Gold of the Seven Saints

John Chard

Die Rich... Gold of the Seven Saints is directed by Gordon Douglas and adapted to screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Leonard Freeman from Steve Frazee's novel. It stars Clint Walker, Roger Moore, Robert Middleton, Chill Wills and Leticia Roman. Filmed in Warnerscope, cinematography is by Joseph F. Biroc and the music is scored by Howard Jackson. Jim Rainbolt (Walker) and Shaun Garrett (Moore) strike it rich and quickly find themselves pursued across the sun scorched lands by money hungry baddies... OK! It's what can be termed as a poor man's Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It also has Roger Moore in a Western movie trying to do an Irish accent! And! It's also in black and white, which when you see how beautifully crisp Biroc's photography is - as the Utah landscapes scorch the eyes - seems such a waste of an opportunity. Yet there's a lot of fun here, some perky scripting and deftly staged action, even some genuine moments of suspense. While Chill Wills pops in for a dandy performance to please the Western faithful. Leticia Roman is a token lady offering, the resolution is a bit of a damp squib, but Walker, Wills and Moore are darn fine company to be in, which in this case is enough to make time spent with this movie time well spent. 6.5/10