Way of a Gaucho (1952)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Jacques Tourneur

Writers:

Herbert Childs (novel)
Philip Dunne (screenplay)

Release Date:

16 October 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Romance | Western

Plot:

Set in the Argentina of about 1875 in which a customary punishment for killing was a sentence to army service...

Plot Keywords:

Mountain | Argentina | Husband Wife Relationship | Funeral | Male Female Relationship

Cast

Rory Calhoun	...	Martin Penalosa
Gene Tierney	...	Teresa Chavez
Richard Boone	...	Major Salinas
Hugh Marlowe	...	Don Miguel Aleondo
Everett Sloane	...	Falcon
Enrique Chaico	...	Father Fernández
Jorge Villoldo	...	Valverde
Ronald Dumas	...	Julio
Hugo Mancini	...	Army Lieutenant
Néstor Yoan	...	Army Lieutenant

Runtime:

USA:93 min | Spain:88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #15888) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Argentina

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

By the time the shooting of this film was completed in Argentina, Eva Perón had died. For that reason the crew remained in the country, by a request from the government, in order to film the funeral proceedings in Technicolor.

"He's a fool, but very gaucho"

Way of a Gaucho is a sort of a western displaced to South America, namely to XIXth century's Argentinian pampa. The main character: Martin (Rory Calhoun) is a gaucho (a sort of a cowboy) who accidentally kills a man in a fight and in order to avoid trial enlists in the army. After some time he deserts and while on the run meets a beautiful young woman Teresa (Gene Tierney) who was recently kidnapped by the Indians, very soon they fall in love with each other. Later he forms a gang of outlaws with the intent to fight oncoming civilization that threatens gaucho's way of life. But gradually Martin starts loosing faith in a cause they are fighting for and wants to settle down, marry Teresa and lead a peaceful life but it seems very unreal when a good half of the Argentinian army and police is after him as a most dangerous criminal.

A Way of Gaucho was first supposed to be directed by Henry King, but his wife got sick and the opportunity to direct was given to Jacques Tourneur. The cast and crew moved to Argentina in order to shoot on real locations, where filmmakers found themselves under considerable pressure from the Argentinian authorities, let's not forget that at the time Argentina was under dictator's rule of general Peron. As a result of it several changes had to be made to the script. Probably it served for better as characters, dialogs and all the atmosphere of the film looks authentically Argentinian.

After principal photography was completed and all the cast and crew were back in US, Darryl F. Zanuck asked to add a few more sequences to accentuate the heroic side of the main character. But those sequences were directed by Henry Levine, cause Tourneur was already completely out of work at Fox mainly due to his drinking problem.

Overall Way of a Gaucho is a good movie with beautiful sequences filmed in Technicolor on real locations in Argentinian pampa and the Andes and the story concerning the idea of freedom, of sacrificing it for the benefit of the group and final realization of impossibility of "building our freedom on ruins of other people's lives." 7/10