''Chino'' (

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

: ''Valdez, il mezzosangue'', UK theatrical title: ''Valdez the Half Breed'') is a 1973

Western film The Western is a film genre defined by the American Film Institute as films which are "set in the American West that mbodythe spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier." Generally set in the American frontier between the Calif ...

starring

Charles Bronson Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor. He was known for his roles in action films and his "granite features and brawny physique". Bronson was born into extreme poverty in ...

Jill Ireland Jill Dorothy Ireland (24 April 1936 – 18 May 1990) was an English actress and singer. Early life Ireland was born in Hounslow, South West London, England. She was the daughter of a wine importer. She was educated at Chatsworth Junior School i ...

, Marcel Bozzuffi, and Vincent Van Patten. The original English language title shown at the beginning of the film was ''The Valdez Horses'', the same title as the 1967 novel by Lee Hoffman on which the movie is based. Hoffman was awarded the 1967 Western Writers of America Spur Award. It was an Italian-Spanish-French co-production filmed in Spain, with Italian and French funding.

Plot

Chino Valdez (Bronson) is a lonely horse breeder, whose life is thrown into turmoil when a young runaway (Van Patten) turns up at his door looking for work and, later, he falls in love with a beautiful woman (Ireland) whose brother (Bozzuffi) hates him.

Cast

Production

Director John Sturges was unhappy with the finished film and considered the casting of Jill Ireland a fatal mistake. Six months after finishing the movie, Producer Dino De Laurentiis gathered the actors and crew to return for re-shoots and inserts. With Sturges no longer available, veteran Italian director Duilio Coletti was hired to complete the work. His name is listed as director on some European prints as a result.

Reception

Critical response

'' Time Out'' magazine said of the film, "Bronson suffers from galloping symbolism as Valdez, a wild horse-taming Mexican halfbreed representing different things to different people. Overall, he is the mustang, caught in a wild West which is being tamed and fenced in by white settlers... Despite a few dodgy moments when one really fears for Valdez' co-optability by Ireland's well-kept fragility, the film maintains its contradictory stance right through to a bitter-sweet ending. Valdez leaves, sans wife, sans house, but on his own terms, and after ensuring that if he can not tame the wild horses no one else will.''TimeOut''
Staff film review, no date. Accessed: June 22, 2013.

References

External links

''Chino''
at Peter Rodgers Organization * *

informational site
''Chino''
at the Spaghetti Western Database {{John Sturges 1973 films Films directed by John Sturges Italian independent films Spaghetti Western films Films based on American novels Films based on Western (genre) novels French independent films Spanish independent films Films scored by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis Films produced by Dino De Laurentiis Films shot in Almería English-language French films English-language Italian films English-language Spanish films 1970s English-language films 1970s Italian films 1970s French films