"Gold of the Seven Saints" is such a cool sounding title for a Western that it's a shame the movie failed to live up to the mystery. I still can't get used to the idea of Roger Moore in a horse opera, and in this one he's not even asked to mask his English accent, instead going for a hearty Irish brogue. His character Shaun Garrett teams up with laconic TV Western star Clint Walker, an unlikely duo who discover gold and attempt to haul a hundred forty five pounds of it across the desert to the safety of the title town - that would be where the Seven Saints part of the story comes in. Midway, the pair hook up with Chill Wills in what might be the most serious role I've seen him in, that of a doctor who quite intentionally joins the boys hoping to offer his knowledge and services in exchange for a fair share of the bundle.
I think it all sounds a lot better on paper than it does in the execution. Though there are a couple of shoot-outs with Gene Evans' gang of outlaws, I never got the impression that Rainbolt (Walker) and Garrett were ever in too much trouble, even when McCracken's (Evans) men kidnap Doc and Garrett in a ransom move. It made me wonder why they didn't go for Senorita Tita (Leticia Roman), that might have been the more suspenseful alternative. Even Robert Middleton's hearty portrayal of Rainbolt's old Mexican friend seems a throwaway by the finale. His half hearted challenge to Rainbolt to split the gold is swept under the rug, or under the river as it were, in a move reminiscent of "Treasure of the Sierra Madre". But this was no Sierra Madre, with a result that didn't convey the same power and irony of that earlier Bogart classic.
I think it all sounds a lot better on paper than it does in the execution. Though there are a couple of shoot-outs with Gene Evans' gang of outlaws, I never got the impression that Rainbolt (Walker) and Garrett were ever in too much trouble, even when McCracken's (Evans) men kidnap Doc and Garrett in a ransom move. It made me wonder why they didn't go for Senorita Tita (Leticia Roman), that might have been the more suspenseful alternative. Even Robert Middleton's hearty portrayal of Rainbolt's old Mexican friend seems a throwaway by the finale. His half hearted challenge to Rainbolt to split the gold is swept under the rug, or under the river as it were, in a move reminiscent of "Treasure of the Sierra Madre". But this was no Sierra Madre, with a result that didn't convey the same power and irony of that earlier Bogart classic.