The Valdez Horses (aka Chino) (1973)

An isolated horse breeder (Charles Bronson) finds his life turned upside down when he mentors a young runaway (Vincent Van Patten) and falls in love with a young Englishwoman (Jill Ireland). Based on the novel by Lee Hoffman and directed by John Sturges (BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK) with additional direction by Duilio Coletti after the producer Dino De Laurentis insisted on reshoots. It's a decent enough albeit uneven western with Bronson less heroic than usual which leads to a bittersweet ending, he's defeated but he goes out on his own terms. As the callow youth, Van Patten doesn't bring much to his part and the immaturity seems more the actor than the naive boy he's playing. It's a compromised movie, it's not Sturges' vision so who knows what might have been but what's left shows the seeds of what might have been a superior western. With Marcel Bozzuffi and Ettore Manni.