Jorge Rivero Movies
Mexican movie leading man Jorge Rivero has occasionally essayed character roles in North-of-the-Border productions. Rivero is best known to Howard Hawks buffs as Captain Pierre Cordona in Hawks' Rio Lobo (1969), in which the actor was afforded second billing, just below John Wayne. Though not confined to Latino roles, he has generally played such strongly ethnic types as Spotted Wolf, the principal Native American character in Soldier Blue (1970). Active into the 1990s, Jorge Rivero was most recently seen in 1993's Ice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Victor Manuel Castro's comedy Munecas de Media Noche tells the tale of a man of a man who loses his job as a nightclub entertainer after a vacation that he ended up extending without notifying his employer. He comes up with a variety of outrageous scams in order to get his place on the stage back. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sasha Montenegro, Rafael Inclán, (more)
The longest (26-1/2 hours), most expensive ($25 million) and most complicated (four directors, five producers, five cinematographers, almost 100 speaking parts, several hundred extras) project made for television up to that time, Centennial was shown in two- and three-hour installments over a period of four months. An adaptation of James Michener's best-selling novel, it told the story of the settling of the American West by looking at the founding of the fictional town of Centennial, Colorado, from the settling of the area in the late 18th century to the present. Emmy-nominated for film editing and art direction, it boasts of sterling performances from Richard Chamberlain as frontiersman Alexander McKeag, Robert Conrad as the French-Canadian trapper Pasquinel, and a surprisingly powerful performance from former football star Alex Karras as compassionate but iron-willed immigrant farmer Hans Brumbaugh. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1976
- R
A former lawman must return to his guns when his daughter is threatened in this dark-themed western. Zach Provo (James Coburn) was a notorious outlaw who was finally put behind bars by sheriff Sam Burgade (Charlton Heston), who also killed Provo's wife in the midst of a gun battle. Provo is determined to take his revenge on Burgade, and with the help of a handful of other gunmen, he makes a daring escape from jail and kidnaps Susan (Barbara Hershey), Burgade's daughter. Eager for a final showdown with the now-retired sheriff, Provo threatens Susan with multiple rape if Burgade will not face him in a gunfight, and Burgade is forced to take his guns out of mothballs and confront Provo for the sake of his daughter. The Last Hard Men also stars Michael Thomas Parks, Thalmus Rasulala, and Christopher Mitchum. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlton Heston, James Coburn, (more)
- 1975
Two powerhouse international stars, Antonio Aguilar and Jorge Rivero, top the cast of Volver, Volver, Volver! The central character, however, is played by the beautiful Claudia Islas. When her husband dies, the poor widow's tragedy is intensified by the arrival of her brother. Believing that somehow his sister was responsible for her husband's death, the brother inaugurates a campaign of terror and abuse. Neither the heroine nor the audience will be able to withstand this treatment forever, so expect a cathartically violent conclusion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
When a Latino pimp messes with the Mafia, he finds himself in a dangerous situation. Dialogue is in Spanish. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- 1974
A gentle abductor grows attractive to a captured woman who catches glimpses into his horrible history. ~ All Movie Guide
Cult maestro René Cardona, Jr. (Night of a 1,000 Cats, Rock 'n' Roll Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy) enters Peckinpah territory with the 1974 blood-soaked western melodrama Guns & Guts, starring Jorge Rivero, Pedro Armendariz, Rogelio Guerra and Zulma Faiad. Guns concerns a hired gun (Rivero) determined to head out on his last mission and then retire with a prostitute. The job involves rubbing out a sheriff who conceals his whereabouts in an ancient monastery. Thus begins a wicked, prolonged cat-and-mouse game between the two men, leading up to an operatically violent finale. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 1972
- R
This narrated film follows the biblical story of Adam and Eve, including their creation in the Garden of Eden, their Fall, and their attempt to survive after they are banished to the cruel outside world. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
The Spanish-language Mexican vigilante drama Indio concerns an unscrupulous and sociopathic land developer who schemes to wrest a piece of land away from an Apache Indian tribe. His diabolical plan involves poisoning most of the water on-site. It succeeds in the short term by wiping out most of the Native American population, but also brings into the picture a lone, surviving Apache warrior. Irate and hell-bent on vengeance, he determines to locate the murderous developer and make him pay for his actions. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
The biblical story Jesus, el Nino Dios offers a look at the birth of Christ from the point of view of the wisemen who followed a star to bring the baby gifts. They encounter King Herod who is consumed with jealousy in regard to the newly born Prince of Peace. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jorge Rivero, Guillermo Murray, (more)
John Wayne, in the last of his Civil War characterizations, portrays Cord McNally, a Union Army colonel who loses a gold shipment in a Confederate raid, during which a devoted young officer is also killed. After the end of the war, McNally bears no ill-will toward the leaders of the raid, Pierre Cordona (Jorge Rivero) and Tuscarora Phillips (Christopher Mitchum), who were acting as soldiers, but he still wants the two unknown men on the Union side who they say sold them the information about the gold shipments. A year later, McNally crosses paths with one of the men, now a deputy from Rio Lobo, who is about to take Shasta Delaney (Jennifer O'Neill), a seemingly innocent young woman, out of a neighboring town at gunpoint. A shootout ensues, in which McNally's man and three other Rio Lobo deputies are killed, with help from Cordona -- this makes McNally very interested in what's going on in Rio Lobo, and he decides to go there with Cordona and Shasta. They find a whole community under siege from their own sheriff, a sadistic ex-outlaw named Hendricks (Mike Henry). What follows is a series of confrontations and revelations that are alternately suspenseful, sadistic -- with maimings worthy of a spaghetti western and characters even getting blown to bits -- and even occasionally comical. But the pieces all tie together very neatly, despite a convoluted plot that's sort of Rio Bravo (made 11 years earlier, also starring Wayne and directed by Hawks, and scripted by Leigh Brackett) turned sideways and readjusted to a more cynical era. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Jorge Rivero, (more)
A cavalry unit in Colorado is conducting two important cargoes to Fort Reunion, home of the 11th Colorado Volunteers: Cresta Marybelle Lee (Candice Bergen), the fiancée of an officer in the unit until two years ago, when she was taken by the Cheyenne, and who just escaped; and Captain Battles (Dana Elcar), the paymaster, with a strongbox containing gold. The men are tired -- almost asleep in their saddles -- and frustrated, and doubly so by the presence of Cresta, whose beauty and reputation (by virtue of living two years with "savages") is driving them to distraction; all except for Honus Gant (Peter Strauss), a neophyte trooper and wide-eyed innocent. The detachment is ambushed by a Cheyenne war party and the only survivors are Cresta and Honus, who learn to tolerate each other as they struggle across the wilderness and the desert in search of help. An encounter with white trader Isaac Q. Cumber (Donald Pleasence), a profiteer who is running guns to the Indians, nearly results in their deaths, and Honus is seriously wounded.
Cresta goes off in search of help and is picked up by a cavalry scout and brought to the 11th Colorado, whose commanding officer, Col. Iverson (John Anderson), is planning a punitive strike against a peaceful Cheyenne encampment over the massacre of the paymaster's party. Cresta tries to secure help for Honus but Iverson is too busy planning bloodshed, and her fiancé, Lt. McNair (Bob Carraway), is just too eager to pick up where he left off with her to listen to her warnings. She rides out on her own and returns to the village where she'd spent the previous two years, while Honus manages to survive to reach Iverson. He ends up along for the assault on the village, which takes place despite the chieftain Spotted Wolf (Jorge Rivera) flying a flag of truce and an American flag given him at a previous negotiation with the whites. The Native Americans defend themselves when fired upon with artillery and rifles, and all hell breaks lose -- virtually all of the men in the village are killed in the first assault, and then the soldiers spot the women, children, and old men, and there begins an orgy of rape, mutilation, beheadings, dismemberment, and torture before Honus' horrified eyes by joyously shrieking soldiers. Cresta kills a soldier who tries to rape her and intends to die with her Native American family but is pulled out, only to watch the slaughter continue. In the end, Honus is left to be marched back to Fort Reunion as a prisoner for trying to stop the killing, and Iverson expresses pride and satisfaction at what he's done, while Cresta and a tiny handful of survivors -- almost all old men and women -- watch in mute horror and anger. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Cresta goes off in search of help and is picked up by a cavalry scout and brought to the 11th Colorado, whose commanding officer, Col. Iverson (John Anderson), is planning a punitive strike against a peaceful Cheyenne encampment over the massacre of the paymaster's party. Cresta tries to secure help for Honus but Iverson is too busy planning bloodshed, and her fiancé, Lt. McNair (Bob Carraway), is just too eager to pick up where he left off with her to listen to her warnings. She rides out on her own and returns to the village where she'd spent the previous two years, while Honus manages to survive to reach Iverson. He ends up along for the assault on the village, which takes place despite the chieftain Spotted Wolf (Jorge Rivera) flying a flag of truce and an American flag given him at a previous negotiation with the whites. The Native Americans defend themselves when fired upon with artillery and rifles, and all hell breaks lose -- virtually all of the men in the village are killed in the first assault, and then the soldiers spot the women, children, and old men, and there begins an orgy of rape, mutilation, beheadings, dismemberment, and torture before Honus' horrified eyes by joyously shrieking soldiers. Cresta kills a soldier who tries to rape her and intends to die with her Native American family but is pulled out, only to watch the slaughter continue. In the end, Honus is left to be marched back to Fort Reunion as a prisoner for trying to stop the killing, and Iverson expresses pride and satisfaction at what he's done, while Cresta and a tiny handful of survivors -- almost all old men and women -- watch in mute horror and anger. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Candice Bergen, Peter Strauss, (more)
Rene Cardona's action film Operacion 67 features a pair of heroes who attempt to stop Asian villains who are throwing their country into chaos by flooding the area with funny money. The two must engage in a number of dangerous altercations in order to save the day. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
