Gold and a Machine Gun

 

It's 1913 and a mercenary named Tom Bryan (Rory Calhoun) is making good money working for Pancho Villa, using his Lewis machine gun as his weapon of choice while robbing banks. Working with Bryan is Juan Castro (Gilbert Roland), a tough and smart soldier who is also loyal to the revolution.

This is the situation we are introduced to as The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955) opens. Directed by George Stevens, the movie makes great use of location photography and tells its story in a very effective manner. The opening scenes immediately tell us that the revolution in Mexico is a violent and dirty business. Men like Castro believe they are fighting for freedom from tyranny, but have no illusions about the methods that must be used to win that freedom. A lot of people are going to die along the way. A lot of those in the revolution eventually going to toss away their ideals for their own self-interest before the fighting is done.

Bryan and Castro have a big job coming up. They, along with a score of men under their command, are going to rob a train and steal of fortune in government gold. Castro wants the gold for Pancho Villa. Bryan starts thinking he might want the gold for himself. The outfit's mule drive, Pablo Morales, definitely wants the gold for themselves.

                          

Also along for the ride is a former American school teacher named Ruth Harris (Shelly Winters), who joined the revolution after her father's murder. She's also tough and willing to fight, soon earning Castro's respect. Bryan doesn't want her along at all, but soon starts to feel attracted to her.

That part of the movie is a bit contrived--Ruth is disgusted by Bryan's mercenary attitude towards life and he thinks her idealistic outlook is absurd, but they still (because movie conventions require it) fall for each other.

But Shelly Winters is quite good as Ruth and the rest of the movie is a lot of fun. Several action scenes, including the train robbery and a rear-guard action against pursuing soldiers, effectively puncuate the story. The tension involved in who is going to double-cross whom builds nicely. And the climax, with Bryan, Castro and the machine gun doing a last stand behind a wall of  money bags filled with gold, is fantastic. 

It should also be noted that this is one of the few movies ever made that takes into account just how heavy gold is. It takes a train of mules to haul it over the countryside and anyone lifting one of the bags is obviously making an effort to do so. It's a nice touch that adds a bit of verisimilitude to an already good movie.