Mackenna's Gold (1969)
Genre: Western
Duration: 128 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: J. Lee Thompson
Stars: Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif and Telly Savalas
IMDb score:
6,7 (10.708)
Releasedate: 18 March 1969
Mackenna's Gold plot
"A Giant of a movie"
1872. MacKenna, Sheriff of Hadleyburg, is ambushed in the desert by old Apache chief Prairie Eye. The sheriff injures the Indian, who before dying gives MacKenna a map of the legendary Golden Valley. The secret has always been well kept. Only a white man, Adams, saw the gold but his eyes were gouged out by the Apaches. They thought their happiness depended on keeping the secret, but now they've caught the gold rush themselves.
Actors and actresses
Marshal MacKenna
Colorado
Inga Bergmann
Hesh-Ke
Sergeant Tibbs
Sanchez
Hachita
The Editor
The Preacher
The Storekeeper
Reviews & comments
Roger Thornhill
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- 6070 messages
- 2476 votes
Totally insane movie. The abysmal background projections have already been mentioned above, but I myself don't know exactly what I find worst: the chaotic editing of the scene with the raft, or the incredibly cheap miniature work at the landslide at the end.
No, I think I'll still vote for the truly beyond comprehension fact that Peck prefers that spindly blonde over the busty fiery "Indian" Julie Newmar (Catwoman on TV, for those who remember, from the days when fellow actor in this movie Burgess Meredith was a very acceptable Penguin).
Quote from this movie's trivia page on IMDb: "During the swimming scene at the pool Julie Newmar's character was supposed to be topless with a loincloth. In an interview Ms. Newmar stated that at the last minute she decided to do the scene nude and no-one, especially the male actors and crew, argued with her about the decision." How strange of those male actors and crew 
.
Other than that, I really enjoyed this movie. How much must they have paid Lee J. Cobb and Anthony Quayle to show their heads so briefly?
Translated from Dutch · View original
Arapaho85
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- 141 messages
- 167 votes
This film screams out: “I was made in 1969!!”, by which I mainly mean the soundtrack, really '60s.
I've seen quite a few westerns and because of my favorite western actor Gregory Peck I bought this movie. But hubby, this movie misses the mark!
Location recordings are continuously interspersed with fake studio recordings.
How do you come up with this as a filmmaker? You record something on the spot in the appropriate environment and then you think 'oh' let's do it again but in the studio with a photo in the background or on rocking horses.
In the guns of Navarone this was also applied but not the whole movie long!
The special effects seem to come from the series Thunderbirds!! (especially the ending) 
x1000.
and the story… this is a mix between The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) - MovieMeter.nl, Indiana Jones and at the end a little more fantasy. In fact, the final fight between Peck and Sharif also fails, although it is one of the best scenes in the film in itself.
Peck and Sharif are pros and try to make the best of it. Telly Savalas plays as in all his films, the women are 1960s caricatures and The Gentlemen from Hadleyburg have so little screen time that anyone could have played their part.
I will close with Gregory Peck's opinion on this film: Mackenna's Gold was a terrible western. Just wretched."
Translated from Dutch · View original
Lovelyboy
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- 3953 messages
- 2955 votes
Old westerns are often worth taking chances at the thrift store, do they always turn out well...? No, of course not, but the gems that can be found make the gamble worth it. McKenna's Gold was especially worth the gamble because of the cast and director who has a number of strong titles behind the name. It turned out that this certainly does not guarantee a top product.
Take a hidden gold vein in Indian possession, we have a 'sympathetic' sheriff who would know where this vein is and we have a whole horde of crooks, fortune seekers, adventurers and other people that cannot be trusted. In the midst of this begins a not exactly uninteresting journey across the arid plains of vast New Mexico, Utah and Arizona according to Wikipedia regarding the recording locations. And there's a lot to overcome about the presence of soldiers, suspicion, nature and last but not least two quarreling women, and that Hesh-ke is quite a bit with her swimming scene, and that's before 1969.
The cast should of course not be forgotten in that sense with wooden Klaas Gregory Peck, Sharif, Savalas, Eli Wallach, Lee J. Cobb, Anthony Quayle and Julie Newmar. But somewhere the potential of the film is not reached that it does at first glance. Is it Peck who, as is often the case, is disappointing and brings too little as a leading man? Is it the pace that goes up and down too much and has scenes that last too long, with the result that McKenna's Gold is quite a long film and not always interesting? Or is it the clumsiness in certain things like the miniature earthquake and mounting on the raft as Roger Thornhill also says...?
Still, I do not experience McKenna's Gold as a bad film and the film is given a place in the collection with the intention of a review and final vote in the long term. For now 3 stars.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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