Gang of robbers heads for Mexican border, meets unexpected opposition along the way. After a bank robbery, Heller and his small gang are on the run from the posse. The gang intends to cross the border into Mexico but their horses are tired. The outlaws decide to make a stopover in the town of Quantez to rest and feed the horses. Heller is a brutal and cynical man who treats his woman, Chaney, with disdain and contempt. Gentry is Heller's second-in-command and he proves to be an experienced and wise gunfighter from the old days. Eastern gunslinger Teach is a newcomer to the West and he's green but eager, with an added touch of gentlemanly chivalry towards women. When Heller treats Chaney bad, Teach defends her, causing violent clashes between himself and Heller. Gentry has to step in and separate the two before they kill each other over Chaney. The last member of the gang, Gato, is a white man who was raised by the Apache and considers himself to be Apache. He is useful to the gang because he knows the region well, he can speak Apache dialects and can use many Apache tricks to throw off the pursuing posse. When the gang reaches the town of Quantez it is shocked to see a deserted ghost town. Nevertheless, they decide to rest there for the night. Gato goes in the night to scout around and he finds an Apache spear with a message that anyone still found in town after sunrise will be killed. Gato realizes there are Apaches around but decides to keep this information to himself. With Apaches lurking around and Heller trying to kill Teach over pretty Chaney it doesn't look like the gang will ever reach Mexico. It's really a shame and a great pain for me to have this one in my library since so many years, and not be able to see it again and again…<br/><br/>Why, you may ask…<br/><br/>Well, it's because I have it in f…Pan and Scan. The guy who invented that would deserve to be hanged high. F…bastard.<br/><br/>QUANTEZ is a real masterpiece, a great western, a flaming, blazing movie that must be discovered again. No one seems to have seen it. But if it is in f… outrageous Pan and Scan, it's really no worth while. Forget it. I hope that a TV broadcast will air it soon, and in LBX, of course. Or this film released in DVD.<br/><br/>I wait for this since so long. <br/><br/>There is something of WILD BUNCH in this movie. In its topic. Mac Murray plays here an outstanding character which reminds me the Holden one in Peckinpah's masterpiece. <br/><br/>When I'll see it again, it will be the most beautiful day of my life. Even though this film had a great set of actors and character development that was quite interesting, the pace of this story was so slow that it took away from the entire project.<br/><br/>The movie begins as we see four bank robbers that was attempting to outrun a posse that was following them. Plus you throw-in a sexy looking female that was also along for the ride and you can see that this is a unique set of people. Anyway, they shake the cops and end up in an old abandon town. And now, nearly through the entire picture, the writer starts to show all the distinct personalities of each character. The only bad thing is that the introduction of the characters takes so long that viewers begin to lose interest in the movie.<br/><br/>The first forty minutes of the movie is uneventful. You have pleasant conversation, people watering the horses and some wandering where they should go to split-up the money. The only hint of trouble comes when one of the characters stumbles on a Indian war stick that might just lead to some excitement.<br/><br/>The last half of the movie was so much better. There were actually action on the screen to break the tedious dialog that viewers were suffering. And if viewers were still watching and not turned off by the dull first half, then you saw a story that was actually interesting. <br/><br/>John Larch, Fred MacMurray, Dorothy Malone and Michael Ansara all did an outstanding job with their character. The problem is that it took so long developing the characters that it was easy to get bored and turn to another form of entertainment. This was a hard watch but the ending made the long tiresome viewing a bit more enjoyable.
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291 weeks ago