Americano (1955)
5KAmericano: Directed by William Castle. With Glenn Ford, Frank Lovejoy, Cesar Romero, Ursula Thiess. An American working on a ranch in the Amazon comes up against a gang of Brazilian bandits.
“The Americano (1955) u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e** 1/2 (out of 4) u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWilliam Castleu0026#39;s Western is pretty familiar on many grounds but itu0026#39;s also a lot different on others, which makes it worth checking out. American Sam Dent (Glenn Ford) heads to Brazil to sell his cattle so that he and his brother can live better but once there he gets in the middle of a land owner (Frank Lovejoy) and a u0026quot;banditu0026quot; (Cesar Romero) who are battling each other. THE AMERICANO, story wise, really doesnu0026#39;t offer us anything we havenu0026#39;t seen countless times before so if youu0026#39;re looking for something original then youu0026#39;re certainly not going to find it here. Based on story alone this film would be worth skipping but what makes it so entertaining and worth watching are the locations. The Brazilian jungle really makes for an interesting setting and I must admit that it was a lot of fun seeing some routine Western scenes u0026quot;updatedu0026quot; for the location. How many times have we seen a scene where the cowboy must take the cattle across some water? Well, in the scene here the problem is that there are crocodiles and piranhas in the water. How many times have we seen the cowboy beat or threaten a bad guy into telling the truth about something? Well, in this film those same piranhas are used to get him to talk. I really enjoyed seeing these familiar scenes updated to the setting and throw in the Technicolor and this really makes the film worth seeing. It also features some good performances with Ford leading the way playing a good guy like only he can. Lovejoy was extremely entertaining and steals every scene heu0026#39;s in and Romero is also very good in his role. Castleu0026#39;s direction isnu0026#39;t anything ground-breaking but he does a good job piecing everything together and keeping the film flowing at a nice pace.”
