During the Mexican Civil War in 1866, Benjamin Trane (Gary Cooper) is one of the many soldiers of fortune and criminals wandering south to sell their services to the highest bidder. Riding alone, Trane’s horse is injured, and he offers to buy another from a man he comes across, a gunslinger with a nefarious grin named Joe Erin (Burt Lancaster, who also produced).

The men are chased by French troops bearing lancers. Erin reveals this may be due to the fact that the horse he sold to Trane belongs to the troopers. Making it to safety by jumping a ravine, the gentlemanly Trane gets the drop on Erin and takes his horse.

Trane meets up with a band of American mercenaries including Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson (billed as Charles Buchinsky) and Jack Elam, friends of Erin’s who believe the only way Trane could have taken his horse was to have shot him in the back. Erin shows up and saves Trane’s neck, learning that he’s from Louisiana and fought for the Confederacy.

A classic Mexican standoff between Juarista rebels, the mercenaries, and troops led by the Marquis de Labordere (Cesar Romero) ensues, which Erin defuses by threatening some children. He decides to sell his services to the higher paying Marquis. Escorted to Chapultepec Palace, Trane and Erin prove their worth to the Archduke Maximilian by shooting out torch flames with a Winchester.

The Marquis hires them to help escort the Countess Duvare (Denise Darcel) through rebel territory to the port of Vera Cruz. Trane and Erin compete for the French lady’s affection, then forget about romance when they discover her carriage holds $3 million in gold coin. Maximilian intends to use the booty to buy more fighters, but the Countess has schemed to sail away with the gold herself. Double crosses, ambushes and more shootouts ensue.

Directed by Robert Aldrich, written by Borden Chase and Roland Kibbee and James Webb, Vera Cruz was one of the first major Hollywood pictures to be shot fully in Mexico. It was a hit at the box office, but Mexican officials were not happy about it, possibly due to the fact that the Mexican characters with dialogue – save Sarita Montiel as a pickpocket who catches Trane’s eye – were all played by gringos.

Some consider Vera Cruz to be a forerunner of the spaghetti-styled western. The film is cut fairly quickly for something made in the 1950s, and at 94 minutes, moves at a clip. The body count was also deemed excessive at the time, but so were most action films or westerns being made during the death rattle of the Hays Code.

The story, and the presence of Borgnine and Bronson as supporting heavies, makes this sound a lot better than it really is. Cooper is so laid back that a few of his line readings feel like they’re being read off cue cards. He generally doesn’t seem with it. Lancaster has a Han Solo vibe early on, and his mercenary cynicism was a departure for the genre, but he carries on to the point of camp, flashing his pearly whites way too often.

Aldrich does turn in an entertaining buddy action flick. Hugo Friedhofer’s musical score is thunderous. I liked the Mexican standoff, as well as a bit where Lancaster dispatches a rival with a behind the back quick draw. Sarita Montiel gives a firecracker performance with what screen time she’s afforded. Denise Darcel however, has no chemistry with anyone. And the massacre that ends the movie is absolutely ridiculous. If this was an early run at a spaghetti western, I’d call it a scrimmage.