Valdez Is Coming (1971)

VALDEZ IS COMING  (1971)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Edwin Sherin
    Burt Lancaster, Susan Clark, Jon Cypher,
    Frank Silvera, Richard Jordan, Barton Heyman
This isn't really a spaghetti western, though it was shot in the same part of Spain where Sergio Leone made his movies with Clint Eastwood. Burt Lancaster's company produced it, and it stars Burt as a town constable (and retired Army sharpshooter) with a sense of justice that's not always welcome on the frontier. It's based on a novel by Elmore Leonard, and as with Lancaster's other early-'70s westerns ("Lawman" and "Ulzana's Raid"), it's the moral implications that give it an edge. Burt's miscast as a Mexican, but the movie's a good one, and the ending's not what you'd expect.