I'm pretty much a sucker for any hard to find movie with a somewhat recognizable cast, especially movies from the 1960s and 1970s. Hundreds and maybe thousands of movies aren't available in any format so when you stumble across them, you've got to take advantage of the situation. Case in point here, a western available through Instant Watch with some good names -- including Just Hit Play favorite George Peppard -- and a unique, at least somewhat interesting premise. It never quite clicks into place, and a snail's pace in the first hour dooms the movie to the point where an entertaining second hour can't save it.
After a successful train robbery, well-known bank/train robber Harker Fleet (Peppard) is betrayed by several members of his gang including Timothy Xavier Nolan (John Vernon) and Jim Gant (Steve Sandor). He ends up serving a three-year jail sentence, getting out early for good behavior. Harker finds that his girlfriend, Katy (Diana Muldaur), is engaged to Nolan now as his former partner has become a rich businessman. However, Nolan is in some financial trouble, and Harker sees a way to exact his revenge. A mine in the area owned by Chinese immigrants is producing large quantities of gold, but Nolan can't get anywhere near the place. Harker on the other hand is able to dupe the Chinese into thinking he's on their side and work from the inside. Who is working against who though? Everyone has their own intentions and means of getting over $500,000 in gold that's ready for shipment.
Depending on where/what you read, director Andrew V. McLaglen takes a lot of heat for his average to below average to God-awful movies. The son of actor Victor McLaglen, he started directing western TV shows in the 1950s and parlayed that into feature films in the 1960s, many of them working with John Wayne. Was the younger McLaglen an auteur, a highly skilled, talented individual behind the camera? Nope, not really. He was a workmanlike director who got the job done usually without much in the way of personal style. I grew up watching many of his movies so I can overlook some of his deficiencies (Bandolero!, Shenandoah, The Devil's Brigade, The Wild Geese are some of my favorites). However as much as I tried here I struggled with 'Train to Rob.'
A western that came along in 1971 when most westerns were pessimistic and generally trying to bust all sort of wild west myths and lore, 'Train' is an oddity. Think John Wayne western without the Duke. It was made on a small budget -- or at least it looks like it -- and looks to have been shot mostly in the studio and on the studio backlot. The script can't make up its mind whether it is a darkly comedic western with slapstick or a hard-hitting, double crossing western where anyone and everyone is capable of a betrayal. The first hour is painfully slow at times, and I struggled to even get to the 60-minute mark. A dark western can also be funny and cynical, but McLaglen and the screenplay never makes up its mind. The second hour is a significant improvement over the first, helping the movie redeem itself at least a little bit.
Before his turn as Hannibal Smith in The A-Team in the 1980s, Peppard had a stretch of movies in the late 60s and early 70s that didn't produce a single classic, just a lot of really enjoyable, exciting action/adventure movies like Tobruk, Cannon For Cordoba, and The Executioner among others. So while I didn't love this movie by any means, I very much liked Peppard's Harker Fleet. As an actor, Peppard had a knack for playing the likable yet condescending a-hole. That is Harker Fleet in a nutshell, a lovable, conniving rogue who you can't help but like. His romantic scenes with Muldaur's Kate have a great chemistry, and his back and forth banter with Vernon's Nolan (sporting an odd but funny Irish accent) are priceless. In the midst of all the boredom and needless background, we get some great scenes of actors just looking like they're having fun.
The cast deserved more than this, and I think that's what is most disappointing. In little glimpses, this movie had some potential. One scene with Peppard and Vernon beating the hell out of each other ends in a discussion as to how they should double-cross everyone around them, both actors laughing hysterically. It doesn't feel forced or like acting, just a real laugh, a funny moment in a sea of nothing. Playing up the stereotypical Chinese miners, the miners include France Nuyen as prostitute turned savior Ah Toy, Soon-Tek Oh as Yung, the unofficial leader of the group, and Richard Loo as Mr. Chang, the wise old Asian man who knows everything. If I could recommend anything here, just skip to the one-hour mark, and you'll get the best parts of the movie.
One More Train to Rob (1971): ** 1/2 /****
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