Hugo Blanco as John Clark plays Peter Lembrock, a half-breed living in Canada who returns from a hunting trip to find his sister hanging dead in her room.
While he was gone she was romanced and shamed by a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. She committed suicide rather than face her older brother.
Lembrock vows vengeance, and decides the best way to get it is to volunteer as a guide for the Mounties stationed at Fort Pitt.
He’s fortuitously assigned to a five-member squad led by Corporal Lex (Gustavo Rojo), which has just returned from patroling the region around Lembrock’s home.
But finding out which member of the squad soiled his sister won’t be as easy.
And that’s especially true after the Cree Indians go on the warpath as part of the Second Riel Rebellion.
Soon, Lembrock finds himself torn between his personal quest of vengeance and his growing fondness for his new friends at Fort Pitt.
Those friends are going to need all the help they can get.
Chief Big Bear and revolutionary leadeer Lecomte are planning an assault of Fort Pitt. And reinforcements are nowhere in sight.
Hugo Blanco (John Clark) at Peter Lembrock, wondering which Mountie was responsible for his sister’s death in Mestizo (1965)
Susan Campos as Helen Patterson, meeting Pete Lembrock for the first time in Mestizo (1965)
Review:
Pretty much a paint-by-numbers action film with the Second Riel Rebellion as a backdrop.
Lembrock will find his loyalties questioned and his life put on the line repeatedly as he tries to protect friends — like the trader Renoir and his pretty daughter Paulette — from the hostilities.
The film suffers from a love triangle involving our hero, Corporal Lex and pretty blonde Helen Patterson (Susana Campos). She’s supposed to be Lex’s fiance, but has roving eyes. It all seems quite forced.
But the film benefits from two well-mounted, large-scale battle scenes — the assault on Fort Pitt (which really happened) and the final confrontation between government forces and the rebels (which didn’t happen quite that way).
Armando Calvo as Lecomte, one of the men behind the rebellion in Mestizo (1965)
Rafael Romero as Chief Big Bear, the Cree leader who agrees to join the uprising in Mestizo (1965)
Directed by:
Julio Buchs
Cast:
Hugo Blanco … Peter Lembrock / Django
as John Clark
Susana Campos … Helen Patterson
as Evelin Therens
Gustavo Rojo … Corporal Lex
Luis Prendes … Capt. Dickinson
Carlos Casaravilla … Bunny
Armando Calvo … Lecomte
Alfonso Rojas … Sgt. O’Neil
Ricardo Canales … Renoir
Angel Ortiz … Brandon
Luis Marin … Tallow
Milo Quesada … Lieutenant
Luis Induni … Bordeaux
Rafael Romero … Chief Big Bear
Angel Menendez … Gen. Strange
Santiago Rivero … Indian agent
Runtime: 101 min.
Also with: Alfonso de la Vega, Gonzalo Esquiroz, Juan Cortes, Rufino Ingles, Miguel de la Riva, Saturno Cerra, Fernando Sánchez Polack, Frank Brana, Antonio Moreno, Ricardo G. Lillo, Rafael Vaquero, Alfredo Santacruz, Juan de Haro, Rafael Ibáñez, Fernando Bilbao, Denis Heaton, Marcelino Perez, Antonio Orengo, Nuria Torray
aka:
Django Does Not Forgive
Music: Antonio Perez Olea
Gustavo Rojo as Corporal Lex, the Mountie who befriends Peter Lembrock in Mestizo (1965)
Luis Prendes as Captain Dickinson, fretting over impending trouble in Mestizo (1965)
Memorable lines:
Capt. Dickinson, after four of his men are found dead in the woods: “Who knows what a peaceful Indian can be up to?”
Tallow: “I know the side you are on.”
Peter Lembrock: “Surely not with the one assaulting helpless farms.”
Peter Lembrock to Tallow: “Don’t speak to me again about loyalties. I’m here fighting my own battle. I don’t care about other’s fights.”
Helen Patterson: “A woman in a remote farm cannot prevent becoming engaged with the first handsome man who smiles at her.”
Lecomte: “Renoir, you’ve always been an idealist … albeit, not too pratical. Do you think I enjoy killing women and children?”
Renoir: “In that case, stop it.”
Lecomte: “We need the Indians on our side. Do you think they would follow us if we fought the kind of romantic war you are proposing?”
Ricardo Canales as Renoir, forced to join the rebellion by Lecomte (Armando Calvo) in Mestizo (1965)
Nuria Torray as Paulette Renoir, concerned about Peter’s safety in Mestizo (1965)
Trivia:
* Remarkably, this wound up being marketed as a Django film in Italy and France. Set in Canada and with no Spaghetti style, it’s about as far from a Django film as you can get.
* Argentine born Susanna Campos had already appeared in dozens of films before landing this role. From 1969 on, she would perform almost exclusively on TV shows, according to IMDb.
* Director Julio Buchs, who died of a heart attack in 1973 at age 46, is better known for his other Westerns — “A Few Bullets More” (1967) starring Peter Lee Lawrence and “Bullet for Sandoval” (1969) starring George Hilton.
Alfonso Rojas as Sgt. O’Neil, the officer who despises half-breeds in Mestizo (1965)
Carlos Casaravilla as Bunny, the traveling salesman who’s caught in the Riel rebellion in Mestizo (1965)
Hugo Blanco (John Clark) as Peter Lembrock with fellow half-breed guide Tallow (Luis Marin) in Mestizo (1965)
Susana Campos (Evelin Therens) as Helen Patterson with fiancee Corporal Lex (Gustavo Rojo) in Mestizo (1965)
Hugo Blanco (John Clark) as Peter Lembrock with Cpl. Lex (Gustavo Rojo), meeting members of the squad in Mestizo (1965)
Hugo Blanco (John Clark) as Peter Lembrock, battling rebellion forces in Mestizo (1965)
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