Movie Review: Charro! (1968)

I have to admit, I didn't think this film was going to be any good.  Most of the movies I've seen with musicians trying to act are iffy at best.  But I am on an Elvis kick so when I saw this in the Classics section of Bookmans, I had to snag it.  Elvis in a gritty western?  Cool!

Image courtesy of IMDB.  See link below.

Elvis as Jess Wade is actually very believable as an ex-outlaw trying to go straight.  I kept forgetting it was 'Elvis' on the screen.  He appears to be doing at least some of his own action sequences: riding a horse, being wrestled to the ground by the bad guys, being bucked about (albeit rather gently) by a 'wild' stallion he captures in an arroyo.  And as a lover he practically smolders a hole in my screen!  Seriously!  Those clear blue eyes and the scruffy beard he is sporting?  Ay chihuahua!

His lover Tracey Winters (played by the lovely Ina Balin) is no slouch either.  Vaguely Hispanic with long black hair and dark eyes, she is curvaceous, runs her own saloon and doesn't take any crap from anybody, including Jess Wade.  In one scene Jess comes into her room while she is in her bath and she goes out to confront him clad only in a diaphanous white robe that clings to her wet body, leaving very little to the imagination.  Talk about a jaw dropper!  I guess I figured that most classic movies were more prudish than that.  And when Jess grabs her and kisses her?  Oo lordy!  I was cranking my air conditioner and punching rewind!

The plot is fairly straightforward.  Jess ran for a while with a group of outlaws about a year prior to the film when he falls for the girlfriend of his gang leader, the lovely Tracey.  He leaves the gang, vowing to go straight but they catch up with him in Mexico and frame him for stealing a victory cannon, which is covered in gold and silver and was used in the Mexican War of Independence.  The Mexican army desperately want it back.  So the rest of the movie sees Jess dodging his gang and the Federales while trying to clear his name and return the cannon back to the Mexican authorities.

There are a couple flaws to the film, at least in my opinion.  They seem to spend a lot of time just riding through the desert (killing celluloid so the movie doesn't seem too short is my guess).  One of the outlaws has this high-pitched crazy laugh that is meant to be disturbing but he does it so often its irritating.  Some of the lines are clumsily handled.  And I don't know where the heck the movie title comes into play, but it makes a great title song for Elvis to sing during the opening credits!

Charro! sucked me in!  Great entertainment!

To find out more about the movie, see IMBd: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064155/