The king of action genre

Reacting to the ‘Blasts from the Past’ column we received queries about ‘MacKenna’s Gold’, which I remember doing 45 weeks at the Strand Cinema in Bombay. Google revealed the director’s name as J Lee Thompson, a British action filmmaker, who died in 2002 at 88.

Actually, the name sounded familiar but seeing his films rather sporadically it didn’t ring a bell, despite being 50 years in the business. Google again told us his films include the biggie ‘The Guns of Navarone’, two ‘Planet of the Apes’ sequels, ‘The Greek Tycoon’ and ‘Taras Bulba’. So, it was time to go down memory lane once again.

‘The Guns of Navarone’ is a 1962 movie of how a selected team set out to destroy two massive radar-directed (radar being new in those distant times) superguns on the island of Navarone during World War II.

The team was led Major Roy Franklin (Anthony Quayle) and comprised of Capt Keith Mallory (Gregory Peck), a renowned spy and mountaineer Col Andrea Stavrou (Anthony Quinn), Franklin’s best friend Corp Miller (David Niven), an explosives expert Greco-American Spyros Pappadimos (James Darren) and a native of Navarone “Butcher” Brown (Stanley Baker). What a fine gathering of stars!

Spyros’s sister Maria Pappadimos (Irene Papas) and her friend Anna (Gia Scala) were also involved in the lives of this team. There was enmity between Stavro and Mallory for an incident in the past which gets ironed out in due time. The operation is quite intricate, which stretches the film to 158 minutes but as the cliché goes “there’s never a dull moment.”

In fact, it is totally absorbing with stellar performances by this star-studded cast. Peck leads the field, followed by David Niven, of the clipped British accent fame, the rugged Greek Anthony Quinn, the versatile Anthony Quayle and Irene Papas, known for some excellent cameos in the 1960s and 1970s. James Darren and Stanley Baker suffered by contrast.

But director J Lee Thompson shows his expertise in handling adventure by getting his players to gel together to bring out one of the best adventure sagas of the time. ‘MacKenna’s Gold’ (1969) is shorter than ‘Navarone’, 128 minutes by contrast, but with the screenplay by Carl Foreman is as absorbing. It is about searching for gold and has Gregory Peck and Omar Sharif in lead roles.

While in Indian country Marshal MacKenna (Peck) wounds an Indian named “Prairre Dog”, who tried to bushwhack him. “Prairre dog” eventually dies, despite MacKenna’s best efforts to save him. He then finds a map on him that supposedly shows the way to the treasure. Although sceptical, he memorises the map before burning it.

Mexican outlaw, John Colorado (Oman Sharif) and his gang have been tracking “Prairee Dog” for that map. “Old Turkey Buzzard” is the theme song and rendered by Quincy Jones, who does the music, it is an important component of the movie.

It was those days of huge casts and apart from Peck and Sharif there was Telly Savalas (he of the bald head like Yul Brynner), Camilla Sprav, Keenan Wynn, Julie Newmar, Lee J Cobb of ‘12 Angry Men’ fame, Raymond Massey, Edward G Robinson, Eli Wallach, Anthony Quayle and many more. A virtual “Who’s Who” of Hollywood.

How these various characters, a cunning sergeant, a preacher, a gambler, a storekeeper interact with each other in their quest for that proverbial pot of gold is what the film is all about. Director Thompson again shows his total command of these diverse characters to produce and excellent adventure drama and made MacKenna name etched in the memory of film buffs the world over.

Another of Thompson’s films which this reviewer did not see is ‘The Greek Tycoon’ (1978) and though the reference to real-life characters is obvious it makes a sort of disclaimer. “We’re not doing a film on Aristotle Onassis and his relationship with Jackie Kennedy. It is the personification of all Green tycoons.”

But this is no reflection on the action filmmaker J Lee Thompson whose films include ‘Cape Fear’ and ‘Taras Bulba’.