Shalako (1968)

Director: Edward Dmytryk

Starring: Sean Connery, Brigitte Bardot, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Peter van Eyck, Honor Blackman, Woody Strode, Eric Sykes, Alexander Knox

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Sean Connery is Shalako! Shalako means action! Action means Bardot!

Plot: After a group of wealthy Europeans haplessly wanders onto an Apache reservation, inscrutable tracker Shalako (Connery) makes a bold attempt to rescue them in this Western set in late 19th-century New Mexico, based on a novel by Louis L'Amour. The pampered bunch includes Lady Julia Daggett (Blackman) and sharpshooter Countess Irina Lazaar ( Bardot), who sets her sights on the rugged Shalako.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Rogers, Roy Rogers [cue kick ass banjo theme]

While I was watching this I thought a fun, small project would be to watch all of the Westerns made by all of the actors that played James Bond...that is until I saw how few there were. Connery and Moore only did one each and the other cats did about the same so that rules that out. Anyway, it's interesting to see THE Sean Connery as a cowboy. He's OK at best but it is weird seeing him in a world so far away from 60s Europe. Despite the big names in the cast, no one is more than adequate. Everyone does their job and without anything special. It was neat seeing Bond and Pussy Galore on the same screen again.

Oh no, Honor Blackman is about to be...dishonored.

The problem is the story. Shalako tells the snobbish hunting party they have to leave the area or be killed by the Indians. Only because he gets a hard on for Bardot does he decide to help them fight the Indians. That's the first bit of bullshit. Then he says he's going to get help from the Army fort that's a good 2 days away but gets a couple of miles away and causes a distraction for the Indians and then goes back to lead the party out of the area on foot. I'm not going any further but you get the idea of how confusing this can be. It's as if there were scenes missing that justified why he kept doing the opposite of what he set out to do.


Robert Farnon's score is about 10 years outdated with the laughable theme song sung by a men's chorus. It would have been more at home in 1958 than '68. SHALAKO is a standard Western that has only one real draw, Sean Connery. Other than that, this is completely forgettable...except of course for that damn song.