droopyherby
I saw this strange dark film on late night TV when I was a kid and it made an impression on me - certain intense scenes stayed with me - the rickety bridge crossings, the local man getting rabies and being brought in by ropes by the townspeople, Ford's dog mad from rabies, etc. I just saw it again and I really enjoyed it. It is well done, obviously on a low budget as part of an American/Mexican production. Ford is quite good as a depressed, drunk doctor at a rural Mexican mining town who gets bit by a dog and gets rabies - he then has to try and drive through harsh desert to make it into the next town in time to get the serum he needs to survive. Stella Stevens is a "dance hall girl" who is brought in with a troupe of gals to entertain the workers. Stevens is so damn hot in this flick - at the height of her Swinging Sixties sexiness. If you liked this film and the genre - try George Kennedy in the equally good A Cry In The Wilderness - a 1974 TV film about a man with rabies.
mrskywalker
The beauty of this film is its simplicity. Rabies strikes a small village and a race against time begins. The film shows how intense a movie can be with a very low budget. Ford gives his usual classic understated performance as a washed up doctor but he can be believed in any role. Stella Stevens is excellent. I saw this film in the theater and have not been able to find it on video.
nadja-7
I enjoyed this movie a great deal; it has an interesting development of characters set within a construction camp for a major highway in rural New Mexico. Early in the film a local herder is brought in dying of rabies; the veterinarian becomes involved in a search for the source of the disease and whether it is part of an epidemic. A major side plot in the movie is the relationship between the veterinarian and a construction camp prostitute. There is a great deal of character development, and the lady's occupation is so subtly portrayed that it is an acceptable moview for older children. There is a great deal of empathy for the hard lives lived in a construction camp and its surrounding rural poverty.Unlike most movies set in a rural atmosphere, the country people and blue collar workers are not cartoon buffoons or evil, violent troglodytes. This sensitive portrayal contrasts markedly with the brutal louts recently portrayed in a certain movie about commercial fishermen lost at sea, the Perfect Storm.
jmroc
Low budget, and it shows. Glenn Ford's desperate search for a doctor after being bitten by a rabid dog just doesn't provide enough story or dialogue to fill the 90-odd minutes of this film. The result is far too many scenes of characters looking tense and concerned (Montezuma's Revenge?) as their vehicles slowly trudge across the desert. Not recommended.
AD
