Murieta (1965)

Jeffrey Hunter plays Joaquin Murieta, who arrives in California with his lovely young wife Rosita looking for gold and a bright future.

Instead, he finds prejudice against anyone “Mex.”

He does find gold. But soon after, three white men raid his camp, beat him up, steal the claim and rape and murder his wife.

So Joaquin decides to play the game the white man’s way, changing his style of dress, becoming a gambler, raking in money until he crosses paths with those three men again.

Needless to say, he gets his revenge.

He’s jailed by the one white man he trusts, Capt. Harry Love (Arthur Kennedy) and escapes with the aid of the one white woman he’s befriended (Diana Lorys as Kate).

Both eventually have to turn against him.

Because after that escape, he becomes a leader of bandits, determined to lead a revolution that will take California back from the gringos.

Jeffrey Hunter as Joaquin Murieta, talking to his wife Rosita about happier times in Joaquin Murieta (1965)

Arthur Kennedy as Capt. Harry Lowe, who befriends Joaquin Murieta and later finds himself hunting him down in Murieta (1965)

Review:

Less a Spaghetti Western than an American Western made overseas with Americans in the two lead roles and an American director. Still, it’s probably the best of Hunter’s European Westerns.

The film paints a sympathetic picture of Murieta, who kills because he knows he won’t get justice in a U.S. territory.

And Sherman gives us a film with plenty of action, but throws in a couple lighter moments, like when Joaquin’s lieutenant, Jack Three Fingers, is forced to return chickens he’s stolen from Kate and has to tie their beaks shut to do so.

Sara Lezana turns in a winning performance as Murieta’s wife, and Roberto Camardiel is a delight as Three Fingers, Murieta’s ever–so-stubborn but loyal companion.

Diana Lorys as Kate, taking a break from her cafe to inquire about Joaquin Murieta’s welfare in Murieta (1965)

Sara Lezana as Rosita Murieta, arriving in California with her husband Joaquin in Murieta (1965)

Directed by:
George Sherman

Cast:
Jeffrey Hunter … Joaquin Murieta
Arthur Kennedy … Capt. Harry Love
Diana Lorys … Kate
Sara Lezana … Rosita Murieta
Roberto Camardiel … Jack “Three Fingers” Garcia
Pedro Osinaga … Claudio “Cockroach”
Mike Brendel … Buck Winters
Gonzalo Esquiroz … Gilley
Fernando Villena … outlaw
Frank Brana … outlaw
Héctor Quiroga … Gregg, storekeeper
Juan Cazalilla … Pete

Also with: Julio Pérez Tabernero, Jesus Corella, David Thomson, Andy Anza, Pedro Barreto, María Jose Collada, Rufino Inglés

aka:
Joaquin Murrieta
Vendetta
Revenge of Sartana

Score: Antonio Perez Olea

Runtime: 107 min.

Roberto Camardiel as Jack Three Fingers Garcia. meeting Joaquin Murieta while awaiting a jailbreak in Murieta (1965)

Pedro Osinaga as Claudio, aka Cockroach, Jack Three Fingers Garcia’s right-hand man in Murieta (1965)

Memorable lines:

Murieta to Rosita: “The land of California is the land of wonders.”

Trader: “We’ll meet again someday, Mex.”
Murietta: “Pray we do not.”

Capt. Love: “A man can’t live with murder in his heart, Joaquin.”
Murietta: “It is the one thing in my heart that keeps me alive, senor.”

Jack Three Fingers: “You have a tongue as sharp as an eagle’s claw.”

Jack Three Fingers, after Murieta recovers from his wounds: “You think, Joaquin, we are like lazy children who permit the grapes to whither in the vineyard because the father is too sick to pick the clusters?”

Capt. Love: “Do you realize what you’ve become.”
Murieta: “Yes. What the gringos have forced me to become.”

Frank Brana (foreground) with the two other men responsible for the death of Murieta’s young wife in Murieta (1965)

Mike Brendel as Buck Winters has a surprising and uncomfortable reunion with Joaquin Murieta in Murieta (1965)

Trivia

This marked the only foreign directing endeavor for George Sherman, who directed more than a dozen U.S. Westerns from the late 1940s to early 1960s, including films starring the likes of Rory Calhoun, Audie Murphy and Guy Madison. The biggest name Western made under his helm: “Big Jake,” starring John Wayne, in 1971.

At some point, the film was retitled “Revenge of Sartana,” which makes absolutely no sense since it’s clearly the story of Joaquin Murieta and there isn’t anyone named Sartana, nor many Spaghetti film influences, to be found.

Pretty Sara Lezana steals every scene in which she flashes that youthful smile. If you can trust IMDb, she was just 17 when this film was made and had already appeared in two other Euro Westerns, including her film debut in “Gunfight at Red Sands” and “Fall of the Mohicans.”

Jeffrey Hunter as Joaquin Murieta, a Mexican miner, turned gambler turned avenger in Murieta (1965)

Diana Lorys as Kate, watching over a wounded Joaquin Murieta (Jeffrey Hunter) in Murieta (1965)

Jeffrey Hunter as Joaquin Murieta with Arthur Kennedy as Capt. Harry Lowe in Murieta (1965)

Roberto Camardiel as Jack Three Fingers Garcia, about to lose his gang to ambitious young Joaquin Murieta in Murieta (1965)