Kirk Douglas

James Coburn

Alexandra Bastedo

Graham Jarvis

Derek McGrath

Jason Michas

Len Birman

Frank C. Turner

Maurice Brand

Graham McPherson

Vladimír Valenta

Linda Sorensen

Gerard Parkes

Frank Adamson

Richard Donat

Stuart Gillard

Steven Hilliard Stern

Laszlo George

Kenneth Wannberg

Stanley Mann

Bill Brodie

Joe Grimaldi

Comedy

Western

TV Movie

Draw!

Canada

United States of America

CinemaSerf

I think perhaps both Kirk Douglas and James Coburn might have wished they had left their guns in their holsters if they ever got round to watching this really mediocre and tired drama that rather sells the genre short. The former is ageing outlaw "Holland" who has just been released from a long term in prison. He heads to a local town where he alights on a crooked poker game. He proceeds to fleece "Bell" (Derek McGrath) but in a contretemps afterwards, kills the sheriff and himself is shot before fleeing into a local hotel. It's the traditional Mexican stand off - and to Mexico, they got to find the solution. An equally aged and past his use-by-date "Starret" (Coburn) who is coaxed from his bottle to come and face down "Holland" on behalf of the petrified townsfolk. It tries it's hand at humour, and there is no getting away from the fact that both actors do exude lots of charisma, but the whole thing just looks cheap and cheerful. The dialogue is pedestrian, and the gunfights look more like circus performances than than anything we would have seen at the "OK Corral". Unlike John Wayne's last effort "The Shootist" (1976) which respected the genre and his part in it's development, this really just provides two screen legends with a poorly thought out, semi-comic, series of escapades that make for a really disappointing made-for-television swan song for both.

English