Nevada Smith

Plot synopsis:
In the West of the 1890s, a trio of outlaws, Bill Bowdre (Arthur Kennedy), Jesse Coe (Martin Landau) and Tom Fitch (Karl Malden), robs, tortures and brutally kills the white father and Indian mother of young Max Sand (Steve McQueen). The outlaws have stolen the father's grey horse with a double SS brand. Max sets out to avenge their deaths and uses this clue to trail the men.
During his travels in the desert, Max uncovers an old and rusty gun. When he comes upon Jonas Cord, Sr. (Brian Keith), a traveling gunsmith, he tries to rob him. Cord, recognizing that Max's revolver is not loaded and is useless, convinces Max that his plan has failed. Max tells Cord of his vengeful journey. Cord takes pity on him, takes him in, feeds him and teaches him how to shoot. Max hunts the killers, who have separated. He tracks down Jesse Coe to Abilene, Texas. With the help of dancehall girl Neesa (Janet Margolin), a woman from the same tribe as his mother, he confronts him in a salon. Coe escapes and a knife fight ensues in a nearby corral. Coe is killed but Max is severely wounded. Neesa takes him to her tribe's camp, where she nurses him back to health. They become lovers.
Once he recovers, Max leaves Neesa to continue his pursuit. He reads that Bowdre is in a prison camp in Louisiana for a failed bank robbery. He commits a bank robbery, deliberately gets caught, and is sent to the same prison where Bowdre is serving time. Bowdre does not recognize Max whose plan is to convince Bowdre to join him in an escape attempt and kill him in the swamp. Pilar (Suzanne Pleshette), a local Cajun girl working in the rice fields near the convicts’ camp, gives Max comfort. She knows nothing about Maxs' plan to kill Bowdre but knows her way around the swamp. She finds a boat and joins the escape. The boat capsizes early on and Pilar is bitten by a snake. Max kills Bowdre and Pilar dies of the bite.
Fitch, the last of the murderers, keeps a tobacco pouch with beaded deerskin made from the Indian dress of Max's mother. Still blinded by revenge, Max pursues Fitch and manages to infiltrate Fitch's gang, calling himself "Nevada Smith". Fitch is aware that Max Sand has killed Coe and Bowdre and is out there somewhere, waiting to ambush him. Though he accepts "Nevada" into the gang, Fitch is wary of him. When the gang sets out to commit a robbery, Max is spotted by Cord, who calls him by name. Max ignores him and the gang rides on. Fitch suspects that one of his men is Max. He vows to kill any man who makes a mistake. As the rest of the gang greedily scoops up the money from the robbery, Max observes them from a hill. Fitch realizes that "Smith" is Sand, grabs his share of the loot and flees. Max pursues him and corners Fitch at a creek. The men exchange fire and Fitch surrenders but Max continues to fire non-fatal shots into Fitch. The outlaw begs to be finished off, but Max decides that Fitch is not worth killing and rides away.

Tags: revenge, murder

Review:
The film is based on a story by John Michael Hayes, two-time Academy Award nominated screenwriter for 'Rear Window,' and 'Peyton Place.'The film lingers in the mind because of its visual beauty and the intensity of some of its scenes, particularly between McQueen and Malden, two knowing actors playing together with the skill of champion chess players...Hathaway sets up his atmosphere of dramatic tension right at the start...
Both a sinner and a saint, Pilar adds humanity to Max world...With a knife in his hand, and a scar on his neck, Martin Landau is the psychotic womanizer, a morose, evil character, caught in Abelene dealing cards in a saloon...Arthur Kennedy - friendly, smiling, charming and smooth-talking on the surface, weak and corrupt underneath - is the frightened villain swamped by a storm of revenge...Karl Malden is the cynical badman who depreciates his gold before his executioner...
Miles and miles of it, filled of dirty water, quicksand, razorbacks, poison snakes, mosquitoes and malaria...Janet Margolin is the dance hall girl uncertain of the identity of one of the dangerous murderers...Joanna Cook Moore is the grateful saloon girl who offers herself to Max...Rick Roman is Cipriano, the bandit who warns seriously his companion not to harm Father Zaccardi...Ted de Corsia is the bartender who wants the two contenders to calm down in order to find out the truth..The expertise before the cameras and behind it, plus McQueen's dynamic presence, makes 'Nevada Smith' a respectable entry in the annals of the best Westerns....
Steve McQueen was a good actor and all, but throughout the whole movie I was using my imagination replacing him with a young Bronson or someone a little more appropriate to the character he was playing..
The film goes on too long, with an extended prison sequence (stangely reminiscent of "Papillon," which McQueen would star in seven years later) that seems out of place in a Western.
It's fairly long at 130 minutes but Steve McQueen is usually charismatic enough to carry a film, and he does so here, too.As the title character, "Nevada Smith," McQueen is joined by a number of well- known actors of the 1960s: Suzanne Pleshette, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Arthur Kennedy, Raf Vallone, Martin Landau Janet Margolin and Pat Hingle.McQueen plays a man who is totally dominated by thoughts of revenge.
The passage of time while he learned to read, use firearms, kill his first victim and recover from wounds at the Indian village, should all have been used more extensively to make Max Sand age into the character portrayed by McQueen.But regardless of McQueen's actual age, by the time Max kills the first of the three men he is tracking and then gets himself thrown into a Louisiana prison to find another one, his character's age and looks are believable.A superb cast of supporting actors backs up McQueen.
Martin Landau, Arthur Kennedy and Karl Malden are as bad as any movie villains I ever saw.POSSIBLE SPOILER: In the end, Max does the right thing.
Otherwise it's one of those films that leaves you thinking about what might have been.Steve McQueen stars as Max Sand, teenaged son of a white man and a Kiowa woman who sets out to revenge his parents' murders at the hands of three bad men in search of gold.
Director Henry Hathaway and writer John Michael Hayes, working from a concept developed around a character featured in the novel and later film "The Carpetbaggers", toy with the question about whether Max's quest to settle scores is a bad thing in itself, but never develop it."You're a dirty low animal!" Max is told at one point by a woman who he misled in order to confront one of his parents' killers.
The first chapter is the most interesting--with BRIAN KEITH showing "the kid" (STEVE McQUEEN) something about handling a gun as a gunslinger should who's looking to avenge the killers of his parents.As the killers--MARTIN LANDAU, ARTHUR KENNEDY and KARL MALDEN--give tough, gritty performances and each is slated to be avenged for the killing of Nevada Smith's parents.But the last half of the film sags under the tacked on spiritual saga with RAF VALLONE preaching the Bible to "the kid", who promises to "keep it in mind" before he goes off to find the third man, KARL MALDEN.It's all directed in typical Henry Hathaway fashion--ruggedly staged action against gorgeous scenic backgrounds.
He's especially good in the early segment as the uneducated kid who comes under the tutoring of BRIAN KEITH as Jonas Cord.The swamp scenes, where McQueen gets himself sent to prison so he can locate Arthur Kennedy, almost seem like segments from another movie he made with Dustin Hoffman--PAPILLON.
After witnessing the brutal massacre of his family , a young man (Steve McQueen) set out a personal vengeance against a hideous band (the trio formed by Martin Landau , Karl Malden , Arthur Kennedy) .
Steve McQueen, Brian Keith, Karl Malden, Arthur Kennedy, Susan Pleshette, John Doucette, you just don't get a finer cast than that.
Steve McQueen is the young half-breed avenging the deaths of his parents by heartless cowboys Karl Malden and Arthur Kennedy; Brian Keith plays a mentoring, sympathetic gun-salesman who teaches Steve how to shoot; Suzanne Pleshette is a love-interest from the backwoods.
What makes the film real good and lifts it above average is its structured segments, director Henry Hathaway weaves a potent and interesting story by making each part of Nevada Smith/Max Sand's journey an involving character piece that puts you firmly on side with the protagonist and his vengeful quest.Credit has to go to McQueen for putting much gusto into the character when it was badly needed, because to save the film from being standard fare we need the leading man to involve us in his troubled and confused state, luckily he does this with bells on.
....by Henry Hathaway who had a wonderful sense of space ("Niagara" "River of No return" "legend of the lost" ) .A very elaborate screenplay takes us to many places ,from the swamp where prisoners sweat to the Indian village "where Max should stay cause it's here that he belongs" .However, McQueen is not very plausible as a person of mixed -race ,Robert Blake would have been a better choice.The story is constantly absorbing (McQueen getting deliberately arrested recalls Truffaut/Irish's "the bride wore black" turned western)and the supporting characters give the movie substance:Karl Malden and Arthur Kennedy as the villains,Suzanne Pleshette as Pilar ,the gorgeous Mexican girl , Raf Vallone as the priest with a painful past;let's not forget Martin Landau ,the third villain,who works as a dealer in a saloon.Two hours+ and never a dull moment!.
After two plus years of uninspiring movies, McQueen returns to one of his two fortes, westerns (the other being war movies).I found the film's early sequences hard to believe, but only because we know this is Steve McQueen; Josh Randal and "Vin"...a man born on a horse, shooting a gun, not a defenseless half breed kid.
But as soon as he kills Jesse Coe (Martin Landau) in a knife fight, his familiar screen persona emerges and the rest of the film is vintage McQueen.Suzanne Pleshette is superb as the beautiful Cajun girl who risks everything to help Max escape a Louisiana prison in her quest to go west, where it is "clean and dry".
Steve McQueen (Nevada Smith),"The Hunter",'80 went from a Work Camp in the Swamps to the Cowboy Country trying to track down a great actor Karl Malden(Tom Fitch),"On The Waterfront",'54, who played a hateful person who destroyed Nevada Smith's family and forced him to seek revenge.
Steve McQueen is excellent as the young (he really does not look the least bit young, I think he is supposed to be about 16 years old!) survivor when his mixed marriage parents are murdered and skinned by a band of outlaws led by a very evil Karl Malden.
The swamp prison scene (with escape) is excellent as his eventual run in with Karl Malden...the ending, which is influenced by McQueens meeting with a monk (Raf Vallone) is quite different and unusual; particularly for a western.Other members of a great supporting cast include Martin Landau, Suzanne Pleshette and Brian Keith as a gun salesman are all outstanding..
I'd seen this movie as a kid and have seen it pop on TV over the years, but with the 2003 release on DVD, it's nice to see the excellent location photography in a clear color print.McQueen is always great to watch (this movie has all kinds of McQueen on screen mannerisms) and the supporting actors (Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Karl Malden, etc) are excellent.If you haven't seen this movie or saw it a long time ago, rent or buy the DVD of this movie and enjoy!.
Starts as a Really Good One, Falls Towards the End. A young man (Steve McQueen) chases and seeks revenge on the three outlaws (Karl Malden, Arthur Kennedy and Martin Landau) that butchered his mother and father."Nevada Smith" starts as a real interesting and good western but somehow it looses strength as it runs.
Max Sand (Steve) pursues Martin Landau, Karl Malden & Arthur Kennedy who have seen fit to torture and kill his parents.
I'd a stuck around to comfort that merry widow.Gene Evans- rapist/ miner from The Bravados (similar theme as Nevada Smith) plays Max's Dad. I liked Steve's scenes with Suzanne Pleshette but Strother Martin role is wasted.
A naive half-Indian, half-white teenager (Steve McQueen) evolves into a hardened killer as he tracks down his parents' murderers.In the world of "revenge films", you have many that fall into the category of exploitation.
Steve McQueen, as Max Sand, gives another of his brilliant, understated performances, this time as a young man whose parents were brutally murdered by a gang of thugs led by Karl Malden.
This is well acted and directed, McQueen carries the film but the supporting cast is good too.The film has more variety than most as he tracks people down across the west over a decent space of time and those people are in a variety of situation, this leads to a more complex story than the usual revenge western.The fact that McQueen's character is a boy at the beginning and it is a few years to the end allows for some growth of character and a moral message that is an integral part of the narrative rather than being forced in at the end as is often the case.There is nothing in the film that grabs you as amazing to make this a classic, it is a solid film that does everything right but doesn't wow you.Good and a pleasant watch but nothing to get excited about..
Released in 1966, "Nevada Smith" stars Steve McQueen as Max Sand, a half-breed youngster who is driven to avenge the heinous murders of his mother and father.
After a gun merchant mentors him in the ways of gunfighting and human nature (Brian Keith) he tracks down the three scumbags one by one (Martin Landau, Arthur Kennedy and Karl Malden).This is an outstanding and realistic revenge Western reminiscent of 1958's "The Bravados" and pre-dating the similar "Hang 'em High" by two years, but superior to both.
That his real name was Max Sand and that when three vicious outlaws killed his parents, he spent years tracking them down to mete out justice.From that small speech in The Carpetbaggers came the motion picture Nevada Smith which starred Steve McQueen in the role that was destined to be Alan Ladd's last.
She's the one with the title quote for the review.One of the unsung roles in the film however is that of Suzanne Pleshette who plays a Cajun swamp girl who gets bitten by a water moccasin while helping McQueen and Arthur Kennedy bust out of a prison work camp in Louisiana.
When Pleshette realizes that when she's dying in the swamp of the untreated snakebite, it's maybe her finest moment in her film career.Nevada Smith was a very good part for Steve McQueen, it stands high with his legion of fans and holds up very well forty years later..
Westerns, Revenge, Steve McQueen, Karl Malden, Martin Landau and Arthur Kennedy - this sounded like a great way to spend an evening.
He doesn't kill people; he executes them!" – Tom Fitch ("Nevada Smith") "Nevada Smith", directed by Henry Hathaway ("True Grit"), is an above average western which stars Steve McQueen as a half-Caucasian/half-native American teenager (McQueen was 36 years old at the time) who vows to hunt and kill the men responsible for murdering his parents.The movie takes the structure of both a revenge tale and a prison break movie, McQueen breaking into and out of a prison and then systematically killing henchmen until he gets to the crime lord who gave the order to kill his family.Along the way McQueen befriends a gun salesman, a priest and a peasant woman, all of whom he coldly turns his back upon once they've outlived their usefulness.
A box office smash for it's time Nevada Smith is a long, episodic film directed by Henry Hathaway starring the charismatic Steve McQueen.
Interestingly McQueen's character actually only uses the Nevada Smith moniker once (as a temporary alias in the movie), the rest of the time using his 'real' name of Max Sand.
Sand is a half breed whose parents are killed by outlaws - the outstanding trio of Martin Landau, Karl Malden and Arthur Kennedy a group of class heavies that's worth the price of admission alone - and then who resolutely sets out to track the murderers down one by one, after taking on board some life instruction from gun trader Brian Keith.
I very much enjoyed Brian Keith's character and thought he was very believable.Karl Malden does a creditable job as the bad guy and Susan Pleshette was captivating.The plot was pretty typical of a western, shallow & thin in many ways, as it was just another revenge story reworked with some good lines.
Steve McQueen stars as Max Sand, a half-breed Injun who sets out after the men who killed his parents, whose brutal murder opens the film.
Mcqueen plays half-breed Max Sand who tracks down the three monsters (one of them in prison) who tortured and killed his parents.
I was pleasantly surprised by NEVADA SMITH - it was an extremely well-made film, miles ahead of its predecessor, THE CARPETBAGGERS (the film version, not the book!), in which his character and his story originally appeared.John Michael Hayes' "Screen Story and Screenplay" follows "The Story of Nevada Smith" section of Harold Robbins' novel THE CARPETBAGGERS fairly closely, though there were some inventions for the film, such as the young Max Sand's meeting early on with Jonas Cord (Sr.) and Max's respite at a mission, where a kindly Padre (Raf Vallone) tries to induce him to "turn the other cheek."Perhaps due to racism, which still prevailed in mid-1960s characters, a sympathetic character who was African-American in the novel, the whip-wielding prison camp trustee, is split into a redneck trustee (Pat Hingle) and a Cajun girl (Susan Pleshette).Steve McQueen is quite good as the driven Max Sand, whose sole purpose in life is to avenge the deaths of his parents (another plot-point omitted from the novel is that one of the murderers' (Karl Malden's} tobacco pouch is made from the skin of Max's Indian mother, not her dress).
Also, Max's revenge on the three murderers is even more calculated in the novel, and often more grisly - he isn't half-Indian for nothing.There's a good cast here, too - McQueen, Susan Pleshette, Brian Keith, Pat Hingle, Howard da Silva, and as the three murderers, Karl Malden, Arthur Kennedy (playing the kind of sleaze-ball he perfected in PEYTON PLACE) and Martin Landau (even nastier than his memorable character in NORTH BY NORTHWEST).One might be predisposed to think "Oh, it's from a Harold Robbins story, so it's worth missing," but one would be wrong.
McQueen portrays a half breed White/native American youth (Max Sand) who witnesses the brutal murders of his family by three cutthroats, Martin Landua (Jesse Coe), Arthur Kennedy (Bill Bowdre) and Karl Malden as Tom Finch.
Not necessarily a bad thing once we get the idea that Steve McQueen's character is not above lying to pursue his revenge against the three men who killed his father and mother to open the picture."Nevada Smith" is at times a plodding, by the numbers Western with McQueen's performance, by his own admission, taking a step back artistically speaking.
This was a fairly long movie, with a great cast, and worth a watch if you enjoy westerns.It's your typical revenge movie, bad guys kill a mom and dad, son seeks revenge by hunting down and killing.McQueen is supposed to be a halfbreed white/Indian, and many in the film call him a young kid.
Young Nevada is out for revenge on the three men responsible for his parent's death, something he ironically set up by revealing their location.The three killers are Martin Landau, Arthur Kennedy and Karl Malden, meeting up with Steve McQueen's half breed Nevada in ironic ways.
Steve McQueen, Karl Malden, Brian Keith (one of my all time favorite actors), Arthur Kennedy, Suzanne Pleshette, Pat Hingle, Martin Landau, John Doucette, Gene Evans, Paul Fix, and a number of uncredited stars that I recognized as well.
NEVADA SMITH succeeds completely in achieving each of the aforementioned factors, after 3 sadistic outlaws, Jessie Coe(MARTIN LANDAU),Bill Bowdre(ARTHUR KENNEDY)and Tom Fitch(KARL MALDEN)casually mutilate and murder his parents in brutal, gut wrenching fashion,Max Sand(STEVE MCQUEEN)swears violent revenge.
He begins wandering the west looking for the killers and meets a gunsmith named Jonas Cord(BRIAN KEITH)who teaches him how to shoot,Max then dedicates the next few years of his life to hunting down and killing the 3 criminals...NEVADA SMITH is an amazing western, despite being a revenge western, it's a little different to the others as it has a twist, with the final scene being a major factor and setting it apart from the other films.