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To me, this movie is perfection.

Sadly Over-hyped

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Two brothers have a contract to sell three Brahma bulls to a rancher in South America. They will get a fortune for these bulls--enough so they can buy a big spread of their own. Once one brother (Glenn Ford) arrives in South America, however, he finds things a bit confusing--who is who in a range war raging in the Brazilian forests? There are three different sides vying for power and Ford is left wondering just who he can trust.This is a sloppy and slow-paced film. It takes a terribly long time for anything to happen and it's just not that interesting a film. But what irritated me was how sloppy the film looked and sounded. It was supposed to be Brazil--so why was everyone speaking Spanish, not Portuguese. Too much scratchy old stock footage is used--and I have no idea why, since they actually DID go to South America to film part of the movie. In addition, I laughed when I saw an American Mountain Lion--painted black to look like a Jaguar! It was very clearly NOT a Jaguar. And, the film showed some American Alligators and one of the characters talked about the danger in the forest from Cobras--which are found only in Africa and Asia. While I don't look for perfection in a film, such sloppiness is irritating and shows a lack of regard for the audience. The same can be said in regard to the pacing--it's as if they know they had a bad film and didn't care.The worst moment in the film? It could have been when the cockatiel was ogling the woman bathing in the lagoon. However, I can't say this for sure because about 90% through the film I gave up and turned it off--it was THAT bad. And, for your information, I almost always watch all of the films I review and do this about 99.76% of the time.

Four years before he would be known as the master of the gimmick, William Castle directed this South of the border Western starring Glenn Ford, Cesar Romero, Abby Lane and Frank Lovejoy. In true William Castle style, tho let it be known it wasn't always his fault, The Americano was met with a number of problems. Not least that after being afforded a considerable budget by RKO standards, they ran out of money half way thru. With most of the shoot being in the Matto Grosso jungle in Brazil, where it's believed that Budd Boetticher took control of the shoot, they had to hop tail it back to Hollywood where the project sat in limbo for months. By the time of the reconvene, original choice for the role of Teresa, Sara Montiel, had moved onto Warner Bros and was no longer available after having her RKO contract cancelled for the film. In came Abby Lane and all the scenes with Teresa in had to be re-shot.The plot sees Ford as Texas cowboy Sam Dent who agrees to take on a job of delivering prize Bulls to a mysterious buyer down near the Amazon in Brazil. However, when he gets there he finds that the man he was meant to meet has been murdered. Quickly making friends with Manuel (Romero), Dent finds that there is a range war going on and that bandits run rife in the area. Trying to stay neutral he finds that he may have to pick a side after all. Does he trust Manuel, a well known bandit by all accounts, be loyal to Bento Hermanny (Lovejoy) who has given him a roof over his head, or pitch in with the lovely Marianna Figuerido (Ursula Thiess) who he is starting to get sweet on? Either way it possibly spells trouble for him.Amiable, if over used, story that becomes watchable due to the efforts of Ford (as cool as ever) and Romero (who walks away with the movie), The Americano is clearly not the movie the makers set out to make. It was a bold move to make a Western down by the Amazon, not least because the locale should have made for rich pickings. But the problems off screen are up there on the screen. It's photographed by William E. Snyder (Creature from the Black Lagoon/Flying Leathernecks) and the locale is not utilised at all. Shot in Technicolor, the jungle sadly looks grey and almost ashen. There's a little bit of good lens work for a fire sequence, but the majority of it is very poor. They may as well have just built a cheap jungle set at the California base where the rest of the film was shot. The editing is bad and some scenes are blighted by basic errors, watch as Ford is hand tied on his horse one minute then rides an escape in free hand the next! Then there is the awful performance of Thiess, so bad it's obvious why she didn't go on to have a career in Hollywood. This in spite of Howard Hughes manfully fighting her corner.However, this is a film I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to my Western loving friends on proviso they don't expect too much. Ford and Romero are worth it, as is a couple of scenes such as a pitch fork fight and a dandy piranha dangle sequence. While for the boys Lane warbles and wobbles in a very engaging way. So a big case of not what it should have been, but not without its merits either, and certainly fun enough to adequately fill a couple of hours of undemanding time. 5.5/10

I'm a big fan of Glenn Ford, Frank Lovejoy, and Cesar Romero, but this movie goes terribly astray. One must take into account that when this movie was made, the world was less sophisticated, so the lame travelogue aspects of the first half hour were probably exciting, new, and "never-seen-before" footage. Now it is obvious, boring, and an incredibly poor job of editing some location shooting with bad stock footage. Lovejoy and Romero are both presented as smiling bad guys, with Glenn Ford and the audience left to uncover who is truly bad and who Ford should side with. Romero's character was over-the-top and annoying, while I thought Lovejoy gave a very nice, textured portrayal. That being said, I just couldn't care less about either of them, their range war, or who Ford was going to side with. He was back and forth between the two men so often, I started to get dizzy, and, remarkably, throughout most of the 90 minutes, NOTHING gets done! It's just a boring see-saw.There are murders, attempted rapes, treachery, and much thievery, but neither the script, nor the director (William Castle), generate even the SLIGHTEST bit of tension. A perfect example: In the beginning of the film, Cesar Romero is supposed to lead Ford and his bulls across a river, but warns of the Pirahna fish that will devour the bulls, so he chases a crocodile into the river downstream, the Pirahna chase after the croc, and our hero gets his bulls across safely. It is OBVIOUSLY a set-up for later, but throughout the film, they ride TWO times across the river without even pausing or "distracting" the fish, which completely undermines the set-up. The ultimate undermining shows its effect during the scene toward the end of the film where they threaten to drop the bad guy's henchman into the river if he doesn't confess. Because the Pirahna threat has been undermined throughout half the film instead of bolstered by constant tension and references, the scene becomes a hokey "convenience" that holds zero tension. It's ruined and wasted moments like that which drag the film down.The script is awful, with a banal plot that goes nowhere, generates no interest, and has a thoroughly unsatisfying ending. Speaking of the ending, we are forced to endure a painfully awkward romance between Ford and a female rancher (Theiss) who have ZERO chemistry together. Ford is lecherous and smarmy (which are not particularly enjoyable qualities in a supposed hero), but he eventually beds Theiss. Ford then sides with Theiss when everything she owns is destroyed so the bad guy can take her land. Ford & Theiss have formed a great bond and romantic relationship, right? Evidently, not, as the end of the movie consists of the evil henchman (Hoyos) that Ford has been at odds with since the beginning of the movie being killed in a boring fight scene with... CESAR ROMERO (Uhh, what was the purpose of building the "tension" and animosity between Hoyos and Ford then?)! Ford goes up against the main bad guy and kills him...OFFSCREEN! And then the movie ends without a single shot of, or reference to, Ursula Theiss, her ranch, her relationship with Ford, etc.! Ford just kills the bad guy, walks off into the jungle, The End. Huh?! Every possible plot point is tied up in the MOST unsatisfactory way. It was as if the producers went out of there way to ruin every aspect of this movie.I am being incredibly generous and giving this movie a 2 out of 10 because of solid performances by Glenn Ford, Frank Lovejoy, and the insanely sexy Abbe Lane...they did the best they could with a boring script and truly awful directing job by the usually entertaining William Castle.

The Americano is an entertaining film which has an interesting story, but which could have been much better. It is hard to understand why after getting known actors like Glenn Ford, Cesar Romero, Abbe Lane and Ursula Thiess, the production seems so poor like it was done on a very small budget. Mato Grosso, in Brazil where the action occurs is an impressive place, and the cinematography does no justice to it. To enjoy the film you also have to overlook the fact that Ford as a Texan coming to a remote place in Brazil has no problems with the language because they all speak English, and instead of Portuguese, Spanish seems to be their native language!!! Abbe Lane does a spectacular dance number and just that is worth the film, it does not matter that the music is by Xavier Cugat and has nothing to do with Brazil. Ford brings bulls from Texas and after he delivers them and gets 25000 dollars, what does he do? He goes and sleeps in the jungle with the money. Guess what happens!!! If the film would have come out as originally intended, filmed in Brazil and directed by Budd Boetticher it could have been much better. Unfortunately bad weather, lack of financial resources, problems with the crew were responsible for only a minimal part of the finished movie (if any) to be filmed in Brazil.