Crappy film

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Alan Ladd, Lloyd Nolan, and Chill Wills star in this adventure where a bunch of mercenary americans try to make money by selling guns to the Cubans trying to gain their independence. Rossana Podestà is the token female, standing up for her homeland, caught up in all this. Nolan is "Pike", strutting and bragging the whole time. Most of the film is about just trying to get the guns to the island... it's a bit hokey, over-acting and hamming it up for the camera. and having the girl's little brother Juanito tag along is just silly, clearly a gimmick to tug on the heart strings. This one was nearing the end of the line for Alan Ladd; he had started as talkies were getting going. Directed by Gordon Douglas. According to wikipedia , he had started with Hal Roach in the early days, and moved up quickly. Check out Douglas' resume.. he sure directed some big films. This one is okay.. not great, but certainly entertaining. and includes talk of the U.S. ship Maine, which was sunk at Cuba in 1898. later floated and re-sunk off Florida 1912. interesting stuff.

Later in his career, the quality in most of Alan Ladd's films dropped dramatically. Surprisingly, after his terrific performance in "Shane", it was all downhill from there...and "Santiago" is as downhill as you can go!The film is set in the late 19th century--just before the Spanish- American War. Two groups of gun-runners are trying to outmaneuver each other and take advantage of trouble brewing in Cuba. While neither guy in charge cares about the revolution, one is comic book bad (Lloyd Nolan) and his character has no depth whatsoever. Heck, had they had Bluto from the Popeye cartoons play the guy, it would have been just as realistic. As for the other, it's played by Ladd and his character is very inconsistent throughout the film--going from selfish and greedy to selfless and kind!! None of this makes any sense and it's made worse by a very weak and uninteresting script and a love interest who is less appealing than a sheep. All in all, Ladd deserved better...and you can do better.

The problem is that the heroes are supposedly fighting for the Cuban cause (against the Spanish invaders) but Cuba fell into American hands the same year;it would have been acceptable if Cash had remained an arms dealer ,just working for .....cash;but he tries to redeem himself,he's got a high moral conscience :he was a military man and he could never get over his shame,his demotion.His sense of honor is still intact and when he meets the beautiful Isabella,the rebels' Passionaria ,he is ripe for rehabilitation.If you forget history-and the "cultural"lines at the beginning-you have a watchable adventures movie which begins as a western ,continues as some kind of pirate tale and ends with a long walk through the jungle.As for Ladd,he did much worse than that :" guns of the Timberland" and mainly "Orazio e Curiazo " in which he plays like a zombie.

Adventure movie which has some good moments but it's absurd most times. Alan Ladd and Lloyd Nolan are two rival dealers, trying to sell guns for rebels who fight against the Spanish domain in Cuba. Of course, between them there is a girl, a rebel leader played by Italian actress Rossana Podesta. That's she who has the movie's most brilliant line. Ladd sees a group of rebels dancing the conga (or some kind of dance identified as conga) and ask Rossana how could they be happy in such situation. She says something like "because the hatred is in their souls but not in their hearts" !!! And she also has an annoying kid brother. Sorry but I can't recommend this movie.