Valdez Is Coming

1971 western

Rating: 14/20

Plot: A lynch mob surrounds an interracial couple and Bob Valdez, a sheriff who is actually attempting to bring the conflict to a resolution via words instead of bullets, ends up shooting the husband in self-defense. After finding out that this black man was wrongly accused anyway, Valdez attempts to gather some funds to give to the widow. Tanner, the cat who wants to marry the woman who was married to the man who was killed by somebody who was not that black guy who Valdez killed (Oh, snap!), rejects Valdez's plea for 100 dollars. Tanner and his men actually humiliate and torture Valdez instead. Our hero find that he must resort to violence and kidnapping to get what he wants.

Burt Lancaster is a real presence in this. Valdez Is Coming is far from perfect, but it is very entertaining and contains a really great (maybe frustratingly great) ending. But it's really Lancaster's movie, and he makes a better Mexican than even Charlton Heston! A bit of an atypical, oddball western, but definitely one worth seeing.