but was cut from the movie. And IMDb reports that Bronson and Borgnine rode into a nearby town for cigarettes one day during a break — in costume. They were mistaken as bandits by Mexican police who held them at gunpoint until representatives of the film company came to the rescue.

Directed by:
Robert Aldrich

Cast:
Gary Cooper … Benjamin Trane
Burt Lancaster … Joe Erin
Denise Darcel … Marie Duvarre
Cesar Romero … Henri de Labordere
Sara Montiel … Nina
George Macready … Maximillian
Ernest Borgnine … Donnegan
Charles Bronson … Pittsburgh
Jack Elam … Tex
James McCallion … Little-Bit
James Seay … Abilene
Archie Savage … Ballard
Charles Horvath … Reno
Henry Brandon … Capt. Dannette
Morris Ankrum … Gen. Ramirez

Runtime: 95 min.

Memorable lines:

Donnegan, as he’s about to cut Trane with a broken bottle: “My old man always said a bottle could ruin a man.”

Ben Trane: “You got a soft spot for an innocent man?”
Joe Erin: “There’s no such thing as an innocent man.”

Ben Trane: “There’s nothing ever destroyed that can’t be rebuilt.”

Joe Erin: “Hey, you saved my bacon back there.”
Ben Trane: “Sorry I was so slow gettin’ to ya.”
Erin “If you’d been a little slower you would have stood to be a lot richer.”
Trane: “Maybe I didn’t think of that.”

Nina: “It is hard to be a patriot on an empty stomach.”

Countess Marie Duvarre: “One million’s enough for me.”
Joe Erin: “It ain’t for me. I’m a pig.”

Joe Erin: “Ben Trane. I don’t trust him. He likes people. You can never count on a man like that.”

Denise Darcel as Marie Duvarre, proving she’s quite capable of defending herself in Vera Cruz (1954)

Jack Elam as Tex, one of the men who ride with Joe Erin in Vera Cruz (1954)

James McCallion as Little Bit, a Joe Erin man pulled from his horse for harassing a Mexican woman in Vera Cruz (1954)

Henry Brandon as Capt. Dannette, refined commander of the Mexican lancers in Vera Cruz (1954)

George Macready as Maximillian, showing off his markmanship while Henri de Labordere (Cesar Romero) looks on in Vera Cruz (1954)

Burt Lancaster as Joe Erin, using a lance to dispatch of an enemy in Vera Cruz (1954)