froberts73
"Four Rode Out" could have been titled, "Four Walked Out,"since the quartet of characters spent most of their time on foot. The horses were done with one by one in scenes that looked almost too real.It is, to say the least, a very stark movie - slow-moving, yes, but constantly engrossing. The clown critics who gave it one star were probably affected by the hot desert sun coming through their screens, affecting their minds. Whoops - almost said brains.As to the acting. Young Mateos as the b.f. was convincing. Sue Lyon, accused by one critic as over-acting, was quite good handling a rather complex character, one almost as naive as Lolita. (Had to get that in).Leslie Neilsen sandwiched between his early near-fame days, to steering the Poseidon into near oblivion, to good-sized stardom, seemed to have a blast as a baddie - a real baddie.Pernell Roberts, Bonanza's maverick, was excellent portraying a very questionable character.The silent ending wrapped the story beautifully. The minus was Janis Ian's contribution - totally unnecessary, totally dull.The rest of the music was justifiably sparse. For a change, it did not blast out at you.All in all, "Four Rode Out" is worthwhile. Fie on the naysayers. Give it a chance. It is sometimes frighteningly captivating.
classicsoncall
"Four Rode Out" has one of those elements that I've seen in other Westerns, "Cry Blood, Apache" being one, where there's an entirely different type of terrain coming and going. I mean, where was that huge expanse of desert when Marshal Ross (Pernell Roberts), Brown (Leslie Nielsen) and Myra (Sue Lyon) first set out to capture renegade Nunez (Julian Mateos)? They rode out from and returned to the same little town, why didn't they just cover the same ground? Makes me crazy.Now I've read the other reviews on this board, and all of them describe Leslie Nielsen's character as a Pinkerton agent, so I have to wonder if I was the only one paying attention. There was a point at which Nunez fingered Brown as his ex-partner Krueger who was after the bundle they both stole from a bank with a third partner who was already knocked off by Krueger. So was Nunez trying to cause some confusion for Marshal Ross? I don't think so; Brown/Krueger was just a little too anxious to knock off his fellow travelers and high tail it with the money. His off screen rape of Myra was another hint that Krueger was a real bad apple.Now this all probably sounds a lot more interesting than the actual film. The picture uses up an awful lot of filler time with the party going up and down mountain terrain and dragging across the sun baked desert. Janis Ian's voice on a number of songs throughout lent some poignancy to the story, but quite honestly, I find her lyrics and style to be just too depressing most of the time.Just yesterday I watched "China 9, Liberty 37" on Encore Westerns in prime time, and was quite surprised to see a fully nude Jenny Agutter in a series of love scenes with Fabio Testi. So the idea that the word 'whore' was actually bleeped out of the dialog in this picture seems rather odd. But then again, there were a lot of odd things about this story. Too much sun will do that.
mrsolo1
Interesting film with a strong cast. Pernell Roberts is outstanding and should have had more starring roles. It is slow paced but keeps the viewer's interest. Only a weak script keeps this from being more memorable. Following the success of the spaghetti westerns some American companies took advantage of the Spanish locations and used mostly American casts. "Four Rode Out" has the look of a spaghetti western while avoiding the badly dubbed dialog that hurt the genre. The primary print currently circulating appears to be from a television movie package so some words get bleeped out here and there. Fortunately it is not a choppy as many were.
boycehart
Pernell Roberts plays a soon-to-retire lawman who rides into the desert on one last assignment - to capture a young Mexican bank robber. During the trek, Roberts is joined by a Pinkerton agent (Leslie Nielsen) and the bandit's girlfriend, both of whom have ulterior motives for ensuring the mission is a failure. Four Rode Out is a dull, boring western that just drags on and on... with sporadic action and long scenes of riding through the desert.BONANZA was better than this...and Nielsen's SWAMP FOX or his later comedy features are more enjoyable!
AD
