|
Written and directed by Richard Brooks, from the novel A Mule for the Marquesa by Frank O'Rourke, The Professionals opens in New York. Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan and Woody Strode star as four mercenaries hired by a wealthy rancher (Ralph Bellamy) to rescue his allegedly kidnapped wife (the pulchritudinous Claudia Cardinale) from the clutches of a revolutionary turned bandit (Jack Palance) hiding out in the badlands of Mexico. One of the great classic Westerns on par with Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch.
