If you remember The Carpetbaggers, you'll note the scene where Jonas Cord, Jr. tells his surrogate father Nevada Smith about how he researched and discovered his real story. That his real name was Max Sand and that when three vicious outlaws killed his parents, he spent years tracking them down to mete out justice.
From that small speech in The Carpetbaggers came the motion picture Nevada Smith which starred Steve McQueen in the role that was destined to be Alan Ladd's last. Talk was that Ladd would have liked to do it himself, but he would never have been convincing as the young Nevada.
The outlaws who McQueen is on the trail of are three of the most vicious ever created in Hollywood. Karl Malden, Arthur Kennedy, and Martin Landau each admirably fit their despicable characters. So does Brian Keith as Jonas Cord, Sr. who became McQueen's friend and benefactor.
There are three substantial women's parts in this film. Janet Margolin is the Kiowa Indian girl who went into the white man's world and became a prostitute who cares for McQueen when he's wounded in the Kiowa Village. And there's Joanna Moore, a most grateful widow of Martin Landau who wants to thank Steve good and proper for her new station in life. She's the one with the title quote for the review.
One of the unsung roles in the film however is that of Suzanne Pleshette who plays a Cajun swamp girl who gets bitten by a water moccasin while helping McQueen and Arthur Kennedy bust out of a prison work camp in Louisiana. His treatment of her is McQueen at his most ruthless, he's just using her to get out a jail to get a crack at Kennedy. In fact he deliberately got himself thrown into prison for that purpose. When Pleshette realizes that when she's dying in the swamp of the untreated snakebite, it's maybe her finest moment in her film career.
Nevada Smith was a very good part for Steve McQueen, it stands high with his legion of fans and holds up very well forty years later.
From that small speech in The Carpetbaggers came the motion picture Nevada Smith which starred Steve McQueen in the role that was destined to be Alan Ladd's last. Talk was that Ladd would have liked to do it himself, but he would never have been convincing as the young Nevada.
The outlaws who McQueen is on the trail of are three of the most vicious ever created in Hollywood. Karl Malden, Arthur Kennedy, and Martin Landau each admirably fit their despicable characters. So does Brian Keith as Jonas Cord, Sr. who became McQueen's friend and benefactor.
There are three substantial women's parts in this film. Janet Margolin is the Kiowa Indian girl who went into the white man's world and became a prostitute who cares for McQueen when he's wounded in the Kiowa Village. And there's Joanna Moore, a most grateful widow of Martin Landau who wants to thank Steve good and proper for her new station in life. She's the one with the title quote for the review.
One of the unsung roles in the film however is that of Suzanne Pleshette who plays a Cajun swamp girl who gets bitten by a water moccasin while helping McQueen and Arthur Kennedy bust out of a prison work camp in Louisiana. His treatment of her is McQueen at his most ruthless, he's just using her to get out a jail to get a crack at Kennedy. In fact he deliberately got himself thrown into prison for that purpose. When Pleshette realizes that when she's dying in the swamp of the untreated snakebite, it's maybe her finest moment in her film career.
Nevada Smith was a very good part for Steve McQueen, it stands high with his legion of fans and holds up very well forty years later.