As a child with a grubby small amount of money I could have got in without an adult in the UK to see this film. I would have been disturbed by the amount of threat and violence in it, and even now after seeing it I was shocked to know that one of the main characters had had his heart ripped out ( while alive ) and seeing his dead body thrown across a horse. And again even now I felt disturbed by the fate of the Native American woman being callously seduced, abandoned and her reaction - going headlong over a cliff her damaged body on the rocks below. No spoilers as to the actors names. The cast good enough and Cinemascope used well, but where were the seven cities of gold promised me in the title ? Not one in sight and instead a Native American camp and Jeffrey Hunter passing as its chief. Bad casting in my opinion and Anthony Quinn just walked through his role and so did Richard Egan. They are on a Spanish mission to conquer California and quite rightly the Native Americans living there are not happy. There is also a meddling priest played meekly by Michael Rennie, and yes he does produce an improbable miracle. He gets on everyone's nerves and he got on mine as usually he is a fine actor to watch. Clumsily directed the film seems much longer than its running time. To sum up the child in me would probably have had nightmares and also disappointed that no miracle could produce just one city of gold. A mediocre, pseudo historical film.
Review of Seven Cities of Gold
