It's difficult to figure out who was the target audience for this one. Robert Rossen has definitely helmed some fine celluloid in his time but this doesn't add lustre to his reputation. It's a sort of Debating Society meets Moral Dilemma. Because of its setting we are entitled to expect a Western with the usual quota of fist-fights, gunplay and shoot-outs instead we get Sartre. In a nutshell the US government need some positive PR on the ongoing Mexican 'problem' (it's 1916) so they tap Gary Cooper to find five soldiers on who they can lay the medal of honor. He finds five possibles and lights out for Cordura with Rita Hayworth in tow; she's there because she opened her house to undesirables. Naturally on the journey he discovers that none of the five is as simon-pure as he thought. And that's about it.
Review of They Came to Cordura
