Thanks for the memories!

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

A Big Production Design Highlights this Mid-Sixties Western. The Cinematography, Score, and overall Look of the Movie is Stunning when Viewed Today in HD. The Colors Vibrate, the Landscape is Picture Post Card Beautiful, and the Sets in the Third-Act conclusion are nothing less than Surreal.The Cast, is Headlined by a Grizzly, Disheveled, Drunk, and Angry Richard Boone, straight from his Popular and long running "Have Gun, Will Travel" TV Show, with support from Tony Franciosa, Stuart Whitman, and Debuting Football Star Jim Brown.All do Adequate Work with Boone Chewing the Scenery often as He Overshadows Everyone. That is until the Climax when He Spars with Edmond O'Brien for Over Acting Honors. It is that aforementioned Third Act that is the Film's Highlight and is worth the price of admission.Although there are a few Action Scenes that lead up to the Violent and Explosive Conclusion that keep things Humming. It has its share of leftover Hollywood Stereotypes, but also shows Signs of the Transitional Western with some Brutality and a Touch of Sensitivity.Overall, it is riding the Gap between the Old and the New western (post Boetticher/Mann and pre Leone/Peckinpah) and is helped by the Stalwart Professionalism.

Gordon Douglas took this Clair Huffaker novel and directed the Great Jim Brown in his first Hollywood movie. The story concerns two officers from the America Civil War, Richard Boone and Stuart Whitman and pits them against one another south of the border. A wagon load of repeating rifles is high-jacked and smuggled across the border to Mexico. There the shipment is traded to marauding Apache Indians, who threaten to ignite a war with the U.S. Anthony Franciosa, Jim Brown,Vito Scotti and Edmond O'Brien head an all star cast. The script however is poor and the story line as wells at the action leaves much to be desired. Still, Boone and Whitman do their level best to make for an exciting drama, Anthony Franciosa shines as Rodriguez. However, it's up to Edmond O'Brien to carry the burden of the film as a demented Southern General. Recommended to audience who enjoy his films. I do. ****

Angry and defiant ex-Confederate soldier Major James Lassiter (a splendidly gruff performance by Richard Boone) is forced to lead a small ragtag group into Mexico. While in Mexico Lassiter and company run across Colonel Theron Pardee (robustly essayed with fierce brio by Edmond O'Brien), a crazed megalomaniac Confederate soldier who's selling guns to a local tribe of Apaches. Director Gordon Douglas, working from a compact script by Joseph Landin and Clair Huffaker, relates the entertaining story at a swift pace, maintains a tough serious tone throughout, makes fine use of the dusty desolate dessert terrain, and stages the thrilling shoot-outs with rip-roaring aplomb. The sound acting from the excellent cast rates as a major plus: Stuart Whitman as the rugged Captain Haven, Jim Brown as the noble Sargeant Franklin, Wende Wagner as feisty Apache maiden Sally, and Rodolfo Acosta as bitter and formidable Native American chief Bloodshirt. However, Anthony Franciosa easily steals the whole show with his delightfully lively'n'lusty portrayal of vain, shifty, yet still oddly likable womanizing half-breed Juan Lois Rodriguez. The singular Timothy Carey has a neat and sizable uncredited role as hearty bartender Chico. A nice underlying theme concerning trust, loyalty, and betrayal gives the picture additional dramatic substance. Both Jerry Goldsmith's stirring full-bodied score and Joseph McDonald's sumptuous widescreen cinematography further enhance the sturdy quality of this enormously fun sagebrush opus.

A large-scale if little-known Western which has several connections to the John Wayne vehicle, THE COMANCHEROS (1961) – the same studio (Fox), the same co-star (Stuart Whitman), the same screenwriter (Clair Huffaker), the same composer (Jerry Goldsmith) and, above all, a similar plot line (rifles belonging to the U.S. army are being stolen and sold by a band of renegades to the Indians) – but is sufficiently different in tone and approach to stand on its own considerable merits.The film is admirably served by a terrific cast: Richard Boone (in one of his best roles as a man hardened by the Apaches' massacre of his family), Anthony Franciosa (a surprising Golden Globe nominee as a charming Mexican rogue, but whose duplicity sees him killed halfway through the picture), Whitman (as the nominal hero, he's basically playing the part John Wayne had in THE COMANCHEROS!), Jim Brown (as Whitman's black lieutenant; watching this, I was reminded of 100 RIFLES [1969] – another Western of his that I recently acquired but have yet to catch up with), Edmond O'Brien (a relatively small but typically vigorous role as the Confederate Colonel waging his own private Civil War two years after the conflict ended) and Rodolfo Acosta (as the Apache chief and Boone's sworn enemy); it only lacks a substantial female presence (restricted to a young Indian squaw they meet on the way).The terrific climax sees Boone, Whitman and Brown eventually being captured and tortured by the Apaches with the Southern rebels looking on, but they are eventually freed by the squaw who has grown to respect them; subsequently, both Boone (who manages to settle his score with Acosta) and Brown are killed and the film closes with O'Brien seeing his dream of glorious reprisal literally go up in flames.Given that several minor Westerns have, thankfully, already been released on DVD, it is quite baffling why RIO CONCHOS is as yet unavailable on this format and, in fact, for my two viewings of the film so far, I've had to make do with Italian-dubbed TV screenings which, at least, presented the film in the correct 'Scope aspect ratio.