The Americano (1955)

A rancher (Glenn Ford) travels to Brazil to deliver a valuable cargo of Brahma bulls to a Brazilian rancher only to find he has been murdered. But before he can return home, he finds himself caught up in a war between a rapacious land grabber (Frank Lovejoy) and a woman rancher (Ursula Thiess) trying to keep her land from being taken over. Glenn Ford was quite the busy thespian in 1955. THE AMERICANO was one of five movies he had released in 1955 but unlike the other four which were "A" list MGM productions, this was a "B" programmer distributed by RKO. Its director William Castle would go on in a few years to acquire a reputation as a horror director with films like HOMICIDAL and STRAIT JACKET. As for the film itself, it's a serviceable fish out of water western that goes through its predictable paces with some exotic touches like man eating piranhas, jungle pythons and Abbe Lane stopping the movie cold to sing and bump and grind, her number supervised by then husband Xavier Cugat. But even for a "B" movie, the ending feels slipshod. With Cesar Romero, who steals the movie as a cigar loving bandit.