meandering, dopey action movie

Garry Copper and Burt Lancaster give very good performances, the humor is very dry and the action sequences are well done with a nice finale .

A large scale visual experience that's not quite as fun as it thinks it is.

The link between the classical western of Ford, Mann and Hathaway and the revisionist western of Leone and Peckinpah. Allthough the stoic Gary Cooper as the old school southerner seems almost tired or bored opposite Burt Lancasters flamboyant, cynical gunslinger, it delivers as a highly entertaining western adventure.

Joe Erin black outfit has been stuck in my head since I was 8.

Entertaining Western starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster as two guns-for-hire who get hired by the wrong guys in Mexico. Cooper of course is the sturdy good guy, while Lancaster is more chimeric, his gleaming teeth seem to refract a different moral stance each time he flashes them. Does tread the line of showing racism/sexism and being racist/sexist, and some of the plot turns are silly, but Robert Aldrich keeps it brisk and lively.

Everything works in this first-rate Western. Fans of "The Wild Bunch" should see what Aldrich did with mercenaries and Mexico 15 years before Sam.

Burt Lancaster's gritty smile hit this one home