BY FRED BLOSSER
In Andrew V. McLaglen’s “One More
Train to Rob,†an obscure but modestly entertaining Western from 1971, train
robber Harker Fleet (George Peppard) masterminds the armed theft of $40,000
from a Wells Fargo express. Thanks
to his careful planning, he and his gang all have airtight alibis when the law
comes calling. His
partners Tim (John Vernon) and Katy (Diana Muldaur) posed as passengers on the
train, and his other henchmen Slim, Red, and Jimmy were presumed asleep in
their bunks at a nearby ranch. Checking
on Fleet’s whereabouts during the holdup, the sheriff is assured by the town
madam Louella that she and Harker were together in her bed all night. Louella is played by Marie
Windsor, still plenty hot at fifty-two, if I may be excused a little ageism and
sexism. The sheriff is
ready to let Fleet off the hook, but the unexpected arrival of the hulking
Jones brothers (Merlin Olsen and his real-life brother Eric) throws a wrench
into the scheme. The
brothers demand that Fleet marry their sister Cora Mae, whom he seduced and
abandoned during an earlier layover, so to speak, while he and Tim scoped out
the Wells Fargo heist. The
prospect of a shotgun wedding doesn’t thrill Harker. “What if I confess to robbing
the train and go to jail instead?†he asks the sheriff. No dice. Trying to get away, he slugs a
deputy and winds up in prison for assaulting an officer.
Two years
later, released early on good behavior, he finds that Tim has married Katy and
combined Harker’s share of the loot with his own and Katy’s to start a ranch
and a lumber business. Tim
and Katy are unsettled by their former partner’s arrival for different reasons,
Tim because Harker wants his cut of the money, Katy ostensibly because she
enjoys her present lifestyle as a lady of means, but really because she still
has a thing for Fleet. Tim’s
position is especially shaky. He’s
overextended on the ranch, the bank is poised to foreclose, and because of
Harker’s accidental intervention, he’s been foiled in an attempt to shore up
his credit with gold stolen from a neighboring mine owned by Chinese immigrants. As a hole card, he holds
hostage the Chinese elder, Mr. Chang (Richard Loo), and tries to coerce him
into turning over the gold. Aware
of Tim’s plot, Harker sees a chance to recover his own losses and ruin his
former partner in the process.
The tagline
for the movie poster — reproduced as the cover art for a new Blu-ray edition of
“One More Train to Rob†from Code Red — positions the film as a sweaty, violent
story about betrayal and retribution: “He’d been cheated out of his gold . . .
and his woman . . . now the only weapon he had left was revenge!†It’s a little misleading. “One More Train to Rob†offers
plenty of action to satisfy genre fans, well-staged by McLaglen and stunt
coordinator Hal Needham, but it takes a lighter approach to the vengeance theme
than the poster implies. Harker’s
payback relies more on intimidation and shrewdness than gunplay. The robber enjoys watching Tim
and Katy squirm at his reappearance, wearing beat-up clothing and chewing
tobacco in their lavish house, while they’re preparing to host a visit by the
local minister and his wife — the humor is obvious but still pretty funny. In the meantime, he maneuvers
to get on the good side of the Chinese immigrants to outfox Tim. Since Fleet is played by
George Peppard, always at his best when cast in this type of role, neither the
viewer nor the Chinese miners are quite sure whether he’s to be trusted. But Loo’s character is warily
satisfied once he understands the robber’s ulterior motive: “I wondered why a
man of your character would wish to befriend us, but now I see,†he concludes. Mr. Chang’s associates are
played by France Nuyen and Soon-Tek Oh. It isn’t exactly “Crazy Rich
Asians†or “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings†in terms of casting
Asian actors above the title in respectfully quirky roles, but at least the
Chinese characters are depicted with shrewd dignity, and they give as good as
they get with the racist white bad guys.
The Code Red Blu-ray
presents McLaglen’s film in a sharp, rich transfer at its proper 1.85:1 aspect. Licensed from Universal, it
includes the theatrical trailer and subtitles for those of us who didn’t need
them in 1971 but welcome them now.
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Fred Blosser is the author of "Sons of Ringo: The Great Spaghetti Western Heroes". Click here to order from Amazon)