Savage Pampas

I knew about this movie years ago but only recently watched it on Y/T. It is actually a great action movie with a good story line. The soldiers in the frontier fort are deserting because there aren't any women available, so the brass hires 9 prostitutes to fill the needs. Trouble is, that during the trip to the fort they are attacked by renegades and Indians who try and stop them. After the big battle (mandatory), they move on and continue much as before. In the other reviews they mention "these balls on a rope" weapons that the Indians use. That is called a BOLO which is 3 ropes tied at the middle with a ball at each end. When thrown properly it can trip up a man or bring down a horse. The BOLO is sort of a "national weapon of Argentina". I have a neighbor who flies to Argentina and then goes on this long ride inland lasting several days. They stay at "camps" along the way. After a good weeks riding he returns home??? That is not my idea of a holiday but to each his own.

I watched this movie as part of my mission to watch all of Robert Taylor's films. He was just a few years from his death, so, there was, for me, a poignancy about this performance. He still looked good, had that marvelous commanding voice and, IMHO, still had IT as an actor. For anyone who loved his earliest films, this picture will be a shock. It is very gritty but exemplary of the types of "westerns" made in the 1960s. While not a true spaghetti western, it did have that look and feel of same. Not a great story; mostly a vehicle for sensationalism, sexism and brutality. These are not elements that were associated with his early romantic pictures,; so the public can clearly see that our star had quite a professional journey. . I think it may have taken great courage to do this film. I can not recommend it but I do not regret watching it bc I enjoyed seeing Robert Taylor.

In 1966 the western genre was pretty tired – only the Italians, with their stylistic spaghetti westerns, were finding new angles to keep the genre fresh. American westerns were becoming thinner on the ground, and those that did still get made were often entirely routine. It would be the sprightly caperish-ness of Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid and the slow-motion violence of The Wild Bunch a few years later which would briefly reinvigorate the Hollywood horse opera. An unusual film from this era is Savage Pampas, which is more of a semi-western than a fully-fledged western. Co-written and directed by Hugo Fregonese, it is an American-Spanish-Argentinian co-production set on the pampas of 19th century Argentina. Maybe the best label for it would be a "southern"? At an army outpost in Argentina commanded by the ball-busting Captain Martin (Robert Taylor), the soldiers consist of a number of ex-cons, fugitives and desperadoes. For several years they have been locked in conflict with bandits and hostile Indians. All the while, the army soldiers have been kept away from women. Morale is low among the sex-starved soldiers, and many are deserting to the side of the bandits where they are promised women and pleasures of the flesh. Martin realises that urgent changes are needed and arranges for a number of women – whores and ne'er-do-wells – to be brought into the camp to satisfy his remaining men. The women have to be transported across miles of perilous terrain, personally accompanied by Martin and some of his best soldiers. The journey is fraught with danger, and the men and women undertaking find themselves unexpectedly developing mutual respect – love, even – as they go. Savage Pampas is intriguing for its very unusual plot threads – an examination of the effect celibacy on fighting men; temptations of the flesh; the fragility of morale; primitive attitudes towards women, etc. The film is handsomely shot, with some very good-looking panoramic sequences. There is action and violence in spurts, some of it is surprisingly hard-edged for 1966, though at other times the film is relatively sombre and slow-moving. Taylor holds it together well enough, playing a John Wayne-like authority role (he even drawls his lines like the Duke!) Waldo de los Rios provides a flavoursome score which adds to the rich South-'o'-the-Border atmosphere. Overall Savage Pampas is a smooth and watchable flick – it does not deserve to have fallen into relative obscurity.

A sad and dismal almost final ending for Robert Taylor. His handsome looks faded by time, drink, and possible lung cancer, Robert Taylor presents a depressing lifeless figure in this 3rd rate South American produced Western. As a big fan of Taylor, I really don't want to remember him in this film. Of course, this is easy to do, as this movie has virtually been lost to time. It's clear that Robert Taylor didn't have his heart in the role of "Captain Martin". He looks weather beaten, tired, and just plain worn out. His build is just too thin and he appears in ill health. Even the feel of this whole movie is that of people "Beaten-Up" by the passing of time and hard living. Savage Pampas is "savage" to watch. There is little to like and it's not even a pleasant night at the movies. Savage Pampas is just a dismal footnote in the faltering career of Robert Taylor.

You really can't call this film set in old uncivilized Argentina a western. It's a war drama with elements of the American western, set in the desert of the growing South American country, filmed among the open country of sunny Spain. Robert Taylor is the captain of a troop of very lonely soldiers who threaten to dessert if they don't get women. There are battles between the natives, banditos, deserters and those who have stayed around, and the number of soldiers willing to stick around is dwindling..if they don't get love...fast...or at least physical love. So you get singing gauchos, easy women of virtue with no real prospects, resigned to their fate to just be playthings for soldiers for the good of the country. It's a silly but perverted film, with Ron Randell over-the-top as Taylor's main foe, and Ty Hardin as a young rebel. The story is in very interesting but the filming is stunning with the pastel colors so vivid they practically fly off of the screen. It's like a painting come to life with a visual that soon won't be forgotten. Taylor tries too hard to look like he did during his earlier MGM years 20 years before, but his performance is a wooden as the forts.

This is one of the worst Westerns I have ever seen. Sad that it was one of Robert Taylor's last movies. It has some things that you have never seen in a movie before. Often that would be a good thing -- edgy, bold innovation, cutting edge, push the envelope, etc. Here you know it was never done before because it is so awful! ***spoilers*** The biggest theme of the movie seems to be that soldiers will fight, dessert and re-enlist if they are offered prostitutes. That might be interesting if there was some nudity, raw realistic language, believable characters, etc. But no. There are no interesting characters for the audience to follow, none to commiserate with hero Taylor -- no girlfriends, no male friends even. Plus the dubbing is awful. There must be good stories involving Argentina, the Pampas, Indians, deserters, and civil war there, but you won't find it in this silly movie. Most of the movie involves Taylor's Captain character escorting jailed-women-let-free if they would "comfort" the soldiers. On the way to the fort, the women and their soldier escorts fall in love (!!), so the soldiers refuse to continue to the fort. Meanwhile they are attacked by white rebels (many of them deserted soldiers joining the rebellion because they are offered prostitutes) and Indians. The soldiers and comfort women end up in a church surrounded by the rebel-bandit-Indian forces. Taylor leaves to get help from the fort. He is captured by the bad rebel leader and staked out to die alone slowly in the sun. A friendly girl rescues him. He continues to the fort and returns with a small number of soldiers. The larger rebel-deserter-Indian force has the church surrounded and are having fun waiting/stretching out the time to attack the church. Nice guys. Taylor sneaks into the bad guys camp and kills the chief, sneaks back out, and the superstitious Indians decide to leave. There is still the matter of the larger rebel-deserter force, but Taylor tells them they will have amnesty if they retire to the fort with their prostitutes. That leaves the rebel leader alone to fight Taylor -- man to man. They fight with swords and spears, but Taylor ends things by drawing his revolver to shoot the rebel leader dead! Really. Then Taylor dies from his wounds.

I understand that this movie may fell true western die hard buffs discomfortable. This could be a kind of spaghetti western, after all Arentina is a bit Spanish and Italian descent country. And also German, especially since 1945, we wonder why....)))) So, this movie is typical in the spaghetti genre mood and atmosphere. First, there are full of unlikable, offbeat and downbeat elements that we see in Spaghetti westerns, for example, how women are treated. Not only westerns made in Italy, but also.poliziottesco with poor women beaten raped, violented in so may ways, treated as less than garbage. Here, you have some of this. No hero here, that's precisely what I like and search. I am surprised that only one viewer has noticed the parallel, because it still exists, between this and Bill Wellman's WESTWARD THE WOMEN. A poor parallel, I agree. Robert Taylor has a nemesis here, as he had in Ivanhoe, another Bois Guilbert payed by Ron Randell instead of George Sanders with a very good ending as I love, instead of the classic twilight classical westerns finals. Yes, i definitely loved this unusual westerns that the great Sam Peckinpah could - I am sure - have perfectly done and also liked to direct.

This south-of-the-border western, (and we're talking way way south), has a lot of promising elements. There's the novel quality of its unusual setting, (the Argentine pampas in the late 1800s), attractively photographed to emphasize its sweeping openness. There's the lively situation of some lusty soldiers escorting a group of attractive hookers on a cross-country journey. There's plenty of action -- Indian attacks, knife fights, the siege inside a burning church, etc. And the cast offers an intriguing mix of macho types: Robert Taylor, Ty Hardin, and Ron Randell. Still, the movie never succeeds in mixing these ingredients into a suitable dish because there's no recipe here, no strong plot-line to connect these elements. Too often it's simply a string of related episodes which keep you mildly interested while you're waiting for the main story to arrive and take hold. Acting honors go to Ron Randell who makes his bandit character more interesting than the script might indicate. Robert Taylor, in his fading days and looking quite saturnine, lends a bit of dignity to the proceedings, even when he's staked out on the ground in spreadeagle style. Ty Hardin gets to display some of that twinkle-in-the-eye charm which, sadly, was often missing when he wound up in glum, humorless parts. Curiously, he's never given a chance to show off his bare chest. Casting Ty Hardin in a movie and then making him keep his shirt on is like hiring Fred Astaire and then telling him not to dance!

An Argentinian Western and Taylor's oddest film, Savage Pampas is a remake of the 1946 Argentinian film Pampa Barbera. Taylor is the guardian of a wagon train of women heading for a lonely outpost in the interior in 1870. The plot is reminiscent of his Westward the Women (1952) with the difference that this time the women are prostitutes, intended to be morale boosters to stop the men of the outpost from deserting. Shot by Hollywood veteran Fregonese who co-scripted it with a strong emphasis on realism, the film got lost in the flood of Spaghetti Westerns. Phil Hardy

Tittilating and exciting describe this movie, which has a opiate effect of luring the viewer in and addicting the viewer. Its a South of the border Western with Robert Taylor portraying an anti hero in charge of a group soldiers who are drafted from the prisons and gallows. He has his hands full just trying to keep them all from deserting. Ty Hardin plays an anarchist who slowly wins over Taylor's confidence and possibly respect. They are among a handful of men who transport beautiful women to the fort to help keep the number of deserters down. Meanwhile, former deserters unite with local natives and try to steal the women. Taylor plays the sort of anti hero who is much more believable and identifiable than the clownish ones of later spaghetti Westerns. Taylor, like Eastwood, wasn't as gifted an actor as his fellow cast members in most cases, so his stoic look serves as that of observer-cynic. However, the writing of "Savage Pampas" is far superior to that of the spaghetti Westerns. The characters are well defined and written well enough that you don't need an Eli Wallach or Lee Van Cleef to pull them off. Still, Hardin was never a slouch in the acting department. His anti hero has more heart than Taylor's, but Taylor's character is still convincing. Like true anti heroes, they're not superhuman murderous machines, but much more in line with the old West. The ending is totally unpredictable, and as far as I know, an unusual fate for Robert Taylor, and Ty Hardin. The music has a fascination to it, and it helps lure you in. One of the great Westerns.