Cheap Chuka (Video) (Gordon Douglas) Price

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Customer Reviews of Chuka

Chuka
This is one of the better westerns around. The cast is fantastic. The story is very entertaining and action packed. I don't see how anyone could give it 2 stars. The Indians win and the army loses, maybe that's why. But in any event the story line is intriging. Rod Taylor is at his finest as a hired gun with ethics and a deep appreciation for the Arapahoe Indians plight. John Mills, Ernest Borgnine, Luciana Paluzzi, Louis Hayword, James Whitmore et. al. are all excellent in this 1967 western. By the way the fight scene between Rod and Ernie is the greatest fist fight ever seen on film. The Indian attack on the fort is spectacular and the spear scene with Rod Taylor will stun your senses. The ending is special, so don't miss it.

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Androcles at the Alamo
Fans of Rod Taylor have had to sit through some fairly awful movies over the years and this is one of them. It's hard to say why this goes so wrong, but nothing really works or suspends disbelief. It certainly has an outstanding supporting cast, including (Sir) John Mills, Ernest Borgnine, James Whitmore, Luciana Paluzzi, Michael Cole, even old Louis Hayward (in a particularly improbable bit of casting).

Taylor (Australian), Mills (British), and Paluzzi (Italian) all seem as lost and incongruous in a western as Connery and Bardot did in "Shalako". Borgnine and Whitmore do what they can with sketchy sub-characters. And the mini-Fort Apache most of the drama plays out on feels like a set on a sound stage from beginning to end.

As always, Taylor has some fine moments, and Mills gets to make an interesting acting choice as the crumbling commander, and Paluzzi gets through it with beauty and dignity. But it's all to very little purpose in this clunky, derivative cowboys and indians melodrama.

As in so many Rod Taylor films, you wish they all could have got back together in a better movie.

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