The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

Lee Van Cleef is Chris Adams, a sheriff newly married when an old friend (Ralph Waite as Jim Mackay) arrives seeking his help to protect the border town of Magdelena against Mexican bandits.

Adams declines, but soon finds himself headed toward Magdelena anyway.

A young outlaw — a man he’s given a second chance at his wife’s urging — joins up with two buddies to rob a bank.

They kidnap Adams’ wife (Mariette Hartley) on the way out of town, rape her, kill her and leave her for the buzzards.

Adams catches up with two of the youngsters (including Gary Busy in an early role) and kills them. The third escapes to join De Toro’s gang of cutthroats, the same cutthroats threatening that village.

When Adams arrives in Magdelena with dime novel writer Noah Forbe in tow, he finds a town full of women who’ve been forced to satisfy De Toro’s’s men and who are dreading their return.

So Adams heads to prison, recruits five inmates with an offer of parole and returns to Magdelena to defend the town against overwhelming odds.

Lee Van Cleef as Chris Adams, listening to longtime friend Jim Mackay’s plea for help in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

Melissa Murphy as Madge Buchanan and Stefanie Powers as Laurie Gunn, two of the villagers assaulted by the bandits in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

Review:

The fourth and final Magnificent Seven came 12 years after the original. Some scenes border on silly. For instance, Adams heads out on the trail of his kidnapped wife nursing what was supposed to be a bad shoulder wound.

After discovering his wife ravished and dead, he flings his sling to the ground in a nod to the wonderful rejuvenating power of revenge.

But the presence of Van Cleef in the lead role gives this a leg up on the other sequels to the original. And Capt. Andy Hayes, one of his recruits, comes up with some imaginative ways to slow down De Toro’s bandit horde when they attack the town.

In addition to Chris, Noah and the captain, this seven includes Mark Skinner, Pepe Carral, Walt Drummond and Scott Elliott. We don’t get to know them as well as we knew the seven in the original or in “Guns of the Magnificent Seven.”

The focus is very much on Van Cleef, who decides stealing De Toro’s woman is a sure way to lure the bandit leader into a trap.

Stefanie Powers is Laurie Gunn, the recent widow who becomes the new love in Adams’ life in Magdelena.

Michael Callan as Noah Forbes, looking to become Chris Adams’ biographer in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1872)

Luke Askew as Mark Skinner, helping invade Del Toro’s stronghold in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

Directed by:
George McCowan

Cast:
Lee Van Cleef … Chris Adams
Stefanie Powers … Laurie Gunn
Michael Callan … Noah Forbe
Luke Askew … Mark Skinner
Pedro Armendariz Jr. … Pepe Carral
William Lucking … Walt Drummond
James Sikking … Capt. Andy Hayes
Ed Lauter … Scott Elliott
Allyn Ann McLerie … Mrs. Donovan
Melissa Murphy … Madge Buchanan
Ron Stein … De Toro
Rita Rogers … De Toro’s woman
Mariette Hartley … Arilla Adams
Ralph Waite … Jim Mackay
Darrell Larson … Shelly
Gary Busey … Hank Allen
Robert Jaffe … Bob Allan

Runtime: 100 min.

Pedro Armendariz Jr. as Pepe Carral, one of the men freed from prison to join the seven in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

William Lucking as Walt Drummond, one of the man freed from jail to defend a Mexican village in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

Memorable lines:

Noah Forbes: “The name’s Noah Forbes, Marshal. I’ve decided to do for you what Ned Buntline did for Bill Cody.”
Chris Adams: “Make a damn fool of me?”
Noah Forbes: “Make you famous.”

Noah Forbes: “You name a big city newspaper and I’ve worked on it.”
Chris Adams: “That means you’re pretty good. Or you can’t hold a job.”

Arilla, pleading for leniency for a young man named Shelly: “I’m not asking you to help gunfighters.”
Chris Adams: “Judge Parker said, ‘The men I’ve hanged never killed again. Plenty I didn’t hang did.’ Now you tell me he’s wrong.”
Arilla: “He wasn’t talking about a boy who robbed a store.”
Chris: “I buried friends who thought fuzzy-faced kids weren’t dangerous.”

James Sikking as Capt. Andy Hayes, recruited for his knowledge of battle strategy in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

Ed Lauter as Scott Elliott, being recruited into the seven by Chris Adams (Lee Van Cleef) in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

Padre: “God works in strange ways.”
Chris: “I know. He’s got me confused most of the time too.”

Noah, referring to the ambushed men under Mackay: “Are we going to bury them?”
Chris: “The living need us more.”

Chris, about De Toro: “Tell me everything you know about him. What he likes. How he acts. Everything.”
Laurie Gunn: “Well, the first thing you notice about him are — his eyes. They tell you that he is mad. Crazy mad.”

Mariette Hartley as Arilla Adams, urging her lawman husband t give Shelly a second chance in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

Darrell Larson as Shelly, a young man facing the prison and begging for a second chance in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

Ralph Waite as Jim Mackay, trying to convince Chris Adams to help him protect a village of Mexican peasants in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

Mariette Hartley as Arilla Adams, rushing to the side of her wounded husband in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

William Lucking as Walt Drummond with Lee Van Cleef as Chris Adams, keeping the rest of the seven in line in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

Rita Rogers as De Toro’s woman with Noah Forbe ( Michael Callan) after being captured in the bandit’s stronghold in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

Lee Van Cleef as Chris Adams with Michael Callan as Noah Forbes in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

Stefanie Powers as Laurie Gunn, cradling two youngsters as an attack unfolds in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)