Cinema: Guns for San Sebastian

Anthony Quinn does his thing in Guns for San Sebastian—he sweats and grunts with apelike ardor over food, wine and women; he fights like a tiger and suffers like a saint. When Quinn does his thing, it is usually very well done indeed, but the kind of film he does it in is another matter.

In this case, it is not very much. Guns is a story about a renegade soldier in 18th century Mexico, with a price on his head, who is given sanctuary by an old priest (Sam Jaffe) in the village of San Sebastian. The priest is murdered by the fierce Yaqui Indians, who attack the church as an instrument of the hated white man. They torture Quinn and order him to leave. A village girl (Anjanette Comer), plus his conscience, plus the devotion of the hapless villagers who mistake him for a priest all manage to change his course and set things up for an epic battle with the unfriendlies.

As these battles go, it is a good one. The French producer-director team of Jacques Bar and Henri Verneuil shot the film in Mexico, which enabled them to hire a horde of bloodthirsty Indians who really look like bloodthirsty Indians —spraying arrows in all directions and falling off their horses in a veritable Yaqui Armageddon. The villagers' faces are also a pleasure to watch: this is one movie in which the scene stealing is done by the extras. But it is strictly petty larceny.