Breakheart Pass (1975)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Tom Gries

Writers:

Alistair MacLean (novel)
Alistair MacLean (screenplay)

Release Date:

25 December 1975 (Finland)

Genre:

Western | Mystery | Crime | Action

Tagline:

Revenge Mystery Danger Ambush

Plot:

Train with medical supplies and small U.S. Army unit is heading through Rocky mountains towards plagued Fort Humboldt...

Plot Keywords:

Snow | Explosive | Conspiracy | Native American | Investigation

Cast

Charles Bronson	...	Deakin
Ben Johnson	...	Pearce
Richard Crenna	...	Governor Fairchild
Jill Ireland	...	Marica
Charles Durning	...	O'Brien
Ed Lauter	...	Major Claremont
Bill McKinney	...	Reverend Peabody
David Huddleston	...	Dr. Molyneux
Roy Jenson	...	Chris Banion
Rayford Barnes	...	Sergeant. Bellew
Scott Newman	...	Rafferty
Robert Tessier	...	Levi Calhoun
Joe Kapp	...	Henry
Archie Moore	...	Carlos
Sally Kirkland	...	Jane-Marie

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 (cut) (1975) | Finland:K-16 (uncut) (1989) | Netherlands:12 | West Germany:16 (nf) | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Camas Prairie Railroad, Lewiston, Idaho, USA

Company:

Elliott Kastner Productions

Trivia:

Legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt's final movie credit.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: In the entire movie the train is traveling up the mountain, but when we see the train running beside the river the current is moving the same direction as the train.

Quotes:

Deputy U.S. Marshal Nathan Pearce: There's more ways to pacify Indians than shootin' holes in them!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Behind the Action: Stuntmen in the Movies (2002) (TV)

Thinking that I was going to see a Western helped ...

... to add to the mystery. The film starts slow without boring the customer. We are introduced to some of the characters who will enter a military support train from Arizona(?) to Fort Humboldt, California. The train will pass only wild mountain landscape so that there is no leave. Mysterious things start to happen and we don't know what's behind, a situation roughly comparable to A LADY VANISHES from Hitchcock. So it's more a Thriller and Murder Mystery located in the Old West than a real Western. Bronson does a good job and handles the increasing action well, the other actors give some good but not great performances. The film would be better and more credible with some less mystery events and particularly less carcasses on the train. Why not dump them in the wilderness!? It must have smelled. But overall good and well shot entertainment.

Quite popular in Germany.