Mackenna’s Gold is a 1969 western film directed by J. Lee Thompson, starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif and Camilla Sparv. It tells the story of how the lure of gold corrupts a diverse group of people.
The film was photographed in Super Panavision 70 by Joseph MacDonald, with original music by Quincy Jones. The story is very loosely based around the legend of the Lost Adams Diggings.
Theme song
The opening song, “Old Turkey Buzzard”, is a recurring background theme. It was sung by José Feliciano and was composed by Quincy Jones with lyrics by Freddie Douglas.
The theme was used on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2007 as a random running gag. A 13-second clip would be played after Letterman threw his blue index cards through the “glass” window behind his desk, and was often combined with a video clip of the turkey buzzard soaring in the sky during the movie’s opening sequence. Letterman would gradually show increased mock irritation with the clip in discussions with bandleader Paul Shaffer, while at the same time calling it “exciting, moving, inspirational” and “stirring, haunting, beautiful”. The running gag ultimately resulted in Feliciano making a guest appearance on the Late Show on October 16, 2007, singing a longer version of the song (with the buzzard video clip superimposed over him).
Influence
While Paramount’s 1954 film Secret of the Incas is often cited by film buffs as an inspiration for the Indiana Jones franchise of films, the 1969 Mackenna’s Gold is only occasionally recognized as a direct inspiration, even though numerous scenes in the Columbia film bear a striking resemblance in tone, structure and even art direction to scenes in the Raiders of the Lost Ark trilogy. The distinct impact of Mackenna’s Gold on the production of the Indiana Jones franchise can clearly be seen in the following:
- Both Mackenna’s Gold and Raiders of the Lost Ark use the rising sun as the all-important key to pinpointing the location of a long-hidden treasure (gold in one case, the Ark of the Covenant in another);
- In both Mackenna’s Gold and Raiders of the Lost Ark, an antagonist goes sailing off an impossibly high cliff while in hot pursuit of the main characters;
- In both MacKenna’s Gold and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, a narrow, rickety rope-and-wood suspension bridge stretching over an enormous stony gorge must be traversed by the hero;
- in both Mackenna’s Gold and Raiders of the Lost Ark (as well as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), the hero realizes the deadly danger attached to the treasure while the others realize too late;
- in both Mackenna’s Gold and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the blonde female lead is suddenly struck with an unreasonable attraction to the deadly treasure;
- in both Mackenna’s Gold and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the path to the treasure is an extremely narrow crevice in a canyon wall where a horse and rider are barely able to squeeze through;
- in both Mackenna’s Gold and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, after locating the treasure, the hero is pursued by the villain while both take turns clinging to a sheer, rocky canyon wall that leads straight down;
- in both Mackenna’s Gold and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the site of the treasure comes crashing down in an earthquake and is completely buried under rubble, presumably to be lost forever.
- In both Mackenna’s Gold and Raiders of the Lost Ark, (as well as the two following Indiana Jones films) throughout the films a map is superimposed over the action as the characters reach different points of their treasure hunt.
What sets Mackenna’s Gold apart from and the aforementioned Secret of the Incas, however, is the fact that Raiders of the Lost Ark writer George Lucas was actually on location for Mackenna’s Gold when several of its Utah scenes were being filmed in 1967. Lucas and two other film students had been chosen by Columbia Pictures to shoot short behind-the-scenes documentaries for Columbia about the making of what was to be Carl Foreman’s epic western. Lucas titled his finished product, 6-18-67.
Although many other movies in addition to Secret of the Incas have been cited as inspiration for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones series (Zorro Rides Again, Zorro’s Fighting Legion, Stagecoach, Gunga Din, Green Hell, Casablanca, China, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Valley of the Kings, Jivaro, Yojimbo, Lawrence of Arabia, etc.) Mackenna’s Gold is, by far, the most influential, not only because of the number of scenes referenced, but also because it is the only movie of the group that is actually contemporaneous with Lucas and Spielberg as filmmakers.
Cast
- Gregory Peck as Marshal MacKenna
- Omar Sharif as Colorado
- Camilla Sparv as Inga Bergmann
- Julie Newmar as Hesh-Ke
- Ted Cassidy as Hachita
- Telly Savalas as Sgt. Tibbs
- Eli Wallach as Ben Baker
- Edward G. Robinson as Old Adams
- Robert Phillips as Monkey
- Raymond Massey as The Preacher
- Burgess Meredith as The Storekeeper
- Keenan Wynn as Sanchez
- Eduardo Ciannelli as Prairie Dog
- Lee J. Cobb as The Editor
