Alvarez Kelly

2/9/2017

In every war...in every age...the forgotten weapon is food.... Alvarez Kelly is directed by Edward Dmytryk and stars William Holden & Richard Widmark. It's written by Elliott Arnold & Franklin Coen (Dan Taradash uncredited for tidying it up), the locations for the shoot are Baton Rouge & Clinton, Louisiana, with Joseph MacDonald on photography (Panavision). Story is apparently based on a true US Civil War incident in 1864, it sees Alvarez Kelly (Holden) kidnapped by Confederate's led by Tom Rossiter (Widmark) and forced to drive a herd of Union owned cattle to the hungry Reb troops in Richmond. Slow moving and blighted by a tepid script, Alvarez Kelly relies on its stars and photography to keep it out the trough. Evidently the makers were going for a social conscious piece based arou

3/15/2022

_**Confederate and Union troops fighting over a herd of cattle**_ During the partial siege of Richmond–Petersburg in September 1864 a troop of Confederates mean to acquire 3000 cattle from Mexico meant for consumption by the Union Army. William Holden plays the livestock businessman while Richard Widmark and Patrick O’Neal play opposing Confederate/Union officers. Roger C. Carmel is on hand as the Captain of a blockade runner. "Alvarez Kelly" (1966) is a Civil War Western based around the real-life Beefsteak Raid. It’s similar to “The Horse Soldiers” (1959), also co-starring Holden, mixed with “Major Dundee” (1965). While it’s the least of these, with “Horse Soldiers” easily being the best, it’s still worth checking out for those interested, just don’t expect a conventional West

5/20/2026

There are a lot of hungry Confederate soldiers in besieged Richmond, so their colonel "Rossiter" (Richard Widmark) sets his sights on the big herd that Mexican "Kelly" (William Holden) usually delivers to the bluecoats to help solve this problem. "Kelly" has few scruples but he will still take quite some persuading if he is to co-operate - and some dodgy bills with Jefferson Davis on them aren't going to cut it. Just to add to his problems, even if he can procure the cattle the city is surrounded by a well-equipped Union army commanded by "Maj. Stedman" (Patrick O'Neal) and he is expecting the rebels to do something to feed their people, so is prepared with his cannon to thwart any plans "Rossiter" can come up with. To get the job done, these two men are going to have to work together and