Take a Hard Ride (1975)

Waste of time

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Take A Hard Ride is both a spaghetti western and a black exploitation film. In this film Jim Brown takes a really large sum to Sonora in Mexico where his dying employer Dana Andrews has started what sounds like a Utopian like settlement. Brown takes on the mission because as a former slave Andrews treated him like a human being. He's feeling a strong obligation there.But when you're carrying $86,000.00 and that's in 19th century dollars it's not something you keep a secret. Brown has all kinds of people after the money up to and including bounty hunter Lee Van Cleef and even the law itself in the person of Barry Sullivan.His allies are an uneasy group. Gambler Fred Williamson who is a fast gun and has a way with snakes goes along with Brown with Brown knowing full well Williamson could turn on him. They also pick up a mute Indian played by Jim Kelly who's learned a lot of good karate moves with his tribe.Take A Hard Ride is a pretty good western for a spaghetti western. I'm not a real big fan of the genre thinking that westerns are to be made in the USA as its our art form. Still with all the Americans in the cast, none of that ridiculous dubbing is here. Brown and Williamson have a good chemistry in their scenes.Should please devoted western fans.

Trail boss Jim Brown is asked by dying boss Dana Andrews to carry a large payroll across the Mexican desert. He is pursued by bounty hunters and crooks led by Lee Van Cleef. It's an exciting old fashioned western that die hard western fan should like. If you like westerns with John Wayne and Clint Eastwood you should love this. Jim Brown and Fred Williamson make very good heroes. It's not up there with The Searchers or Fort Apache but it's very good. Watch out for veteran actors Harry Carey, Jr. and Robert Donner as bad guys. Can't think of anything else to say so I have to keep typing until I get 10 lines. If you like this movie also check out Rio Conchos.

Rugged trail boss and reformed criminal Pike (an excellent and convincing performance by big, bad Jim Brown) promises his honest wealthy employer Morgan (a fine cameo by Dana Andrews) that he will venture across the dessert to deliver $86,000 dollars in payroll money to a ranch in Sonora, Mexico. Pike makes an uneasy alliance with smooth, yet shifty gambler Pyree (ably played by the ever-suave Fred Williamson) in order to successfully complete his dangerous mission. During their perilous trek Pike and Tyree encounter desperate prostitute Catherine (an appealing portrayal by the beautiful Catherine Spaak) and her loyal ace martial artist half-breed companion Kashtok (amiable Jim Kelly in sturdy fighting form). Meanwhile, ruthless bounty hunter Kiefer (a perfectly steely Lee Van Cleef) and numerous greedy others give dogged chase. Director Antonio Margheriti, working from an offbeat and engrossing script by Eric Bercovici and Jerrold L. Ludwig, relates the lively and exciting story at a snappy pace, makes terrific use of the dusty Canary Islands locations, and stages the spirited shoot-outs and dynamic action set pieces with rip-roaring skill and gusto. The top-rate cast rates as another major asset: Brown and Williamson display a winningly easy'n'breezy chemistry and play off each other well (they also vigorously mix it up in a satisfying rough'n'tumble fisticuffs confrontation about an hour into the movie), Van Cleef makes for a marvelously menacing main villain, Barry Sullivan snarls it up nicely as brutal corrupt lawman Kane, Robert Donner and Harry Carey Jr. contribute pleasingly slimy turns as no-count cowpoke members of Kiefer's gang, and Charles McGregor provides some amusing comic relief in a regrettably minor part as the bumbling Cloyd. Riccardo Pallottini's sharp cinematography offers plenty of breathtaking shots of the vast and desolate dessert scenery. Jerry Goldsmith's twangy and robust score hits the stirring'n'sweeping harmonic spot. An immensely entertaining sagebrush saga.

Thank God blacks have gotten past this stage of films. How completely undignified.Moreover, this was for me, a painful film to watch. Such a wonderful talent as Ronald Howard, playing the crooked preacher, in this, his last film, which turned out to be complete crap. The cameramen didn't even have the grace to give him one lousy decent shot. Every time it looks as though he might get a little bit of exposure, the camera returns to that damned Lee Van Cleef. It is clear to see how this led him to finally abandon acting entirely. What a waste of talent. Very sad indeed.