Mackenna's Gold

Written and produced by Carl Foreman, this western follows a marshal who has memorised the map to a hidden canyon full of gold. Gregory Peck plays the marshal and Omar Sharif the bandit who forces him onto the trail. The supporting cast is absurdly overstuffed: Telly Savalas, Julie Newmar, Lee J. Cobb, Raymond Massey, Burgess Meredith, Anthony Quayle, Edward G. Robinson and Eli Wallach. A seven million dollar budget went into Super Panavision 70 and Technicolor, with Joseph MacDonald shooting and Quincy Jones scoring. It failed in North America anyway and was counted among the more ostentatious flops of its moment. Then something unexpected happened. The film found an enormous audience in the Soviet Union and in India, where it remained one of the highest-grossing Hollywood releases for years and outdrew even Jaws. The worldwide total reached forty-one million dollars. It is a textbook case of a film becoming a different film depending on where it is shown. Who it is for: viewers who enjoy large-scale classic westerns with sprawling casts. Who it is not for: anyone impatient with a sagging second half, or troubled by the period's depiction of Indigenous people.