The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955)

Rory Calhoun plays Tom Bryan, a mercenary with a machine gun he calls his Cucaracha.

After holding up a bank, he’s looking forward to taking some time off to live a comfortable life and flirt with the pretty ladies south of the border.

Then an old friend named Juan Castro (Gilbert Roland) summons him for assistance.

His mission: Hold up a Mexico train laden with gold, steal the gold and deliver it to Pancho Villa, who’s been deposed from authority and has launched a new revolution. He figures Bryan and his Cucaracha will make that mission easier.

Indeed they do. But the second part of the mission might be just as difficult.

It requires delivering the gold to Pancho Villa through Yaqui country with the federal troops on their trail. And Castro has little faith in the trustworthiness of Pablo Morales, the man in charge of the mule train carrying the gold.

Truth be told, Bryan expects to be paid handsomely for his services as well.

Then there’s an American woman — Ruth Harris (Shelley Winters) — who’s along for the ride. Castro admires her beauty and her courage; at one point, she insists on staying behind to help fight off the Federales.

But she’s more interested in Tom Bryan, especially after he saves her life by defying orders and returning with his machine gun just as she, Castro and his men are about to be surrounded during that rear-guard action designed to save the gold.

Rory Calhoun as Tom Bryan, a mercenary tooting the machine gun he calls La Cucaracha in The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955)

Gilbert Roland as Juan Castro, the revoluntionary determined to deliver a fortune in gold to Pancho Villa in The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955)

Review:

Offbeat Western set in 1915 Mexico and told flashback style after we see Roland’s Juan Castro and Calhoun’s Tom Bryan holed up on a ridge, preparing for an assault by federal troops. They’ve made a redoubt out of the bags of gold the characters will be arguing about and fighting over during the course of the film.

In fact, only Casto and Shelley Winter’s Ruth Harris are immune to the lure of that gold. He’s completely loyal to Pancho Villa and would give his life to make sure the gold reaches the revolutionary coffers.

Ruth wanted to teach school in Mexico; those plans changed once she got her education in the hardships of a revolution. Her father was killed by federal troops for the mine he owned.

Unfortunately, this film is marred by the constant bickering Ruth and Tom Bryan do — in between kisses of course — and by the surprisingly crude filming of a couple of big action scenes. Those include the attack on the gold train and the final assault on the redoubt.

Winters appeared in a number of Westerns, but this was her last until 1968 when she played opposite Telly Savalas in “The Scalphunters.”

Shelley Winters as Ruth Harris, the school teacher who finds herself falling for the mercenary Tom Bryan in The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955)

Joseph Calleia as Pablo Morales, the mule guide Juan Castro doesn’t trust around gold in The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955)

Directed by:
George Sherman

Cast:
Rory Calhoun … Tom Bryan
Gilbert Roland … Juan Castro
Shelley Winters … Ruth Harris
Joseph Calleia … Pablo Morales
Fanny Schiller … Laria Morales
Carlos Muzquiz … Commandant
Tony Carbajal … Farolito
Pasquel Pena … Ricardo Sanchez
Lita Baron … Birdcage flirt
Rodd Redwing … Yaqui tracker

Runtime: 92 min.

Fanny Schiller as Laria Morales, Pablo’s wife and the woman who took Ruth Harris in when she needed help in The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955)

Pascual Garcia Pena as Ricardo, the hard-drinking guard for Juan Castro’s command in The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955)

Memorable lines:

Juan Castro, dictating the terms of travel to Ruth Harris: “If you lose your courage, I’ll leave you wherever you are. If you turn traitor, I’ll kill you.”

Juan Castro to a doubtful Pablo Morales, about capturing a train: “There will be help. Trust my word.”
Pablo: “I trust my eyes, my ears and my fingers. I’m losing the ability to trust anything else.”

Pablo Morales: “Sometimes, I have the feeling you don’t trust me.”
Juan Castro: “Oh, I trust you. As far as I can spit.”

Juan Castro to Pablo: “I don’t like all this talk about the gold. I told you before we started, what’s inside those bags is not gold. For you and me, it’s manure. Only for Pancho Villa is it gold.”

Jorge Martinez de Hoyos as the revolutionary who convinces Tom Bryan to help Juan Castro in The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955)

Lita Barton as the temptress with the birdcage who nearly keeps Tom Bryan from rejoining the revolution in The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955)

Winters to Calhoun: “You’re nothing but a mercenary.”
Calhoun: “That’s a $3 word. If you mean hired gun, yeah, that’s right.

Ruth Harris: “The flourishing of the selfish is an illusion, Pablo. In spite of men like you, the ideals and cause of your people will win. And then you’ll have no place left to hide.”

Tom Bryan, as he and Castro create a redoubt from the bags of gold: “You can’t drink gold, but it can stop a bullet.”

Tom Bryan, after burying Castro: “You’ve tasted everything, you buzzards. But if you’d ever tasted Juan Castro, you’d have tasted a man.”

Gilbert Roland as Juan Casto with Tony Carbajal as Farolita, one of his chief lieutenants in The Treasure of Panch Villa (1955)

Gilbert Roland as Juan Castro, during an attack on a Mexican government gold train in The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955)

Rory Calhoun as mercenary fighter Tom Bryan, holed up with revolutionary Juan Castro in The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955)

Gilbert Roland as Juan Castro and Shelley Winters as Ruth Harris, saved from the Mexican forces closing in on them in The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955)