THE PROFESSIONALS opens in New York.Written and directed by Richard Brooks, from the novel A Mule for the Marquesa by Frank O'Rourke, Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan and Woody Strode star as four elite mercenaries hired by a wealthy rancher (Ralph Bellamy) to rescue his wife (the pulchritudinous Claudia Cardinale) who has been kidnapped by a Mexian bandido. With Jack Palance. One of the great underappreciated Westerns.