Return of the Seven | |
---|---|
Directed by | Burt Kennedy |
Written by | Larry Cohen |
Produced by | Ted Richmond |
Starring | Yul Brynner Robert Fuller Julián Mateos Warren Oates Virgílio Teixeira Claude Akins Elisa Montés Jordan Christopher |
Cinematography | Paul C. Vogel |
Edited by | Bert Bates |
Music by | Elmer Bernstein |
Production companies | Mirisch Productions C.B. Films |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
Countries | United States Spain |
Languages | English Spanish |
Box office | $6.4 million (rentals) |
Return of the Seven, later marketed as Return of the Magnificent Seven, is a 1966 American-Spanish Western film, and the first sequel to The Magnificent Seven (1960). Yul Brynner, who reprises his role as Chris Adams, is the sole returning cast member from the original film, while Robert Fuller, Julián Mateos and Elisa Montés replace Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz and Rosenda Monteros as Vinn Tanner, Chico and Petra respectively.
The film was written by Larry Cohen and directed by Burt Kennedy, and features Warren Oates, Claude Akins, Jordan Christopher and Virgílio Teixeira. Emilio Fernández is the villain. Fernando Rey portrays a priest. Rey was in the next film, Guns of the Magnificent Seven , as a different character.
Fifty gunmen force all of the men in a small Mexican village to ride off with them into the desert. Among the captured farmers is Chico, who years before was one of seven hired gunslingers responsible for ridding the village of a tyrannical bandit, Calvera. Chico's wife, Petra, seeks out the only other members of the band to survive: Chris and Vin. She begs them to save the village once more. To replace the deceased members of the group, Chris buys the release of Frank (a taciturn gunman) and Luis (a famous bandit), held in the local jail, and recruits Colbee, a ladies' man and deadly gunman, and Manuel, a young cockfighter.
The six men discover that the missing villagers are being used as slave labor to rebuild a desert village and church as a memorial to the dead sons of wealthy rancher Lorca. In a surprise attack, the six gunmen force Lorca's men to leave, and prepare for a counterattack with Chico. The cowed farmers offer no assistance, but the seven defenders successfully repulse Lorca's initial attack. Lorca, the rancher, then gathers all of the men on his land to rout the seven men.
The situation seems bleak until Manuel discovers a supply of dynamite which the seven use in a counteroffensive. They are eventually overrun, but Chris emerges victorious from a shootout with Lorca. The rancher's gang flee, leaving Frank, Luis, and Manuel dead in the fighting. Chico plans to resettle the village on Lorca's fertile land, and Colbee remains to help teach the villagers how to defend themselves against future attacks; he also plans to pursue the available women. Chris and Vin once more ride off together.
The film was shot in Spain. [1]
Return of the Seven was critically panned. Art Murphy in industry paper Variety called it "unsatisfactory... plodding, cliche-ridden". [1] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a critical approval of 13%, based on 8 reviews, with an average rating of 3.6/10. [2] Composer Elmer Bernstein received an Academy Award nomination for his score, a re-recorded version of his score for The Magnificent Seven (1960).
The film earned an estimated $1.6 million in theatrical rentals during its initial release in the United States and Canada [3] but did better overseas, earning at least $3.5 million, for a worldwide total of $5.1 million. [4]
The film was re-released in the United States and Canada in 1969 and earned additional rentals of $1.3 million, [5] taking its worldwide total to at least $6.4 million.
The Magnificent Seven is a 1960 American Western film directed by John Sturges. The screenplay, credited to William Roberts, is a remake – in an Old West-style – of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese film Seven Samurai. The ensemble cast includes Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, James Coburn, and Horst Buchholz as a group of seven gunfighters hired to protect a small village in Mexico from a group of marauding bandits led by Eli Wallach.
Yuliy Borisovich Briner, known professionally as Yul Brynner, was a Russian-born actor. He was known for his portrayal of King Mongkut in the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical The King and I (1951), for which he won two Tony Awards, and later an Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1956 film adaptation. He played the role 4,625 times on stage and became known for his shaved head, which he maintained as a personal trademark long after adopting it for The King and I.
Westworld is a 1973 American science fiction Western film written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film follows guests visiting an interactive amusement park containing lifelike androids that unexpectedly begin to malfunction. The film stars Yul Brynner as an android in the amusement park, with Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as guests of the park.
Catlow is a 1971 American Western film, based on a 1963 novel of the same name by Louis L'Amour. It stars Yul Brynner as a renegade outlaw determined to pull off a Confederate gold heist. It co-stars Richard Crenna and Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy mentioned this film in both of his autobiographies because it gave him a chance to break away from his role as Spock on Star Trek. He mentioned that the time he made the film was one of the happiest of his life, even though his part was rather brief. The film contains a lot of tongue-in-cheek and sardonic humor, especially between Brynner and Crenna's characters.
Renaldo Santoni was an American film, television and voice actor. He was noted for playing Poppie on the television sitcom Seinfeld, Tony Gonzales in Cobra, and Chico González in Dirty Harry.
The Buccaneer is a 1958 pirate-war film made by Paramount Pictures starring Yul Brynner as Jean Lafitte, Charles Boyer and Claire Bloom. Charlton Heston played a supporting role as Andrew Jackson, the second time that Heston played Jackson, having portrayed him earlier in the 1953 film The President's Lady. The film was shot in Technicolor and VistaVision, the story takes place during the War of 1812, telling a heavily fictionalized version of how the privateer Lafitte helped in the Battle of New Orleans and how he had to choose between fighting for America or for the side most likely to win, the United Kingdom.
Taras Bulba is a 1962 American historical adventure drama film based on Nikolai Gogol's novel Taras Bulba, starring Tony Curtis and Yul Brynner. The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson.
Sabata is a series of Spaghetti Western films released between 1969 and 1971, directed by Gianfranco Parolini, and starring Lee Van Cleef in the first, Sabata, Yul Brynner in the second, Adiós, Sabata, and Van Cleef returning for the third, Return of Sabata.
The Light at the Edge of the World is a 1971 Spanish-American adventure film, directed by Kevin Billington and starring Kirk Douglas, Yul Brynner, Samantha Eggar, and Fernando Rey. It was adapted from Jules Verne's classic 1905 adventure novel The Lighthouse at the End of the World. The plot involves piracy in the South Atlantic during the mid-19th century, with a theme of survival in extreme circumstances, and events centering on an isolated lighthouse.
Guns of the Magnificent Seven is a 1969 Western, styled in the genre of a Zapata Western, the second sequel to the classic 1960 Western action film The Magnificent Seven, itself based on Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954). The film was directed by Paul Wendkos and produced by Vincent M. Fennelly. It stars George Kennedy as Chris Adams, the character Yul Brynner portrayed in the first two films.
The Magnificent Seven Ride! is a 1972 Western film and is the third and last sequel of the 1960 western, The Magnificent Seven. It stars Lee Van Cleef as Chris Adams, succeeding Yul Brynner and George Kennedy in the role. It was directed by George McCowan.
The Magnificent Seven is an American Western television series based on the 1960 film, which was itself a remake of the 1954 Japanese film Seven Samurai. The series was developed by Pen Densham and John Watson and premiered on CBS on January 3, 1998, running for two seasons through July 3, 2000. The cast of The Magnificent Seven included Michael Biehn, Eric Close, and Ron Perlman. Robert Vaughn, who played one of the seven gunmen in the 1960 film, had a recurring role in the series as a crusading judge.
Solomon and Sheba is a 1959 American epic historical romance film directed by King Vidor, shot in Technirama, and distributed by United Artists. The film dramatizes events described in The Bible—the tenth chapter of First Kings and the ninth chapter of Second Chronicles.
Kings of the Sun is a 1963 DeLuxe Color film directed by J. Lee Thompson for Mirisch Productions set in Mesoamerica at the time of the conquest of Chichen Itza by Hunac Ceel. Location scenes were filmed in Mazatlán and Chichen Itza. The film marks the second project Thompson completed with Yul Brynner within a year — the other being Taras Bulba.
Villa Rides is a 1968 American Technicolor Western war film in Panavision directed by Buzz Kulik and starring Yul Brynner as Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa and Robert Mitchum as an American adventurer and pilot of fortune. The screenplay is based on the biography by William Douglas Lansford. The supporting cast includes Charles Bronson as Fierro, Herbert Lom as Huerta and Alexander Knox as Madero.
Chris Adams is a fictional character in the 1960 Western film The Magnificent Seven and its sequels. Originally played by Yul Brynner, he is the functional equivalent of Kambei Shimada, the character portrayed by Takashi Shimura in the 1954 film Seven Samurai.
Virgílio Delgado Teixeira was a Portuguese film, television and stage actor, known for roles in Portuguese, Spanish and American films. He was known as a Portuguese "heartthrob" and a leading actor during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
The Magnificent Seven is a 2016 American Western action film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Nic Pizzolatto and Richard Wenk. It is a remake of the 1960 film of the same name, which itself was a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film Seven Samurai. The film stars Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lee Byung-hun, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, and Peter Sarsgaard. It was the final film of composer James Horner, who died the previous year after composing part of the score. His friend Simon Franglen completed the music. Principal photography began on May 18, 2015, north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Manuel Fontanals (1893–1972) was a Catalonian Spanish-born art director who settled and worked in Mexico during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.