Vera Cruz
Directed by Robert Aldrich. 94mins. (1954)
Gary Cooper - Benjamin Trane
After the American Civil War, mercenaries travel to Mexico to fight in their revolution for money. The former soldier and gentleman Benjamin Trane meets the gunman and killer Joe Erin and his men, and together they are hired by the Emperor Maximillian and the Marquis Henri de Labordere to escort the Countess Marie Duvarre to the harbor of Vera Cruz.Ben and Erin find that the stagecoach is transporting three million U.S. dollars in gold hidden below the seat, and they scheme to steal it. Along their journey, betrayals and incidents happen changing their initial intentions.
Also starring Burt Lancaster, Denise Darcel, Cesar Romero, Sara Montiel, George Macready, and Charles Bronson.
Thought to be a big influence on the spaghetti westerns of the 1960’s, this big budget western, one of the biggest hits of 1954, was filmed on location in Mexico is set during the Mexican Rebellion of 1866.
Tagline - The Giants Battle In The Biggest Spectacle Of Them All!
Maria’s Notes
For my father going to Mexico both for work and vacation was eagerly anticipated or planned. Any time a film location was set for there he was delighted. Vera Cruzthe script was being worked on day by day, so no time to learn lines ahead of timenot my father’s favorite way to work. But the drama for himcame when he and Lancaster are in a cabin surrounded by the ‘bad guys” shooting out of windows to save their lives. Burt was standing behind my father and his gun went off by accident, shooting the “Blanks into my father’s left shoulder. An inch higher it would have taken off his left ear or scarred the side of his face. As it was, the wadding from the blank left a tattoo type of scar the size of a silver dollar in Poppas skin The tension between the two characters in the film builds— who gets the gold, who gets the woman??? And then---the final shoot out.
Maria Cooper Janis