Chuck Connors plays Will Hansen, leader of a band of five ex-Rebels who have become post-Civil War mercenaries south of the border.
They’re recruited by a despotic general to scout on the nearby village of San Carlos, which he plans to attack.
But it’s in San Carlos that the band of five find something worth fighting for.
Will falls for a gypsy girl named Mila (Anita Quinn); Ike falls for an aristocratic beauty named Maria (Maria Grimm), though she’s already promised to another man.
Problem is there’s a deadline to meet and a general who won’t take kindly to being double crossed.
And when Will kills a gypsy who’s multilated Mila, it becomes clear that the mercenaries won’t be meeting that deadline.
Chuck Connors as Will Hansen in The Proud and the Damned (1972)
Aron Kincaid as Ike in The Proud and the Damned (1972)
Review:
For a film that’s seemingly included in every low-budget package of Western DVDs you can pick up, this is better than expected.
Pretty violent in spots. Humorous in others. Like when Ike drags Billy along to serenade pretty Maria, only to have the nuns who are watching over her start dropping clay pots in their direction to scare them off.
The movie was reportedly filmed in 1968, but not released until four years later.
Peter Ford is the son of Glenn Ford and tap dancer Eleanor Powell. Aron Kincaid was already a star in several of the beach films popular in the early 60s before he made this movie.
Cesar Romero plays the mayor of San Carlos. And the film’s biggest downfall is the crudely filmed action scenes.
Anita Quinn as Mila, the gypsy girl who falls for Will Hansen in The Proud and the Damned (1972)
Maria Grimm as Maria Vargas, the dark-haired beauty who turns Ike’s head in The Proud and the Damned (1972)
Directed by:
Ferde Grofe Jr.
Cast:
Chuck Connors … Will Hansen
Aron Kincaid … Ike
Smokey Roberds … Jeb
Henry Capps … Hank
Peter Ford … Billy
Cesar Romero … Don Miguel, mayor of San Carlos
Jose Greco … Ramon
Andres Marquis … The General
Maria Grimm … Maria Vargas
Nana Lorca .. Carmela
Anita Quinn … Mila
Conrad Parham … Capt. Juan Hernandez
Alvaro Ruiz … Chico
Pacheco … Lieutenant
Ignacio Gomez … Padre
Bernard Herrera … Rollo
Runtime: 92 min.
Cesar Romero as Don Miguel, mayor of San Carlos in The Proud and the Damned (1972)
Conrad Parham as Capt. Juan Hernandez in The Proud and the Damned (1972)
Memorable lines:
Ike: “I’m scared, Will. I’m scared to go on and I’m scared to go back. Sometimes I don’t know what we’re running to or what we’re running from.”
Will: “All that Yankee crub in Texas. That’s what we left behind, and you know it.”
Ike: “Yeh, well that was yesterday’s war, and it’s over, and I’m sick of it. Sick of fighting. Sick of fighting other people’s wars.”
Mila to Will, as she disrobes: “I am gypsy. I have danced before, with men who take, not love, you understand. This is dance I never danced before. I give, to you.”
Smoky Roberds as Jeb in The Proud and the Damned (1972)
Henry Capps as Hank in The Proud and the Damned (1972)
Ike: “Tonight, you better sing like a bird.”
Billy: “I’m all in, Ike. No kiddin’.”
Ike: “Now you listen to me. Tonight, you’re going to have the honor of serendaing the most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen.”
Billy; “Why the hell am I the only one who plays guitar around here?”
Hank: “Will, did you have to shoot him? Couldn’t you have pistol whipped him? Or something?”
Will: “Sorry, I couldn’t help it. He didn’t need a lesson. He needed killing.”
Peter Ford as Billy in The Proud and the Damned (1972)
Andres Marquis as The General in The Proud and the Damned (1972)
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