''The Undefeated'' is a 1969 American

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

-era film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and starring

John Wayne Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne, was an American actor. Nicknamed "Duke", he became a Pop icon, popular icon through his starring roles in films which were produced during Hollywood' ...

and

Rock Hudson Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular film stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades, and was a prominent figure in the G ...

. The film portrays events surrounding the French Imperial intervention in Mexico during the 1860s period of the neighboring

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. It is also loosely based on

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the Military forces of the Confederate States, military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) duri ...

General Joseph Orville Shelby's factual escape to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

after the American Civil War (1861–1865), and his attempt to join with

Maximilian Maximilian or Maximillian (Maximiliaan in Dutch and Maximilien in French) is a male name. The name "Max" is considered a shortening of "Maximilian" as well as of several other names. List of people Monarchs *Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1 ...

's Imperial Mexican forces.

Plot

Just outside of

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the only city in and the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia, Louisiana, Natchez was ...

, during the closing days of the American Civil War, Union Army Colonel John Henry Thomas and company organize one final attack on a small unit of

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

soldiers, only to be informed after bloodily defeating them that the war had ended three days earlier at Appomattox Courthouse in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. Saddened and weary, Thomas leads his men out west towards home with the intention of rounding up and selling wild horses in the

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

and New Mexico Territories to compensate them for their loyalty, friendship, and war service. Meanwhile, some Confederate States Army soldiers led by Colonel James Langdon feel the war has left them with no home, and they prepare to emigrate south to

and serve as reinforcements to Emperor

, leader of the French intervention invasion of Mexico against the republican government of President

Benito Juárez Benito Pablo Juárez García (; 21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872) was a Mexican politician, military commander, and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in office in 1872. A Zapotec peoples, Zapotec, he w ...

. Langdon torches his plantation home before he departs rather than seeing it fall into the hands of Northern

carpetbaggers In the history of the United States, carpetbagger is a largely historical pejorative used by Southerners to describe allegedly opportunistic or disruptive Northerners who came to the Southern states after the American Civil War and were per ...

. At the same time, Thomas and the surviving members of his command meet up with Thomas' adopted Indian son, Blue Boy, and other members of his tribe from the Oklahoma and Indian Territories. Together, they round up a herd of 3,000 horses and take them south across the Rio Grande of the North for sale to Maximilian's representatives in

Durango Durango, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Durango, is one of the 31 states which make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in the northwest portion of the country. With a population of 1,832,650 ...

, Mexico, after refusing a lower offer from corrupt and greedy U.S. Army purchasing agents. Halfway there, Blue Boy discovers tracks indicating that Mexican

Comanchero The Comancheros were a group of 18th- and 19th-century Merchant, traders based in northern and central New Mexico. They made their living by trading with the nomadic Great Plains Native Americans in the United States, Indian tribes in northeaste ...

bandits are planning an ambush on the group of Confederate travelers. Blue Boy and Thomas go to warn the emigrating Confederates and Thomas and Langdon meet. Despite their differences, the Americans - Northerners, Southerners, and

Cherokee Indians The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

- repel the group of Mexican ''bandidos'' attacking the Confederate camp, with Thomas' former Union Army troopers saving the day. Col. Langdon thanks the Northerners by inviting them to celebrate at a

Fourth of July Independence Day, known colloquially as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing th ...

party - "Southern style". However, the former soldiers soon relive the war when a fight breaks out. They then split and go their separate ways. Meanwhile, Langdon's daughter Charlotte and Blue Boy have quickly fallen in love. When Langdon's Southern company finally reaches their destination in Durango, they find that Emperor Maximilian's forces had been chased out days earlier, replaced by ragged Mexican Republican forces of President Juárez, under General Rojas, who imprisons them. Viewing the new foreigners as potential enemies, the Juarista general holds the Southerners hostage, offering to release them in exchange for Thomas' horses. After Langdon is sent to Thomas' camp with Rojas' demands, the reluctant American cowboys agree to pay the ransom to free their brethren. On the way to Durango, Thomas and his men are confronted by French cavalry. A battle erupts with the Americans coming out victorious. Thomas and his men bring the horses to town and pay the ransom for their former enemies. The company of reunited Americans rides out of Durango to return to the USA. Trying to decide what song to listen to as they ride, the group passes over "

Dixie Dixie, also known as Dixieland or Dixie's Land, is a nickname for all or part of the Southern United States. While there is no official definition of this region (and the included areas have shifted over the years), or the extent of the area i ...

" and "

Battle Hymn of the Republic The "Battle Hymn of the Republic" is an American patriotic music, American patriotic song written by the abolitionist writer Julia Ward Howe during the American Civil War. Howe adapted her song from the soldiers' song "John Brown's Body" in N ...

" before settling on "

Yankee Doodle "Yankee Doodle" is a traditional song and nursery rhyme, the early versions of which predate the Seven Years' War and American Revolutionary War. It is often sung patriotically in the United States today. It is the state song of the U.S. ...

". Charlotte and Blue Boy are seen as a couple, while both Thomas and Langdon laugh at how the Confederate colonel's daughter has cut Blue Boy's hair.

Cast

Production

The original script was by Stanley Hough and

Casey Robinson Kenneth Casey Robinson (October 17, 1903 – December 6, 1979) was an American producer and director of mostly B movies and a screenwriter responsible for some of Bette Davis' most revered films. Film critic Richard Corliss once described him as ...

, neither of whom is credited in the final film. Producer Robert Jacks bought the script and proposed the project in December 1967, announcing

James Lee Barrett James Lee Barrett (November 19, 1929 – October 15, 1989) was an American author, producer and screenwriter. Biography Barrett was born in 1929 in Charlotte, North Carolina and graduated in 1950 from Anderson University (South Carolina). ...

would do the final script rewriting. In May 1968, Jacks announced the film would be made through

20th Century-Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film production and distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Com ...

Film Corporation (motion pictures studios) .

Andrew McLaglen Andrew Victor McLaglen (July 28, 1920 – August 30, 2014) was a British-born American film and television director, known for Westerns and adventure films, often starring John Wayne or James Stewart. According to one obituary "His career in m ...

signed to direct as the first of a two-picture deal with 20th Century-Fox. In August 1968, John Wayne agreed to star. The following month,

signed to co-star. The stunt coordinator was

Hal Needham Hal Brett Needham (March 6, 1931 – October 25, 2013) was an American Stunt performer, stuntman, film director, actor, writer, and NASCAR team owner. He is best known for his frequent collaborations with actor Burt Reynolds, usually in film ...

, later a film director. According to Rock Hudson's partner Marc Christian, John Wayne started out picking on Hudson during filming, but the two men became friends. In Mark Griffin's biography of Hudson, ''All that Heaven Allows'', Wayne is shown to have initially started to "direct" Hudson, constantly suggesting what he should do on camera. When Hudson began to do the same to Wayne, Wayne pointed his finger at Hudson and said, "I like you." The suggestions stopped, and the two men became frequent partners in chess and bridge. Filming took place in

Sierra de Órganos National Park Sierra de Órganos National Park (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Parque Nacional Sierra de Órganos'') is a national park in Mexico, located in the northwest corner of the municipality of Sombrerete in the state of Zacatecas, near the border with ...

, near the town of

Sombrerete Sombrerete () is a town and Municipalities of Zacatecas, municipality located in the northwest region of the Mexico, Mexican state of Zacatecas. It was founded in 1555 by Spanish conquistador Juan de Tolosa as a mining center. Due to the wealth th ...

Zacatecas Zacatecas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Zacatecas, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 31 states of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Zacatecas, 58 municipalities and its capital city is Zacatecas City, Zacatec ...

Reception

Box office

The film earned $4.5 million dollars in rentals in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. According to 20th Century-Fox studio records, the film required $12,425,000 in rentals to break even, but by December 11, 1970, the film had made only $8,775,000, which resulted in a loss at first for the movie studio (in the short run / initial period of the one cited year (November 1969-December 1970) after its theatrical release in November 27, 1969. In the 55 years since, it has been released on new formats, including Beta / VHS video cassette tapes, laserdiscs, broadcast / cable television rights, compact discs, and online / internet streaming etc.

Critical reviews

In the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

'', film critic

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

(1942-2013), gave the film only 2 out of 4 stars. Ebert wrote in December 1969:

Unfortunately, McLaglen is never able to draw his threads together. As in his ''
The Way West ''The Way West'' is a 1949 western novel by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1950 and became the basis for a film starring Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, and Richard Widmark. The novel is one in the sequence o ...
'' (1967), he takes a panoramic theme and then gets so close to it that we lose sight of the whole... ldpro Wayne saves a scene or two with his presence and delivery. He shelves his broken-down Rooster Cogburn image from '' True Grit'' (1969) and rides high in the saddle again.

Novelization

A novelization manuscript was written by frequent author James Myers ("Jim") Thompson (1906-1977), and released in

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, also known as wrappers, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, ...

form in 1969 by the publisher

Popular Library Popular Library is a New York paperback book company established in 1942 by Leo Margulies and Ned Pines, who at the time were major pulp magazine and newspaper publishers. The company's logo of a pine tree was a tribute to Pines, and another ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Undefeated 1969 films 1969 Western (genre) films 1960s English-language films 1960s historical adventure films 20th Century Fox films American Civil War films American historical adventure films American Western (genre) films Cherokee in popular culture Films directed by Andrew McLaglen Films set in Mississippi Films scored by Hugo Montenegro Second French intervention in Mexico films 1960s American films English-language Western (genre) films English-language historical adventure films