Charro! (National General Pictures, 1969)

And now, a brief pause in celebrating the Peckinpah centenary:
as previously teased, please enjoy this guest post from overdrive1975, an energetic film enthusiast who frequently comments on JAW content.

Caught in a Trap: Can He Walk Out?

“It isn’t enough to tell us what a man did.
You’ve got to tell us who he was.”

news editor in Citizen Kane (1941)

“I don’t get you, Wade!” Vince Hackett says, motioning to the golden cannon as Billy Roy screams into the night. “Now how come so much money don’t appeal to you, Jess, when you don’t even have to raise your hand to get it?”

Vince Hackett isn’t dealing with a gold-digger named Fred Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) in the Sierra Madre mountains. Hackett is encountering a man named Jess Wade.  

Wade is played by Elvis Presley, in a serious role-and the movie is Charro! Across all genres, it is my #15 film of all time.   

Elvis only sings the title theme, which plays during the opening credits as Wade rides across the Mexican mountain terrain. The golden voice that gave us Kentucky Rain (1969) and I’ve Lost You (1970) sings wonderfully here.  Throughout the film, we’re treated to a good Spaghetti Western-influenced soundtrack by Hugh Montenegro.

Receiving direction on location

Ellsworth Fredericks does a great job with the cinematography. The movie is shot in and around the Superstition Mountains in Arizona. While Charro! opens with Wade riding in Mexico, most of the movie takes place in the American border town of Rio Seco, in the Arizona territory.

The lightning-and-moonlight scene with the Hackett Gang rivals the classic thunderstorm scenes of Howard Hawks’s Red River (1948) and John Ford’s She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949). Billy Roy Hackett’s deranged face staring at the moon looks like a scene out of Rod Serling’s horror series, Night Gallery (1969-’73).

 

Caught in a Trap (Can He Walk Out?)

Jess Wade is a former outlaw who wants to be better than what he’s been. He no longer rides with the Hackett Gang—and Vince Hackett punishes him for it. Elvis sings in the opening theme: “You know he’ll never let you break away so easily/You’ll have to fight before you’re free.”  

Jess is wanted on both sides of the border for a crime he didn’t commit.  Hackett and his gang have stolen the golden Victory Cannon that was used to execute Maximillian I and give the Mexicans their independence. The golden cannon is fictional, as Maximillian was executed by a firing squad. The real-life event happened in 1867; Charro! takes place in 1870.  

Vince and the Hackett Gang have fabricated a “Wanted” poster, which offers a reward for the unidentified man who stole the golden cannon. The poster says the man can be identified by a burn mark on his neck.

Vince Hackett is not the devil in disguise; he’s never claimed to be a good guy.  Hackett, though, is a true son of the devil. He brands a burn on Wade’s neck. Then one of Hackett’s henchmen pins Wade’s arms as Billy Roy Hackett punches him in the stomach…

… and they laugh. That reminds me of Jesus Christ, although unlike Him, Wade has done his share of wrong.

 

You Ain’t No Friend of Mine

At one time, Wade was friends with Vince Hackett. Riding with the Hackett Gang, Wade was their most dangerous gunfighter. Even after Wade’s left the gang, the Mexican villagers stop in their tracks as he rides into town and hitches his horse. They relax only after he smiles and raises both hands. Later, in Rio Seco, Wade enters the saloon through the kitchen—and the cooks say their prayers.

Jess and Vince were likely best friends—until Wade’s defection. Elvis sings in the opening theme: “You’ve turned your back on yesterday/Betrayed a man who swore he’d make you pay/For when you left you took his pride away.”

Victor French, not playing Michael Landon’s neighbor or sidekick

Victor French is very good as Vince Hackett. He doesn’t bring the dramatic flair that characterizes bad guys like Indio (Gian Maria Volonte) in Sergio Leone’s For a Few Dollars More (1965) and Loco (Klaus Kinski) in Sergio Corbucci’s Western in the snow, The Great Silence (1968)–or, to venture outside the genre, that bad gal/bad guy combination, Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) and Bill (David Carradine), in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, Volumes 1 and 2 (2003, 2004).  

Vince Hackett lacks their flair-but he shares their ruthlessness. For example, he uses the golden cannon to terrorize the town of Rio Seco. Under orders from Vince, the Hackett gang bombs the church and kills the sheriff.  The Bible says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).  

The fear of the Lord is not in Hackett’s vocabulary.

Vince is not a one-dimensional character.  He’s hurt by Wade’s leaving, and he’s still in love with the saloon-keeper, Tracey, who now loves Jess. Vince’s greatest vulnerability is his volatile younger brother, Billy Roy. He slaps Billy Roy’s face in front of everybody and calls him an idiot—but he shoots and kills one of his own men after the man demands they ride on without Billy Roy.  

We see the sorrow in Vince’s face as he says, “Billy Roy’s my fault.”

A young Solomon Sturges with his father, director Preston Sturges

Billy Roy is a rabid hound. Solomon Sturges gives a high-octane performance that reminds me of Bette Davis as Baby Jane Hudson in my favorite horror movie, Robert Aldrich’s Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). Bette and Solomon both have a blast playing a deranged, tormented person.

Rabid hound standing on the left, singer of Hound Dog standing on the right

A Hound Dog of a Movie? (I Say “No!”)

Charro! has its share of fans, but it’s not considered a classic.  Critic Leonard Matlin called Charro! a “BOMB.”    

Our own Jeff Arnold didn’t review Charro!-but in comments here and there, Jeff makes clear he didn’t like it. He makes one half-way nice statement.  When comparing Charro! to other Elvis movies from the ‘60s, Jeff describes Charro! as “better than Tickle Me and Stay Away, Joe but that’s about all you can say.”

I understand one of the objections to the film. Director Charles Marquis Warren has a long resume of writing pulp fiction stories for magazines (mostly in the 1930s and ‘40s), directing numerous Westerns for the big screen, and creating (or co-creating) the TV Westerns Gunsmoke (1955-’75), Rawhide (1959-’65), and The Virginian (1962-’71). For Charro!, Warren revised the script into a simpler, G-rated story. Elvis was proud of his performance in Charro!-but he was reportedly disappointed when he first saw the altered script.

I’m the first to admit Charro! plays like an extended TV episode. The screenplay isn’t profound on the level of most of my favorite movies. Other than the Hackett brothers, the supporting characters don’t receive much screen time: Tracey Winters (Ina Balin), Wade’s love interest; Marcie (Lynn Kellogg), a dance-hall girl and Tracey’s best friend; Opie Keetch (Paul Brinegar), the town doctor; Sheriff Dan Ramsey (James Almanzar), Wade’s friend and mentor; and, Dan’s wife Sara (Barbara Werle).

I see parallels between Charro! and the underrated Marlon Brando Western, One–Eyed Jacks (1961).  Brando plays Rio, an outlaw who wants to be better than what he is. Both Jess Wade and Rio love a beautiful woman and both love stories make a delightful subplot. A major difference is that One–Eyed Jacks is a more developed story, with more lavish production values.

I disagree with a second objection. Many Elvis fans were disappointed that he sang only one song, and did no guitar playing. Elvis, however, wanted to play more serious roles. Ginger Alred, Elvis’s fiancé at the time of his death in 1977, says in the final hours of his life, Elvis talked to her about his desires to get married, have more kids, and star in more serious films.  

I also disagree with a third objection: the notion that Elvis is trying to be like Clint Eastwood. Eastwood was the first one offered the role, and I’m glad he said no. Elvis is the right man to play Jess Wade.

Elvis is not Clint. Jess Wade is not The Man with No Name. Wade isn’t going to tell his opponent to apologize to his mule because the man hurt his mule’s feelings.

The Italian directors often created larger-than-life characters. Sergio Leone could have started a comic book line featuring characters from my favorite Western, For a Few Dollars More (1965): the Man in Black (Lee Van Cleef), the Man with No Name (Eastwood), and Indio (Volonte). Loco (Kinski) from Sergio Corbucci’s The Great Silence would have made great comic book bad guy.

That’s not Jess Wade. Wade isn’t larger than life. Wade is an ordinary man who walked on the wrong side of the railroad-and now he’s crossed the tracks.  

 

Where Could I Go But to The Lord?

Regarding Christianity, I don’t know Charles Marquis Warren’s intentions with Charro!, nor do I know Elvis’s motivations. I know from multiple sources—including his daughter Lisa Marie’s beautiful but heartbreaking memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown (2024)-that Elvis often read the Bible.  As a Christian, I see parallels between Jess Wade and the pilgrimage of the follower of Christ.  

Jess is honest and self-effacing. As Dr. Opie treats Wade’s burn mark, he says of the Hackett Gang, “I tell you, Jess Wade. Even though you was with them, I never really believed you was with them.”

“I was with them,” Wade says.

Jess tells the truth, and in his search for justice, Wade never wavers.

Everybody is against Jess, to the point where the townspeople order him to let Billy Roy out of jail. I find myself shouting, “Hold your ground, Jess! Hold your ground!”

Jess does everything to protect the people, even when they’ve turned against him.  

Some of my favorite Westerns are as bleak as they get: The Great Silence; Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate (1980); and Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973). I love the feel-good contrast of Charro!

To me, Jess Wade is one of the most inspiring characters in cinematic history. I think of my favorite Western character, Lee Van Cleef’s Man in Black. I also think of a trio of heroes in John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962): Pompey (Woody Strode), Tom Doniphon’s right hand; the gunfighter Tom Doniphon (John Wayne); and, the lawyer Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart), who teaches children and adults how to read and write. These are guys I want on my side.

I think of Will Kane (Gary Cooper) standing alone in Fred Zinneman’s High Noon (1952), and James Averill (Kris Kristofferson) trying to bring order to the frontier in Heaven’s Gate. These are guys I want on my side.  

Jess Wade is a guy I want on my side.

Elvis considered Charro! one of his favorites of his own films. He was grateful for the chance to play a serious role, and photographs of him on the set show him having a good time. He said, years later, that Charro! was the movie he enjoyed filming the most.  

 Thank you, Mr. Warren, for giving Elvis the chance. Thank you, Mr. Presley, for playing Jess Wade.

 

Many thanks to overdrive1975 for writing JAW’s first-ever guest post. Any readers who fancy taking on another film or topic, please feel free to make a pitch via our email address, jawestrideson@gmail.com.