Dir: Antonio Margheriti – Cast: Jim Brown (Pike), Lee van Cleef (Kiefer), Fred Williamson (Tyree), Catherine Spaak (Catherine), Jim Kelly (Kashtok), Barry Sullivan (Sheriff Kane), Dana Andrew, Harry Carey Jr., Ricardo Palacios – Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Made roughly a decade after the glory days of the genre, Take a Hard Ride is as much a blaxploitation film as a spaghetti western. With Jim Kelly, fresh from Enter the Dragon, as an Indian (!) martial arts specialist, even a third genre is smuggled in. As a hybrid, the film isn’t very inspiring. Even the Canary Islands locations have an alienating effect, as if there’s something totally wrong with the film: you can’t shake the bizarre feeling that it doesn’t belong there. Luckily those locations are beautiful.
Jim Brown is Pike, a black right-hand man of a rancher, who must bring an $ 86.000 payroll over the border after the death of his boss. When he’s attacked by bandits, he’s saved, and subsequently joined, by a fellow black man, Tyree, a dishonest professional card player. The two men head for Mexico, attracting an entire army of would-be thieves, led by Kiefer, a merciless bounty killer, played by Lee van Cleef himself.
Although far from great, the first half of the movie is enjoyable. Brown and Williamson aren’t gifted or versatile actors (Brown is his stone-faced self, Williamson does his usual pimp impersonation), but the contrast between both characters is interesting: the first a sort of Uncle Tom, honest and loyal to his white boss, the other a talkative and manipulative opportunist, only honest to himself. With Jim Kelly and the lovely Catherine Spaak joining them, and Lee and his ever-growing bunch trailing them, things look quite promising, but somewhere half way, it all falls apart. Spaak is killed so abruptly that it took me a while to realize that she wouldn’t return. A machine gun is thrown in, but apparently for no other reason than the presence of a machine gun in The Wild Bunch, obviously a source of inspiration (others, among them the director himself, have pointed at similarities with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). At a specific moment, Brown and Williamson are confused with two other niggas, who play hide and seek with the movie and then, all of a sudden, like Spaak, are killed off. There’s no coherence, no flow. And no finale. There’s an explosion and a waterfall, and that’s it.
An enjoyable first half, a few decent action scenes (Hal Needham was one of the stunt coordinators), great locations and a nice score by Jerry Goldsmith, that is what this movie has to offer. It’s also nice to see a few Hollywood veteran actors like Barry Sullivan and Dana Andrews. And then there’s Lee, good old Lee, who’s in desperate need of a hair dresser. I’ve never seen him so bored, and above all: so thin; he literally looks emaciated here, almost swallowed by his traditional Colonel Mortimer coat. Ricardo Palacios, playing a Mexican bandit, seems to have put on all the weight Lee had lost.
