Valdez Is Coming (1971)

Director:

Edwin Sherin

Writers:

Roland Kibbee (screenplay) and
David Rayfiel (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

9 April 1971 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

Honor is Always Worth Fighting For.

Plot:

A Mexican-American sheriff must resort to violence against a powerful rancher in order to get just compensation for the pregnant Indian widow of a wrongly killed black man.

Plot Keywords:

Widow | Evil Landowner | Stagecoach | Mexican | Intimidation

Cast

Burt Lancaster	...	Valdez
Susan Clark	...	Gay Erin
Frank Silvera	...	Diego
Jon Cypher	...	Frank Tanner
Richard Jordan	...	R.L. Davis
Barton Heyman	...	El Segundo
Hector Elizondo	...	Mexican Rider
Phil Brown	...	Malson
Ralph Brown	...	Beaudry
Werner Hasselmann	...	Sheriff (as Werner Hassleman)
Lex Monson	...	Rincon
Sylvia Poggioli	...	Segundo's Girl (as Sylvia Paggioli)
José García García	...	Carlos (as Jose Garcia Garcia)
María Montez	...	Anita (as Maria Montez)
Juanita Penaloza	...	Indian Woman

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence, brief nudity and some language.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | West Germany:16 (f) | UK:15 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:PG-13 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Estudios Roma, Madrid, Spain

Company:

Ira Steiner Productions

Quotes:

Frank Tanner: Any last words?
Bob Valdez: Hundred Dollars!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Minnie and Moskowitz (1971)

Elmore Richard was never served better than by Lancaster in this film.

Valdez is Coming is a companion piece to Martin Ritt's HOMBRE. Both stories center on a single man's moral code, as does MR. Majestyk with Charles Bronson. Filled with incredible dialogue and a trailer that cried out,"Tell Frank Tanner, Tell El Segundo and the sixteen others, Valdez Is Coming.Valdez, a good old man tries to ask Frank Tanner for some money to support a widow that was married to a mullato Tanner forced Valdez to kill. Not only doesn't Tanner give the widow and money, after a second attempt of restitution Tanner throws Valdez to his men who tie him to a cross and leave him in the desert to die. A slimey Richard Jordon releases him and 'Bob' Valdez puts his old military uniform on and with his scatter gun and 'indian fightin' ways Valdez proceeds to kill all the men who don't recognize his code of honor, meanwhile stealing and wooing Tanner's woman. An absolute classic of the spaghetti western genre carried to a higher realm by Leonard's script and Lancaster's subtle acting.