Vera Cruz*

Vera Cruz

Directed by Robert Aldrich. 94 mins. (1954)

Gary Cooper – Benjamin Trane

In the aftermath of the American Civil War, an honorable former Confederate officer joins forces with a ruthless mercenary to escort a European countess across rebel-torn Mexico, only to discover their mission conceals a fortune in gold that tests loyalty, greed, and survival.

Also starring Burt Lancaster, Denise Darcel, César Romero, Sara Montiel, George Macready, and Charles Bronson.

Set during the Mexican Rebellion of 1866 and filmed on location in Mexico, Vera Cruz was one of the biggest box-office successes of 1954. Its morally ambiguous anti-heroes and violent, sun-bleached frontier world are widely regarded as a major influence on the Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s.

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