Viva Villa! is a 1934 American pre-Code film directed by Jack Conway and starring Wallace Beery as Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. The screenplay was written by Ben Hecht, adapted from the 1933 book Viva Villa! by Edgecumb Pinchon and O. B. Stade. The film was shot on location in Mexico and produced by David O. Selznick. There was uncredited assistance with the script by Howard Hawks, James Kevin McGuinness, and Howard Emmett Rogers. Hawks and William A. Wellman were also uncredited directors on the film.
Francisco Villa was a general in the Mexican Revolution. He was a key figure in the revolutionary movement that forced out President Porfirio Díaz and brought Francisco I. Madero to power in 1911. When Madero was ousted by a coup led by General Victoriano Huerta in February 1913, he led anti-Huerta forces in the Constitutionalist Army 1913–14. The commander of the coalition was civilian governor of Coahuila Venustiano Carranza. After the defeat and exile of Huerta in July 1914, Villa broke with Carranza. Villa dominated the meeting of revolutionary generals that excluded Carranza and helped create a coalition government. Emiliano Zapata and Villa became formal allies in this period, but it was only in principle. Like Zapata, Villa was strongly in favor of land reform, but his plans were not implemented when he had power. At the height of his power and popularity in late 1914 and early 1915, the U.S. considered recognizing him as Mexico's legitimate authority. Civil war broke out when Carranza challenged Villa. Villa was decisively defeated by Constitutionalist General Álvaro Obregón in summer 1915, and the U.S. aided Carranza directly against Villa in the Second Battle of Agua Prieta in November 1915. Much of Villa's army left after Villa's defeat on the battlefield and for his lack of resources to buy arms and pay soldiers' salaries. Angered at the U.S. aid to Carranza, Villa conducted a raid on the border town of Columbus, New Mexico to goad the U.S. to invade Mexico in 1916–17. Despite a major contingent of soldiers and the latest military technology, the U.S. failed to capture Villa. When President Carranza was ousted from power in 1920, Villa negotiated an amnesty with interim President Adolfo de la Huerta and was given a landed estate, on the condition he retire from politics. He was assassinated in 1923. Although his faction did not prevail in the Revolution, he is one of its most charismatic and prominent figures.
The Mexican Revolution was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction of the Federal Army and its replacement with a revolutionary army, as well as the transformation of Mexican culture and government. The northern Constitutionalist faction prevailed on the battlefield and drafted the present-day Constitution of Mexico, which aimed to create a strong central government, with revolutionary generals holding power from 1920 to 1940. The revolutionary conflict was primarily a civil war, but foreign powers, having important economic and strategic interests in Mexico, figured in the outcome of Mexico's power struggles. The United States played an especially significant role.
Raoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh. He was known for portraying John Wilkes Booth in the silent film The Birth of a Nation (1915) and for directing such films as the widescreen epic The Big Trail (1930) starring John Wayne in his first leading role, The Roaring Twenties starring James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, High Sierra (1941) starring Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart, and White Heat (1949) starring James Cagney and Edmond O'Brien. He directed his last film in 1964.
Let's Go with Pancho Villa is a Mexican motion picture directed by Fernando de Fuentes in 1936, the last of the director's Revolution Trilogy, besides El prisionero trece and El compadre Mendoza.
Old Gringo is a 1989 American romantic adventure film starring Jane Fonda, Gregory Peck, and Jimmy Smits. It was directed by Luis Puenzo and co-written with Aída Bortnik, based on the 1985 novel The Old Gringo by Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes.
The Battle of Carrizal occurred on June 21, 1916. It was a major skirmish between United States Army troops of General John J. Pershing's Punitive Expedition and Carrancista troops fought at the town of Carrizal in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself is a 2003 American made-for-television western film for HBO in partnership with City Entertainment and starring Antonio Banderas as Pancho Villa, directed by Bruce Beresford, written by Larry Gelbart and produced by Joshua D. Maurer, Mark Gordon, and Larry Gelbart. The cast also includes Alan Arkin, Jim Broadbent, Michael McKean, Eion Bailey, and Alexa Davalos.
The División del Norte was an armed faction formed by Francisco I. Madero and initially led by General José González Salas following Madero's call to arms at the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910. González Salas served in Francisco I. Madero's cabinet as Minister of War, but at the outbreak of the 1912 rebellion by Pascual Orozco, González Salas organized 6,000 troops of the Federal Army at Torreón. Orozquista forces surprised González Salas at the First Battle of Rellano. They sent an explosives packed train hurtling toward the Federales, killing at least 60 and injuring González Salas. Mutinous troops killed one of his commanders and after seeing the officer's body, González Salas committed suicide.
"The Mexican" is a 1911 short story by American author Jack London.
José Inés Salazar was a leading Orozquista General in the Mexican Revolution who later fought with Pancho Villa. He was a native of Casas Grandes, Chihuahua.
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 supporting cast includes Charles Bronson as Fierro, Herbert Lom as Huerta and Alexander Knox as Madero. Sam Peckinpah wrote the original script and was set to direct, but Brynner disliked Peckinpah's harsh depiction of Villa and had Robert Towne rewrite the script, with Kulik brought on as director. The screenplay is based on the biography by William Douglas Lansford.
General Rodolfo Fierro was a railway worker, railway superintendent, federal soldier and a major general in the army of Pancho Villa during the Mexican Revolution in the Division del Norte. Fierro and his counterpart and fellow lieutenant, Tomas Urbina, have been cited as the two halves of Pancho Villa, Fierro representing his malicious side. It is believed Fierro met Pancho Villa in 1913 following the Madero revolution. Originating from Sinaloa, Fierro was a former federal officer having taken part in fighting against the Yaqui Indians. Following his role as a federal officer, Fierro went on to work as a railway man, eventually being absorbed into Villa's ranks.
Bandido is a 1956 American Western film starring Robert Mitchum, Ursula Thiess, Gilbert Roland, and Zachary Scott. The film, set in the Mexican Revolution and filmed on location around Acapulco, was written by Earl Felton and directed by Richard Fleischer. Robert Mitchum also co-produced the film through his DRM Productions company.
The Treasure of Pancho Villa is a 1955 American Technicolor Western film directed by George Sherman and starring Rory Calhoun, Shelley Winters, and Gilbert Roland. The film was shot on location in Mexico.
The Mexican Border War, or the Border Campaign, refers to the military engagements which took place in the Mexican–American border region of North America during the Mexican Revolution. The war's time period encompassed World War I, during which Germany attempted to have Mexico attack the United States and engaged in hostilities against American forces there itself. The Border War was the fifth and latest major conflict fought on American soil, whereas its predecessors were the American Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and the American Civil War. The end of the Mexican Revolution on December 1, 1920, marked the close of the American Frontier. The Bandit War in Texas was part of the Border War. From the beginning of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, the United States Army was stationed in force along the border and on several occasions fought with Mexican rebels or federals. The height of the conflict came in 1916 when revolutionary Pancho Villa attacked the American border town of Columbus, New Mexico. In response, the United States Army, under the direction of General John J. Pershing, launched the "Punative expedition" into northern Mexico, to find and capture Villa. Although Villa was not captured, the US Army found and engaged the Villista rebels, killing Villa's two top lieutenants. The revolutionary himself escaped and the American army returned to the United States in January 1917. Conflict at the border continued, however, and the United States launched several additional, though smaller operations into Mexican territory until after the American victory in the Battle of Ambos Nogales in August 1918, leading to the establishment of a permanent border wall. Conflict was not only subject to Villistas and Americans; Maderistas, Carrancistas, Constitutionalistas and Germans also engaged in battle with American forces during this period.
Nora Sampson, known professionally as Teddy Sampson, was an American stage and silent film actress who appeared in at least forty-one motion pictures between 1914 and 1923.
Pancho Villa was famous during the Revolution and has remained so, holding a fairly mythical reputation in Mexican consciousness, but not officially recognized in Mexico until long after his death. As the "Centaur from the North" he was considered a threat to property and order on both sides of the border, feared, and revered, as a modern Robin Hood.
Revolution, also known as La sombra de Pancho Villa, is a 1933 Mexican drama film. It was directed by Miguel Contreras Torres, who also starred in the film. The film deals with the Mexican Revolution. It is one of the first Mexican films that dealt with the revolution, and the first sound film to do so.
The Battle of Ojinaga, also known as the Taking of Ojinaga, was one of the battles of the Mexican Revolution and was fought on January 11, 1914. The conflict put an end to the last stronghold of the Federal Army in Northern Mexico when, after the rebel Generals Toribio Ortega Ramírez and Pánfilo Natera García could not finish the place off, Pancho Villa arrived in Ojinaga with a large army, thus displacing the forces of Salvador Mercado from the city. The bodies had to be burned to prevent a typhus epidemic.
