Both Rio Conchos and Take a Hard Ride are semi-known westerns in the classic “spaghetti” style. They are full of silence, drama, hard looks and doses of action to keep the story moving. In each movie, the plot line is relatively straight, with few minor deviations. However, both movies share one overarching subplot, which becomes apparent as the movies progress.
In Rio Conchos, the story follows Lassiter, an ex-Confederate who is out for revenge against Apaches who slaughtered his family. While on this quest, Lassiter is arrested by Army Captain Haven, played by Whitman, and is taken into custody because of his possession of a stolen repeating carbine rifle, one of thousands stolen from the Army. After some time in the brig, Lassiter agrees to help the captain find the rest of the guns, and the thief known as Pardee, as long as he is allowed to bring one of his “men” the fellow prisoner Rodriguez with him; ostensibly to counter the captain’s Sergeant Franklin. The four set off and after a while, are ambushed by some of Pardee’s men. They manage to fight the bandits off, and end up capturing an apache girl. While the questioning reveals nothing, they move on to other avenues of finding and destroying the guns. Throughout a bunch more fighting and action, Lassiter begins to come to respect Haven and Franklin; which is an accomplishment because of the bigotry that Lassiter had for Franklin at the beginning of the movie. After a few gunfights, the men find the location of Pardee and head there, hoping to destroy the guns before they can be sold to the Apache warriors. Another round of “common” western roughness ensues and in the end through the valiant efforts of Franklin and Lassiter the guns are destroyed.
The second movie in this western double feature is Take a Hard Ride. This movie follows a cowhand named Pike, played by Jim Brown, as he tries to get $86,000 back to the Morgan Ranch to fulfill a promise. However, this will not be easy, as the entire west knows about the money and wants to kill Pike and steal the loot. As he is starting off, he meets up with a gambler named Tyree, Williamson, who is after taking the money away from him. While this is the case, Tyree saves Pike from two bandits and agrees to watch his back until they get to the Mexican border; then all bets are off. They continue to Mexico fighting many foes, while being followed by the bounty hunter Kiefer, played by Lee Van Cleef, who is creating a band of fighters and is also looking for an opportunity to take the money away from Pike. On their journey, Pike and Tyree save two people being attacked by unscrupulous people; the half Indian Kashtok, played by Jim Kelly, and the lady known as Catherine. These two joined the party, bringing the numbers of travelers up to four. As they were traveling, the four were ambushed by Kiefer’s men and go through a bad gun fight. They manage to get away, after killing a bunch of Kiefer’s support, because of Catherine sacrificing herself. Through an amazing action sequence the men are left stranded in a desert. Kashtok leads them to a small village where Tyree and Pike regain their composure, buy some horses and also allow their friendship to grow. Unfortunately, Kiefer catches up to them so they head off again for Mexico. However, the time has come for the confrontation between Pike and Tyree. The men settle on bare knuckled boxing since they have come to respect one another. After the fight a young boy from the village shows up begging to come with them, and Pike who is a softie relents. Once again, Kiefer’s men are hot on their tails. To complete his promise, Pike gives the money to the young Mexican boy and sends him off while he buys the boy time. To this end Pike and Tyree end up blowing up a mine, ensuring the escape of the boy and the money.
As stated above, both Rio Conchos and Take a Hard Ride are quite direct in their story lines. There are no real subplots or in depth story arks. While this is the case, both movies share one major twist; acceptance. In both Rio Conchos and Take a Hard Ride, there is a progression of acceptance and understanding; of people putting aside their differences and coming to accept one another for who they truly are, rather than appearances or first impressions. In Rio Conchos this is evident between the growing respect Lassiter shows for Sergeant Franklin; especially when the two men team up to destroy the rifles in the final act of the movie. This can be seen in Take a Hard Ride through the growing friendship between Pike and Tyree. In the beginning, Pike did not trust Tyree or even like him; but through the movie the friendship and acceptance grew. Pike learned that Tyree was trustworthy, to a point, and loyal; even though first impressions said he was the exact opposite.
The actors in both movies did admirable jobs. While they are not well known now, many of these actors were relatively recognizable people in their eras. In Take a Hard Ride, Jim Brown, Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly teamed up once again to be a box office hit. Brown and Williamson played their roles with panache, making me believe that they were the badass killers they portrayed. However, Kelly did not do the same. He was known for martial arts movies, and he brought that to the character of Kashtak; but he honestly seemed uncomfortable and out of place in a western. Of course, the other major name in Take a Hard Ride is no stranger to spaghetti westerns. he is the great Lee Van Cleef. He played his role well, countering badass for badass. On top of this, he played the bad guy, which is something unusual for him, and did so with shocking believability. In Rio Conchos the two major characters played by Richard Boone and Stuart Whitman are done to perfection. This is expected, because like Lee Van Cleef, these two men are well known in the classic western world. Most of their well known roles are in westerns, and as expected they met their marks. The shock in this movie was that it also starred Jim Brown, in his film debut no less. It was an interesting commentary watching how he grew as an actor from Rio Conchos to Take a Hard Ride.
While these movies are very old, Shout! Factory did an amazing job on the packaging and menu design for the duo of Rio Conchos and Take a Hard Ride. The look of the menu is beautiful and the layout is easily navigable and feels like a western movie should feel when flipping through menu’s and choosing options. This includes simple, but well designed menu items, backgrounds and pointers.
The most surprising thing about this DVD duo was the special features, as in there were actually a few of them. Usually when I watch these DVD releases of old western movies the special features are sadly lacking. In this case, both Rio Conchos and Take a Hard Ride, included release trailers, which is pretty standard in this day in age. No, the surprise came when I clicked on the option to watch Take a Hard Ride. This movie included a number of special features in addition to the trailer. These were both interviews with cast members, and gave a deeper insight into the mechanics and background of this film and the actors playing in it.
In conclusion, this collection was great for anybody that likes the older westerns; or the spaghetti westerns. However, there is a lot more silence and hard looks than is expected in a modern western and would probably disappoint someone who did not grow up on/ enjoy the older style of westerns. There is action, but it is tempered in a way that enhances it; rather than the constant action and music prevalent in today’s westerns.