What a clunker
The Rare Breed ought certainly to have had a parental guidance warning (to stop parents going).
Oh, James Stewart is good. He always was. And he still
has his horse Pie and he’s got his proper hat back. He must have realized what
a mistake it was not wearing it in Shenandoah.
The trouble isn’t there.
Doing the best job he could but...
It’s with the dismal acting by the very weak
supporting cast, the shocking McLaglen direction, the dire screenplay by TV man Ric Hardman, and the general corniness of the whole exercise. How are the mighty
fallen!
Anyone of any quality apart from Stewart is soon
written out. I don’t know why Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr. are even
credited; they only say a couple of things, then so long. What a shocking
waste.
Juliet Mills is prissy. Don Galloway is bland.
Maureen O’Hara tries to be an ‘English’ lady but gives herself away immediately in her very
first line by saying she is from “Herefordsheer”. Actually, she was an awful Western actress. The acting is really bad.
Only Jack Elam (apart from Stewart) is worth watching. For the others, you just
curl up your toes and wince.
Wasted
However, the whole movie is sunk, almost single-handed,
by the quite dreadful Brian Keith. At least we are to assume it’s Brian Keith,
under the worst fright wig ever seen. Mr. Keith was clearly an honors graduate
of the Dick van Dyke School of British Accents. He is utterly appalling. Why
did he do it? Why did McLaglen allow it? Why didn’t the producer veto it?
Presumably they all thought it was ‘funny’.
Although the movie was another William Clothier
effort, you wouldn’t know it. There is some nice California scenery and there
are some good framed shots but a hell of a lot is done in the studio.
The Dodge scenes are pathetic and the 'plot' seems
to be just a linking of a series of ‘comic’ fistfights.
James Stewart does his best to salvage this
utter clunker but even he is fighting a losing battle. This movie is enough to
give Westerns a bad name.
Like a rider thrown from his horse, it must have
taken guts for Stewart to make another Western two years later. In fact he made
two in 1968. First Firecreek, then Bandolero!
The Rare Breed is one of the worst Westerns I have ever seen.
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