| Vera Cruz | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Robert Aldrich |
| Produced by | James Hill |
| Written by | Roland Kibbee James R. Webb |
| Starring | Gary Cooper Burt Lancaster Ernest Borgnine Denise Darcel Cesar Romero |
| Music by | Hugo Friedhofer |
| Cinematography | Ernest Laszlo |
| Editing by | Alan Crosland Jr. |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | December 25, 1954 |
| Running time | 94 min. |
| Country | US |
| Language | English Spanish |
| Budget | $3,000,000 (estimated) |
| Box office | $11,000,000 (estimated)[1] |
Vera Cruz is a 1954 American Technicolor Western starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, and featuring Denise Darcel, Sara Montiel, and Cesar Romero. The movie was directed by Robert Aldrich from a story by Borden Chase. The film's amoral characters and cynical attitude toward violence (including a scene where Lancaster's character threatens to murder child hostages) were considered shocking at the time and influenced future Westerns such as The Magnificent Seven, The Wild Bunch, and the films of Sergio Leone.
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During the Franco-Mexican War, ex-Confederate soldier Ben Trane (Cooper) travels to Mexico seeking a job as a mercenary. He falls in with Joe Erin (Lancaster), a lethal gunslinger who heads a gang of cutthroats (including Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, Charles Bronson, and Archie Savage). They are recruited by Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico (George Macready) to help escort Countess Duvarre (Denise Darcel) to Vera Cruz.
Trane and Erin discover that the countess and Marquis Henri de Labordere (Cesar Romero) are secretly transporting a large cache of gold intended for the French army. All concerned, including Juarista secret agent Nina (Sara Montiel), conspire to steal it for their own purposes. Also involved in the mix is Morris Ankrum as a heroic Juarista leader.
In the end, Trane and Erin face off in a showdown that concludes with Erin's death.
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