Pulverdampf in Casa Grande (1964)

Pulverdampf in Casa Grande: Directed by Roy Rowland. With Alex Nicol, Jorge Mistral, Dick Bentley, Steve Rowland. When a gambler wins a Mexican cattle ranch at a game of poker, he plans to drive the herd across the Rio Grande to Texas, sell the cattle and leave the ranch behind. He hires on local hands, but during the drive, the discover that he plans to cheat them.

“Veteran MGM B director Roy Rowland ended his career with three cheap westerns co-produced with MGM and shot in Spain. In some ways this looks like one of the gritty westerns that were being turned out by Italy, but while the body count is adequate, Rowland was too steeped in the MGM mystique — this movie is too visually polite, the music score a tad too lush and the actors too clean to compare with Sergio Leoneu0026#39;s u0026#39;Man With No Nameu0026#39;, so the result is nothing particular: too pretty for grit, too gritty for a traditional B and even a script co-written by Borden Chase canu0026#39;t do much.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe actors try to do something with their performances, particularly Alex Nicol, but his character lacks enough definition to be particularly interesting. Director Rowlandu0026#39;s son, Steve has a featured role as u0026#39;The Kidu0026#39;. One wonders how he felt about that during the shoot.”