Hard Breed to Kill (1967)

A gang of outlaws fleeing a bank job and bound for the border come upon a small ranch, where they beat and gun down the owner and take his pretty wife Kathy (Julie Edwards) captive.

Only Colby, owner of the ranch, doesn’t die. Instead, he nurses himself back to health and begins to track down the outlaw gang.

Their trek south is slowed by their unwillingness to cross paths with the Yaqui and the unreliability of the water holes they need to survive.

Then there’s the fact that their pursuer has caught up, and knows some Indian tricks of his own.

They include the ability to sneak up undetected in the middle of the night as he begins whittling down the odds, setting the stage for an attempt to rescue his lady love.

Penny Edwards as Kathy in Hard Breed to Kill (1967)

Colby, Kathy’s husband, in Hard Breed to Kill (1967)

Review:

The film is too slow-moving and lacks the edge it needed to make it suspenseful and successful.

Pretty Julie Edwards has her face smashed into the dirt in an early scene.

She makes for a fetching captive, but never seems very threatened after that. Heck, the gang members cuddle closer with one another than they do with her.

Then there’s the fact that her husband, slowed by a bad leg wound, still manages to catch up with the outlaws in a heartbeat.

Slim Pickens and Emilio Fernandez play the gang leaders, but I’ve yet to discover a cast list that matches actors to character, so any help identifying the actors in the attached photos would be appreciated.

Slim Pickens as Loper, the outlaw gang leader in Hard Breed to Kill (1967)

Emilio Fernandez as Gordo in Hard Breed to Kill (1967)

Directed by:
Rafael Portillo
as Ray Boyle

Cast:
Ramon Bugarini
Fernando Casanova
Julie Edwards … Kathy
Emilio Fernandez … Gordo
Paul Heslin … Faulkner
Noe Murayama
Slim Pickens … Loper
Guillermo Rivas
George Slim

Runtime: 85 min.

aka:
Un tipo dificil de matar

Kid, a member of the Loper gang in Hard Breed to Kill (1967)

Jose and Rocky, two members of the Loper gang in Hard Breed to Kill (1967)

Memorable lines:

Pickens: “You think I cheat (at cards)?”
Gordo: “Darn right you cheat. And you know what makes me mad? You cheat better than I do.”

Gordo: “That’s what I like in a woman: white, blue eyes, and with a fire inside.”

Pickens to his quarrelling gang members when they come to a potentially poisoned water hole: “I think you both ought to have a drink. Might cool you off, one way or another.”

Navajo, scout for Loper’s outlaw gang in Hard Breed to Kill (1967)

Penny Edwards as Kathy, about to become a captive in Hard Breed to Kill (1967)

Penny Edwards as Kathy in the grip of an outlaw named Gordo in Hard Breed to Kill (1967)