The War Wagon (1967)

The War Wagon (1967)****

Universal Pictures
Director: Burt Kennedy

I know what you are thinking. "Really, more John Wayne?" Well yes, sometimes I am just in the mood. There is something so timeless about John Wayne westerns in technicolor. The War Wagon is Ocean's Eleven gone western and yet it all works. Wayne is Taw Jackson, just out of jail and ready to set right the greedy mine owner Pierce (Bruce Cabot) who took his ranch. This particular miner is ready for it though and transports his gold in an armored stage coach known to all as the War Wagon. To pull off the job Jackson pulls from the local fun loving criminals (the suave gambler Lomax (Kirk Douglas), the young explosive expert Billy Hyatt (Robert Walker Jr.), an Indian (Howard Keel) and the insider Wes Fletcher (Keenan Wynn). "A western with no girl?" you say. Valora Noland who plays Kate takes the spotlight here and falls for young Billy. Kennedy seems to have been a director of a number of westerns in the 60s and 70s but honestly this is the first I have seen. After The War Wagon though I am inclined to seek them out!