The Jackals (1967)

Sadly Over-hyped

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

The Jackals is an enjoyable Western film and I saw it without seeing beforehand Yellow Sky which I did not know before that The Jackals was a remake of. Vincent Price headlines The Jackals although much of the action belongs to Robert Gunner. The only principal female cast member is Diana Ivarson as Willie Decker the granddaughter of the Price character. Diana Ivarson is pretty feisty as Willie and she is not bad to look at. In fact unlike Price, who has numerous credits to his name, Gunner and Ivarson only have a handful of credits to their name in their respective brief acting careers. Not a bad Western and having not seen Yellow Sky beforehand, The Jackals is good enough story to follow on.

Although "The Jackals" is set in South Africa during the gold rush era, what will really strike viewers is how American most of it feels. The locations resemble American deserts, and the story and characters feel right out of an American cowboy movie. Only the occasional view of wildlife and native people break the illusion this is an American western. Anyway, I though the movie was a disappointment. It's cheap- looking at times, very slow, and directed in a style that severely lacks passion of some kind during key moments (like action sequences). Vincent Price gives a hammy performance, though his scenes all the same give some life to the movie. There is also a bizarre musical score that sounds WAY out of place for this type of movie. I would only recommend the movie for viewers who are really curious about what a western made by South Africans would look like, and even they might be squirming in their seats at times.

Remake of Yellow Sky set in South Africa. Vincent Price gets top billing as the only star in the movie, but his role is not the biggest. The plot is about seven bank robbers who happen upon a ghost town. The only people in the town are gold prospector Price and his daughter (Diana Ivarson). Vincent Price is generally worth recommending any movie for and he's the best thing about this one. Robert Gunner plays the Gregory Peck role from the original as the bandit who falls in love with the daughter. Gunner is OK but no Peck, to put it politely. Blonde beauty Ivarson makes for an unconvincing tomboy. Moving the setting to South Africa is the film's only original feature. I fail to see why they even bothered to do this as it adds nothing to an otherwise typical western. Dull movie.

Almost a word for word re-make of "Yellow Sky", with a setting on another continent. No better than the original, but still worth seeing. A pleasure seeing Vincent Price in something not dealing with the walking dead or some ghostly mansion: he shone as the grizzled old prospector, Oupa.