Shalako (film)
Encyclopedia
Shalako is a 1968
British western film directed by Edward Dmytryk
, starring Sean Connery
and Brigitte Bardot
. Stephen Boyd
portrayed a classic western villain. Jack Hawkins
played an upper class Englishman abroad in the "new" country. Honor Blackman
portrayed an English lady Julia Daggett.
territory by their guide, Bosky Fulton (Stephen Boyd). When French Countess Irina Lazaar (Brigitte Bardot) wanders off by herself, she is confronted by Indians, only to be rescued by Shalako (Sean Connery). When the party ignores his warning to leave Indian country, the Apaches led by Chato (Woody Strode
) attack. Based on the book by Louis L'Amour
.
was introduced to Louis L'Amour
by his friend Alan Ladd
. Over the years as Lloyd dreamed of becoming an independent producer he kept in touch with L'Amour with a view of filming his 1962 Shalako
. At one time Lloyd had lined up Henry Fonda
and Senta Berger
for the film to be made in Mexico but the reluctance of many film distributors to financially back Fonda and changes in the economic situation made filming in Mexico more expensive than planned.
During a meeting with L'Amour, Lloyd related stories of the large queues at the cinemas in New York for the latest James Bond
film. L'Amour remarked that Sean Connery would certainly "look tall in the saddle". Lloyd met Sean Connery who was a Western fan since childhood and was keen on doing the film as he received $1 million dollars out of the $5 million budget. Connery was available as he had turned down playing Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service
. Lloyd also obtained that film's planned original co-star Bardot, Bond cinematographer
Ted Moore
, and Bond stuntman
and action scene arranger Bob Simmons
.
With Connery on board, many European and other film distributors were keen to finance the film that was made in Almería
, Spain
. Whilst scouting locations when he was planning to film in the United States, Lloyd noticed that many real Native Americans
were overweight and did not look menacing. Simmons recruited a war party of lean and mean gypsies that he trained to ride and act like vicious Apaches. Simmons also talked Connery into shaving off the droopy moustache he had grown for the role to look more "realistic". The investors perhaps remembered Gregory Peck
's moustache
in The Gunfighter that was believed to have made the public stay away from that film and feared the same might happen with Shalako.
Many spaghetti western
s were filmed in Almería, but at the same time as Shalako, Harry Saltzman
's Western Desert
war film Play Dirty
was being filmed on the same locations. One film crew had to wipe out the tyre tracks in the sand before filming the Old West whilst the other crew had to pick up the horse droppings before they began shooting. Once the gypsy Apaches mounted on horseback made an error and attacked a Long Range Desert Group
by mistake.
Lloyd gathered a strong international cast, including Connery's former Goldfinger
co-star Honor Blackman
, as well as Jack Hawkins
, Stephen Boyd
, Woody Strode
, and Don Barry.
, Lee Van Cleef
, and
Clint Eastwood
. It also marked Sean Connery's first attempt to go mainstream in film and to distance himself from the James Bond
films. In the end, it almost worked for Connery
, but he had to keep on trying other roles, even after he did one more Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever
. Later on, it became a cult classic as it had been regarded as having the hallmarks of a European Western.
1968 in film
The year 1968 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.* November 1 - The MPAA's film rating system is introduced.-Top grossing films :- Awards :...
British western film directed by Edward Dmytryk
Edward Dmytryk
Edward Dmytryk was an American film director who was amongst the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who served time in prison for being in contempt of Congress during the McCarthy-era 'red scare'.-Early life:Dmytryk was born in Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada,...
, starring Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
and Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
. Stephen Boyd
Stephen Boyd
Stephen Boyd was an Irish actor, from Glengormley, Northern Ireland, who appeared in around 60 films, most notably in the role of Messala in Ben-Hur.-Biography:...
portrayed a classic western villain. Jack Hawkins
Jack Hawkins
Colonel John Edward "Jack" Hawkins CBE was an English actor of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.-Career:Hawkins was born at Lyndhurst Road, Wood Green, Middlesex, the son of master builder Thomas George Hawkins and his wife, Phoebe née Goodman. The youngest of four children in a close-knit family,...
played an upper class Englishman abroad in the "new" country. Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman is an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in The Avengers and Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger .-Early life:...
portrayed an English lady Julia Daggett.
Plot summary
A hunting party composed of European aristocrats is led into ApacheApache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
territory by their guide, Bosky Fulton (Stephen Boyd). When French Countess Irina Lazaar (Brigitte Bardot) wanders off by herself, she is confronted by Indians, only to be rescued by Shalako (Sean Connery). When the party ignores his warning to leave Indian country, the Apaches led by Chato (Woody Strode
Woody Strode
Woodrow Wilson Woolwine "Woody" Strode was a decathlete and football star who went on to become a pioneering black American film actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960...
) attack. Based on the book by Louis L'Amour
Louis L'Amour
Louis Dearborn L'Amour was an American author. His books consisted primarily of Western fiction novels , however he also wrote historical fiction , science fiction , nonfiction , as well as poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into movies...
.
Production
Producer Euan LloydEuan Lloyd
Euan Lloyd is a British film producer.He began his career directing short travelogue documentaries, starting with April in Portugal in 1954...
was introduced to Louis L'Amour
Louis L'Amour
Louis Dearborn L'Amour was an American author. His books consisted primarily of Western fiction novels , however he also wrote historical fiction , science fiction , nonfiction , as well as poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into movies...
by his friend Alan Ladd
Alan Ladd
-Early life:Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was the only child of Ina Raleigh Ladd and Alan Ladd, Sr. He was of English ancestry. His father died when he was four, and his mother relocated to Oklahoma City where she married Jim Beavers, a housepainter...
. Over the years as Lloyd dreamed of becoming an independent producer he kept in touch with L'Amour with a view of filming his 1962 Shalako
Shalako (novel)
Shalako is a 1962 Western novel by Louis L'Amour and the name of a town that the author once intended to build. It would have been a working town typical of those of the nineteenth-century Western frontier. However, funding for the project fell through, and Shalako was never built...
. At one time Lloyd had lined up Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
and Senta Berger
Senta Berger
Senta Berger is an Austrian film, stage and television actress, producer and author.Regarded by critics as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, and frequently named as one of the leading German-speaking actresses in polls, Berger has received many award nominations for her acting...
for the film to be made in Mexico but the reluctance of many film distributors to financially back Fonda and changes in the economic situation made filming in Mexico more expensive than planned.
During a meeting with L'Amour, Lloyd related stories of the large queues at the cinemas in New York for the latest James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film. L'Amour remarked that Sean Connery would certainly "look tall in the saddle". Lloyd met Sean Connery who was a Western fan since childhood and was keen on doing the film as he received $1 million dollars out of the $5 million budget. Connery was available as he had turned down playing Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (film)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the sixth spy film in the James Bond series, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. Following the decision of Sean Connery to retire from the role after You Only Live Twice, Eon Productions selected an unknown actor and model, George Lazenby...
. Lloyd also obtained that film's planned original co-star Bardot, Bond cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
Ted Moore
Ted Moore
Ted Moore, B.S.C. was a cinematographer and camera operator on nearly fifty films, and is probably most famous for his work on seven of the James Bond films in the 1960s and early 1970s.-Biography:...
, and Bond stuntman
Stuntman
A stuntman or stunt performer is someone who performs dangerous stunts.Stuntman may also refer to:*The Stunt Man, a 1980 film starring Peter O'Toole*Stuntman , a 2002 video game**Stuntman: Ignition, its sequel...
and action scene arranger Bob Simmons
Bob Simmons (stunt man)
Bob Simmons was an English actor and stunt man, best known for his work in many British made films, most notably the James Bond series.-Biography:...
.
With Connery on board, many European and other film distributors were keen to finance the film that was made in Almería
Almería (province)
-History:The rich customs and Fiestas of the denizens retain links deep into the past, unto the Moors, the Romans, the Greeks, and the Phoenicians.During the taifa era, it was ruled by the Moor Banu al-Amiri from 1012 to 1038, briefly annexed by Valencia , then given by Zaragoza to the Banu Sumadih...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. Whilst scouting locations when he was planning to film in the United States, Lloyd noticed that many real Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
were overweight and did not look menacing. Simmons recruited a war party of lean and mean gypsies that he trained to ride and act like vicious Apaches. Simmons also talked Connery into shaving off the droopy moustache he had grown for the role to look more "realistic". The investors perhaps remembered Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
's moustache
Moustache
A moustache is facial hair grown on the outer surface of the upper lip. It may or may not be accompanied by a type of beard, a facial hair style grown and cropped to cover most of the lower half of the face.-Etymology:...
in The Gunfighter that was believed to have made the public stay away from that film and feared the same might happen with Shalako.
Many spaghetti western
Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...
s were filmed in Almería, but at the same time as Shalako, Harry Saltzman
Harry Saltzman
Harry Saltzman was a Canadian theatre and film producer best known for his mega-gamble which resulted in his co-producing the James Bond film series with Albert R...
's Western Desert
Libyan Desert
The Libyan Desert covers an area of approximately 1,100,000 km2, it extends approximately 1100 km from east to west, and 1,000 km from north to south, in about the shape of a rectangle...
war film Play Dirty
Play Dirty
Play Dirty is a 1969 British film inspired by the North African exploits of units such as the Long Range Desert Group, Popski's Private Army and the SAS during World War II. It was directed by André De Toth and written by Melvyn Bragg and Lotte Colin...
was being filmed on the same locations. One film crew had to wipe out the tyre tracks in the sand before filming the Old West whilst the other crew had to pick up the horse droppings before they began shooting. Once the gypsy Apaches mounted on horseback made an error and attacked a Long Range Desert Group
Long Range Desert Group
The Long Range Desert Group was a reconnaissance and raiding unit of the British Army during the Second World War. The commander of the German Afrika Corps, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, admitted that the LRDG "caused us more damage than any other British unit of equal strength".Originally called...
by mistake.
Lloyd gathered a strong international cast, including Connery's former Goldfinger
Goldfinger (film)
Goldfinger is the third spy film in the James Bond series and the third to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1964, it is based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title...
co-star Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman is an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in The Avengers and Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger .-Early life:...
, as well as Jack Hawkins
Jack Hawkins
Colonel John Edward "Jack" Hawkins CBE was an English actor of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.-Career:Hawkins was born at Lyndhurst Road, Wood Green, Middlesex, the son of master builder Thomas George Hawkins and his wife, Phoebe née Goodman. The youngest of four children in a close-knit family,...
, Stephen Boyd
Stephen Boyd
Stephen Boyd was an Irish actor, from Glengormley, Northern Ireland, who appeared in around 60 films, most notably in the role of Messala in Ben-Hur.-Biography:...
, Woody Strode
Woody Strode
Woodrow Wilson Woolwine "Woody" Strode was a decathlete and football star who went on to become a pioneering black American film actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960...
, and Don Barry.
Cast
- Sean ConnerySean ConnerySir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
as Moses Zebulon 'Shalako' Carlin - Brigitte BardotBrigitte BardotBrigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
as Countess Irina Lazaar - Stephen BoydStephen BoydStephen Boyd was an Irish actor, from Glengormley, Northern Ireland, who appeared in around 60 films, most notably in the role of Messala in Ben-Hur.-Biography:...
as Bosky Fulton - Jack HawkinsJack HawkinsColonel John Edward "Jack" Hawkins CBE was an English actor of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.-Career:Hawkins was born at Lyndhurst Road, Wood Green, Middlesex, the son of master builder Thomas George Hawkins and his wife, Phoebe née Goodman. The youngest of four children in a close-knit family,...
as Sir Charles Daggett - Peter van EyckPeter van EyckPeter van Eyck, born Götz von Eick , was a German-American actor.-Biography:...
as Baron Frederick Von Hallstatt - Honor BlackmanHonor BlackmanHonor Blackman is an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in The Avengers and Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger .-Early life:...
as Lady Julia Daggett - Woody StrodeWoody StrodeWoodrow Wilson Woolwine "Woody" Strode was a decathlete and football star who went on to become a pioneering black American film actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960...
as Chato (Apache chief) - Eric SykesEric SykesEric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...
as Mako - Alexander KnoxAlexander KnoxAlexander Knox was a Canadian actor and author of adventure novels set in the Great Lakes area during the 19th century.-Biography:...
as Sen. Henry Clarke - Valerie FrenchValerie French (actress)Valerie French was a British film actress and later stage actress beginning in the 1950s.-Career:Born Valerie Harrison in London, England, French entered into film acting in her early 20s, with her first film appearance being in the 1954 film Maddalena...
as Elena Clarke - Julián MateosJulián MateosJulián Mateos was a Spanish actor and film producer. He appeared in 48 films and television shows between 1960 and 1980. He starred in the film The Robbers, which was entered into the 12th Berlin International Film Festival.-Selected filmography:* The Robbers * 10:30 P.M...
as Rojas - Don 'Red' Barry as Buffalo
- Rodd RedwingRodd RedwingRodd Redwing , , was a Native American actor, noted for being the world’s greatest quick-draw artist with six-guns...
as Chato's Father
Critical response
The film premiered in late 1968 to mixed reviews: many felt the movie was not as good as the other Westerns imported from Europe at the time, in particular, the Italian westerns that were making names for Sergio LeoneSergio Leone
Sergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots...
, Lee Van Cleef
Lee Van Cleef
Lee Van Cleef was an American film actor who appeared mostly in Western and action pictures. His sharp features and piercing eyes led to his being cast as a villain in scores of films such as High Noon, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Good The Bad and the Ugly.-Early life:Van Cleef was...
, and
Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
. It also marked Sean Connery's first attempt to go mainstream in film and to distance himself from the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
films. In the end, it almost worked for Connery
Connery
Connery is a surname, and may refer to:* Edward Connery , Canadian politician* Jason Connery , English actor, son of Sean Connery* Lawrence J. Connery , American politician, brother of William P...
, but he had to keep on trying other roles, even after he did one more Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever
Diamonds Are Forever
Diamonds Are Forever may refer to:In literature;* Diamonds Are Forever , the fourth novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series* Diamonds Are Forever, a 2004 short novel by Ryk E...
. Later on, it became a cult classic as it had been regarded as having the hallmarks of a European Western.