- published: 17 Dec 2015
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Vera Cruz is a 1954 American Technicolor Western starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, and featuring Denise Darcel, Sara Montiel, and Cesar Romero. The movie was directed by Robert Aldrich from a story by Borden Chase. The film's amoral characters and cynical attitude toward violence (including a scene where Lancaster's character threatens to murder child hostages) were considered shocking at the time and influenced future Westerns such as The Magnificent Seven, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, and the films of Sergio Leone.
During the Franco-Mexican War, ex-Confederate soldier Ben Trane (Cooper) travels to Mexico seeking a job as a mercenary. He falls in with Joe Erin (Lancaster), a lethal gunslinger who heads a gang of cutthroats (including Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, Charles Bronson, and Archie Savage). They are recruited by Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico (George Macready) to help escort Countess Duvarre (Denise Darcel) to Vera Cruz.
Trane and Erin discover that the countess and Marquis Henri de Labordere (Cesar Romero) are secretly transporting a large cache of gold intended for the French army. All concerned, including Juarista secret agent Nina (Sara Montiel), conspire to steal it for their own purposes. Also involved in the mix is Morris Ankrum as a heroic Juarista leader.
I heard Woodrow Wilson's guns
I heard Maria crying
Late last night I heard the news
That Veracruz was dying
Veracruz was dying
Someone called Maria's name
I swear it was my father's voice
Saying, 'If you stay you'll all be slain
You must leave now - you have no choice
Take the servants and ride west
Keep the child close to your chest
When the American troops withdraw
Let Zapata take the rest'
I heard Woodrow Wilson's guns
I heard Maria calling
Saying, 'Veracruz is dying
And Cuernavaca's falling'
Aquel dia yo jure [On that day I swore]
Hacia el puerto volvere [To the port I will return]
Aunque el destino cambio mi vida [Even though destiny changed my life]
En Veracruz morire [In Veracruz I shall die]
Aquel dia yo jure [On that day I swore]
I heard Woodrow Wilson's guns
I heard them in the harbor
Saying, 'Veracruz is dying'