- Film Review
- Reviewed By Adrian Turner
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3 out of 5
Having successfully remade Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai as The Magnificent Seven, Hollywood here turned its sights on the Japanese maestro's earlier classic Rashomon, the tale of a rape and a murder told by four disparate people with differing perspectives. The story is transposed to the Wild West, with Paul Newman playing a Mexican outlaw accused of the crimes, Claire Bloom and Laurence Harvey as the victims, and Edward G Robinson as a conman. It's a starry cast (William Shatner is in it as well) and worth watching for that reason alone, particularly a heavily made-up Newman in a curious performance that's almost a prototype for Eli Wallach's bandit Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. On the downside, Martin Ritt's direction labours every point and totally lacks the intensity of the original film.
Plot Summary
A Mexican outlaw is put on trial for killing a man and raping his wife. However, while the defendant admits to both crimes, the woman he attacked claims she killed her husband herself - while a witness gives a very different version of events. Western, starring Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, Edward G Robinson and William Shatner.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Juan Carrasco
- Paul Newman
- Husband
- Laurence Harvey
- Wife
- Claire Bloom
- Con Man
- Edward G Robinson
- Preacher
- William Shatner
- Prospector
- Howard Da Silva
- Sheriff
- Albert Salmi
- Judge
- Thomas Chalmers
Crew
- Director
- Martin Ritt
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