Major Dundee (Columbia Pictures) (1965)

‘Major Dundee’ is ‘Muy Duro’ = by CHARLTON HESTON Jonacatepec, Mexico — The sun beats down on the high country below Mexico City with the same heat it has in the Spanish Guadarramas, or in the Po Valley above Rome; the vast flapping square of canvas that shields us from it at lunch is like those I’ve seen in 20 other mess tents on 20 other locations around the world. The men are men I’ve known before: an actor I worked with in London, a stuntman I rode beside in Wyoming, a cameraman who photographed me in Hawaii; all our trails have crossed and recrossed a dozen times across the world from Cairo to Culver City, making movies. To make “Major Dundee,” we went deep into Mexico. Starting in Durango in the north and ranging south across the curve of the country, we shot from Tehuiztla to Cuatla, stopping a week in Mexico City for some brief interior scenes and then back out to the harsh back country, working south towards Chilpancingo. “Muy duro,” the Mexicans call it, and it is. Very tough. I’ve never made a film, I think, that moved so far and so often to find food for its cameras. Which way is the work? Always the same direction: follow the snaky tangle of heavy black cable from the grumbling generator and you come at last to the street, or hill, or canyon, or river where it all stands ready —the camera hungry for the actors and the events it eats to make a movie. This one, I think, will be a very good one. Always you start with that chance, which sometimes fades to a faint hope, and then melts like water into sand before a camera has turned. But with “Major Dundee,” the chance is still there strongly, I think. We have the story surely, in the Civil War, and Major Dundee fights far from the fields of Gettysburg and Lookout Mountain but his troopers carry the same passion in them as Grant’s and Sherman’s, Lee’s and Longstreet’s. Beyond the story, we have the people— Richard Harris, whom I hadn’t seen since we worked together in “The Wreck of the Mary Deare,” had come from his triumph in “This Sporting Life” to play a Confederate captain; Jim Hutton from his string of successful comedies, James Coburn from menacing Audrey Hepburn in “Charade,” Michael Anderson, Jr., without his apostle’s robes from “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” Somehow, they all look like the hard-faced, fierce-eyed figures in those old photographs Brady shot a hundred years ago. And beyond the people, we have the director. If the heat and fury and frustration that any serious effort at making a film means anything, Sam Peckinpah will be a name you'll see on a lot of marquees from now on. I must make mention of the other players in the superb cast which producer Jarry Bresler rounded up for this Columbia Pictures release in Panavision and color. There is Mario Adorf, a GermanItalian in his first American film role as Sergeant Gomez, a Mexican in the U. S. Army. Brock Peters, the strapping sixfoot entertainer who started in show business as a singer, is still another reputable player who will be remembered for his portrayal in “The L-Shaped Room” with Leslie Caron. And, finally, the beautiful and exciting Senta Berger, who became an over-night sensation in Carl Foreman’s “The Victors.” In the role of Maria Santiago, widow of a Mexican doctor, Miss Berger gives a memorable and moving performance. To all those I worked with in “Major Dundee,” my thanks and my admiration —for their very professional behavior and performances under the most trying and difficult circumstances of picture making. SSS eee ——=—$—$— (Mat 2C; Still No. R78) In "Major Dundee," new Jersey Bresler production for Columbia Pictures release in Panavision and color, Charlton Heston right, invites co-star Richard Harris, left, and other Confederate Army prisoners to fight under the Union flag against marauding Apaches. They do, with Harris sworn to kill Heston as soon as their mission is completed. Also starred are Jim Hutton, James Coburn, and Michael Anderson, Jr. ——————EE ee Mario Adorf To those not initiated in the casting’ problems of a major film, it might seem odd that producer Jerry Bresler would roam to Germany to cast a GermanItalian for a Mexican role in his spectacular “Major Dundee,” now at the........ Theatre in Panavision and color. But in the case of Mario Adorf, who is co-starred with Charlton Heston and Richard Harris in the Columbia Pictures release, this is exactly what happened. Looking more Spanish-Mexican than he does Italian or German Adorf is darkhued, with jet black hair, and he is a “new face” for American audiences. Adorf plays a knife-throwing sergeant in a Union force of renegades and regulars in the Southwest. Composer Returns Veteran composer Daniele Amfitheatrof returned to Hollywood, after a fiveyear stay in Europe, to compose an original score for “Major Dundee,” Jerry Bresler production in Panavision and color for Columbia Pictures. Charlton Heston and Richard Harris top the stellar cast of the film, now at the .......Theatre. The Russian-born composer spent most of his time in Europe in Milan and Rome, devoting three years to the composition of a requiem mass for performance this year in Rome, Page 10 James Coburn “Losing an arm for a movie is painful indeed,” according to James Coburn, who plays a one-armed Indian scout in the Jerry Bresler production, “Major Dundee,” Columbia Pictures release at the Theatre in Panavision and color. “I could take it about twenty minutes, and then the arm became numb,” said Coburn, who stars with Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton and Michael Anderson, Jr. in the brawling 1865 cavalry adventure. Actually, Coburn held his arm back over his left shoulder, with a special harness cradling his elbow and taking some of the strain off, This type of harness has been used in pictures before, but Jim’s case was special. He had to be able to ride, shoot, and even swing a cutlass with the good arm. “I almost turned the part down when I discovered that I had to control a horse’s reins with my teeth while firing the shotgun,” Jim said. He trained with the harness, and his horse, for about a week before leaving for the Mexican location of “Major Dundee.” By picture’s end, Coburn, who was a classic heavy on TV before shifting to the big screen, could even fight with the arm stump. The bearded, brooding character played by Coburn is likely to be remembered for a long time on the screen, and there’s a reason. “Did you ever see a one-armed man fight with a knife?” Coburn asked, a glint in his eye. = (Mat 1A; Still No. R3080) Charlton Heston is “Major Dundee,’ commander of a Union Army company of renegades and regulars battling Indians in the great Southwest. The Jerry Bresler production, a Columbia Pictures release in Panavision and color, also stars Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, James Coburn and Michael Anderson, Jr., and co-stars Mario Adorf, Brock Peters and Senta Berger. Advance Notice “Major Dundee,” a Jerry Bresler production for Columbia Pictures release, opens at the Theatre in Panavision and color, with a notable cast of players headed by Charlton Heston and Richard Harris, and co-starring Jim Hutton, James Coburn, Michael Anderson, Jr., Mario Adorf, Brock Peters and -Senta Berger. The lusty Civil War adventure story was written by Harry Julian Fink, Oscar Saul and Sam Peckinpah, who also directed. Anderson, Junior Michael Anderson, Jr., who is co-starred in “Major Dundee,” the Jerry Bresler production for Columbia Pictures release, now at the ........ Theatre, is the nineteen-year-old son of the distinguished British film director. But that is not why he was chosen to co-star with such players as Charlton Heston and Richard Harris in the new Columbia Pictures release, in Panavision and color, Young Mike Anderson is a superb actor. A career on which not even a longshot gambler would have wagered a bob less than five years ago is now sky-rocketing. At that time, Michael Anderson, Jr., was stone deaf. An extensive and expensive series of surgery eventually cured the deafness, but it left an indelible imprint on his character. “Being deaf helped me understand other people’s problems,” he said. “It taught me patience. And I suppose it made me want to be liked. You want to please others and you try terribly.” With his hearing returned, Mike Anderson started from scratch to pick up the pieces of his acting career. Producers and directors in the theatre, in films and television, were skeptical. Then Fred Zinnemann gave Mike a major role in “The Sundowners,” and George Stevens cast him as Little James in “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” eoceceoe AU UIT ~eaaseve (Mat ID; Still No. R3332) Richard Harris is a Confederate Army Captain sworn to kill "Major Dundee," played by co-star Charlton Heston even as he follows him into battle under the Union flag. The Jerry Bresler production is a Columbia Pictures release in Panavision and color. Jim Hutton, James Coburn and M’‘chael Anderson, Jr., also star and Mario Adorf, Brock Peters and Senta Berger co-star. Richard Harris Richard Harris brings to the distinguished cast of Jerry Bresler’s “Major Dundee,” a Columbia Pictures release now at the Theatre in Panavision and color, a many-faceted talent, shaped and polished on the London stages, and brought to full fruition in “This Sporting Life,” which won him an Academy Award nomination, and earlier, in “Mutiny On The Bounty.” In “Major Dundee,” he plays a Confederate army officer determined to kill co-star Charlton Heston, the Union major whom he follows into battle in the flaming Southwest. Born in Limerick, Ireland, Harris became a London Academy student after being turned down by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. The turndown enraged him and, typically, tripled his efforts to become an actor, and “show them.” While still at the Academy, he put all of his money into a_ production of Clifford Odet’s “The Country Girl;” opened it in the West End, and lost every penny. But out of this first boggy grapple with the chasms of show business came his wife, Elizabeth Rees-Williams, who was in the cast. Mrs. Harris and their three sons 20 with him to all film locations. Also starring in “Major Dundee” are Jim Hutton, James Coburn, Michael Anderson, Jr., Mario Adorf, Brock Peters and Senta Berger. Lancers in Action Four hundred members of the 13th Mexican cavalry, stationed near Cuautla, portray French lancers in Jerry Bresler’s “Major Dundee,” now at the ..... Theatre in Panavision and color. The new Columbia Pictures release stars Charlton Heston and Richard Harris as Union major and Confederate captain who lead a company of renegades and regulars into the flaming Southwest. The French lancers of the film battle the invading American force. ———————— SS S])5958585858585S9S5S5S5$5S5SSSSSS55SSSSSS_LOL (Mat 2B; Still No. R5002) A riverside rendezvous shared by Chariton Heston as "Major Dundee" and Senta Berger is interrupted by an Indian arrow, in this scene from the new Columbia Pictures release in Panavision and color. Richard Harris also stars, as a Confederate officer who follows Heston into battle but is sworn to kill him once they have completed their mission. Others in the stellar cast of the brawling screen adventure are Jim Hutton, James Coburn, Michael Anderson, Jr., Mario Adorf and Brock Peters.