Tickle Me: Land Raiders (1969)

U.S. One Sheet Poster

Land Raiders is a western distributed by Columbia Pictures and directed by Nathan Juran, an American-born director who spent much of his career directing for TV. It is primarily the story of a feud between two brothers, Vicente Cardenas (Telly Savalas) and Pablo Cardenas (George Maharis). Vicente has mostly abandoned his Mexican roots and become a large-land-owning Gringo. He has acquired most of his land in a ruthless and heartless manner, and he hates Apaches. He has put a bounty out for Apache scalps, which is causing problems between the Indians and the locals. The government intends to intervene and make peace with the Apaches, but Vicente ruthlessly interferes and derails that effort.

We see that Pablo left town two years previously, because of a conflict with Vicente. Their father is distraught over the situation, and neither he nor Vicente's wife, Martha (Arlene Dahl), understand the cause of the feud. Through flashbacks, we see that the feud erupted over a young, 18-year-old Latino girl, Luisa (Jocelyn), with whom Pablo was madly in love. Vicente berated Pablo over Luisa, telling him that she was just a whore that he and everyone else in town had been with, which infuriated Pablo. We also learn that she was pregnant. After Luisa is found dead in a pond from a broken neck, supposedly caused from a fall from her horse, most of the town believes that Pablo killed her.

After Pablo comes back to town in the process of saving a young, white woman, Kate (Janet Landgard), from being killed in an Apache attack on a wagon train, the feud with Vicente reignites. In between battles with Apaches, Pablo eventually learns that Vicente killed Luisa and was the father of her unborn child. Pablo does not get his own personal revenge on Vicente before the attacking Apaches swarm the town, corner Vicente, and get their own revenge.

Land Raiders has a bit of a spaghetti western feel to it, with some brutal scenes and a bit of fleeting nudity, but it probably looks and feels more like a latter-era American western. Telly Savalas is good as the ruthless SOB Vicente, and Maharis is adequate as Pablo, though at times Pablo comes off as a bit too wimpy. Dahl doesn't bring anything particularly memorable to her role as Martha, other than the fact that, at 43, she had an apparently-unintended nipple slip in one rough scene. Well-known European actor, Fernando Rey, appears in a very small role.

Jocelyn does a surprisingly good job in her small role, especially considering that she is only seen in fuzzy flashback sequences. Despite her beauty and young appearance, it was ridiculous for 31-year-old Jocelyn to appear in this role as an 18-year-old. However, she did a good job with Latino-flavored English. Speaking with different accents appears to have been one of Jocelyn's strong points as an actress, a benefit that I presume came from her very varied real-life background. Jocelyn also was convincing in her rough scene with Savalas. If you only intend to watch this movie because of Jocelyn, then you are probably wasting your time, but if you enjoy spaghetti westerns and late 1960's American westerns, then this one is worth a viewing. It won't rank on any classic westerns lists, but it can be fairly lumped into the pile of "decent" westerns from the era.

Originally titled Day of the Landgrabbers, filming commenced in Spain on May 27, 1968 and was completed by late July. By the end of October, it was reported that producer Charles Schneer was in Rome working on music for the film. By August of 1969, it was being reported that the film had been renamed Land Raiders. IMDB shows that the film was released in several European countries in the summer and fall of 1969 before opening in the U.S. in January of 1970. By the summer and fall of 1970, it was being double-billed in the U.S., often with Watermelon Man, to generally modest box office returns. Variety reported on December 10, 1969 that Columbia was producing the film's soundtrack on its record label.

Variety gave the film a mediocre review in the November 24, 1969 edition, based on a November 18, 1969 showing at the Columbia Private Theatre in London (with a running time of 101 minutes). It concluded: "There's enough action in this pic to satisfy the most ardent Western lover. Screenplay writers have tossed in Apaches, family feuds, villainy by Telly Savalas, near-rape, massacres, a stagecoach holdup, murder, scalping, the U.S. Army, flames, a saloon brawl, a brothel sequence, and, finally, love's young dream. The result is a mish-mash largely due to flabby writing, insufficiently taut direction by Nathan Juran and too frequent use of irritating flashbacks. Still, it should make for some boxoffice action at houses not demanding a superior brand of western product." Variety also went on to note that "the heroine (Janet Landgard) and Jocelyn Lane suffer roles that are vapid."

I have yet to find any promotional material featuring Jocelyn.

U.S. three sheet and half sheet posters: