| Take a Hard Ride | |
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Take a Hard Ride film poster |
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| Directed by | Antonio Margheriti |
| Produced by | Harry Bernsen |
| Written by | Eric Bercovici Jerrold L. Ludwig |
| Starring | Lee Van Cleef Jim Brown Fred Williamson |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Cinematography | Riccardo Pallottini |
| Editing by | Stanford C. Allen |
| Distributed by | Bernsen-Ludwig-Bercovici Production |
| Release date(s) | October 29, 1975 |
| Running time | 103 min |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
Take a Hard Ride is a 1975 Western directed by Antonio Margheriti. It stars Lee Van Cleef, Jim Brown, and Fred Williamson.
Pike, a stone faced cowboy, meets up with Tyree, a dishonest gambler. Together with a mute Indian scout, Kashtok, the trio attempts to transport $86,000 across hundreds of miles of Western wasteland to deliver it to the widow of Pike's former employer.[1]
The film is notable among 1970s B cinema for being both a blaxploitation film (one of a number teaming Brown and Williamson) and a spaghetti western, co-financed by Italian producers and filmed on location in the Canary Islands. Director Margheriti had attempted a similarly ambitious genre hybrid the previous year with The Stranger and the Gunfighter, a spaghetti western kung fu adventure, also starring Van Cleef.
One June 21, 2011 the film was released on DVD through Shout! Factory as part of a double feature with Rio Conchos.
Contents |
Pike (Jim Brown), the right-hand man of cattle rancher Bob Morgan (Dana Andrews), is entrusted with a mission to deliver $86,000 across the border to the Morgan Ranch in Senora, Mexico after his boss dies. Pike teams up with dishonest gambler Tyree (Fred Williamson) and are forced to trust each other while being pursued by various outlaws and gunmen trying to possess the money, including the ruthless bounty hunter Kiefer (Lee Van Cleef) and corrupt sheriff Kane (Barry Sullivan).
Along the way the duo comes across a prostitute (Catherine Spaak) in need of rescuing and Kashtok (Jim Kelly), a mute Indian scout skilled in martial arts who help them on their journey. After numerous gun battles and chase sequences, Pike and Tyree reach the end of the line at an abandoned mine, where they duke it out over the money, yet finally settle and work together after getting word of the approaching gunmen. They devise a plan to escape by using explosives to blow up the mine shaft behind them, killing all their pursuers except for Kiefer, who decides to forgo his bounty and let the men continue their quest to reach the ranch.