MACKENNA'S GOLD (1969) **1/2 Never regains the heights of the opening credits' aerial shots of the canyons and the very silly song, but there's a lot to like about it. J. Lee Thompson shoots a movie that looks great in every single frame, and executes the equivalent of spectacular guitar solos with his splicing machine during the action sequences. Omar Sharif is even more entertaining and impressive as the bad guy than Gregory Peck as the good guy, but ain't that some sort of prejudice of the medium, and they're both real good. Then there are all these cool actors around the periphery: Keenan Wynn, Burgess Meredith, Eli Wallach, Edward G. Robinson, Raymond Massey...the casting is great but slightly whacked, to match the film well. Julie Newmar (the greatest tv Catwoman) never has enough room to begin flexing her substantial artistic muscles in a role as a jealous Indian, but she fits as much into the role as it'll take and some of her physical humor suggests that they may have had to calm her down from running off with.or from.the picture. And then again, Quincy Jones probably isn't the first guy most of us would think of to write music for a western, but he does a fine job, too.
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