Murieta

The fictionalized story of Joaquin Murrieta, a real life Mexican bandit who terrorized California with his gang of raiders and cutthroats during the first half of the 19th century. Some saw him as a murderous outlaw, others as the Mexican Robin Hood.

'Murieta" (Jeffrey Hunter) and his wife "Rosita" (Sara Lezana) are panning for gold when he discovers a strike! Their celebrations attract the attentions of their gringo neighbours and next thing we know, he is waking up battered and bruised and she is dead. He determines on revenge, but is actually a fairly law abiding person so having already befriended the decent "Capt. Love" (Arthur Kennedy) heads to the nearest town to bide his time - making his living doing card tricks - until these three killers return. When they do, his friend is unable to assure him that he will get justice from the system - one man's word against three - so he takes the law into his own hands, and to escape a lynching heads to the hills with a gang of bandits with whom he starts marauding. He picks his targets, though - a bit like "Robin Hood", his aim is to free the Californian people from the yoke of the encroaching hoodlums and "pioneers", but surely it is just a matter of time before the authorities - and his friend "Love" - apprehend him? It's actually not a bad adventure film this, and Hunter does enough to keep it moving along. It's just that the production standards are truly woeful and the dubbing - well, less said the better. The camerawork is wobbly, the sound the stuff of a student project and there is just far too much ropey dialogue. The story is solid - based on a real life character - but somehow George Sherman (who ought to have known better) just can't let the story and the star do enough of the heavy lifting without cluttering it up with third rate supporting stars and bad photography. I suppose it is interesting to see how the once box-office Hunter has been reduced to this, but otherwise it's truly disappointing.