Blue * (1968, Terence Stamp, Joanna Pettet, Karl Malden, Ricardo Montalban) – Classic Movie Review 6,498

Terence Stamp stars as Mexican bandit Ricardo Montalban’s adopted son, In the truly odd 1968 Western film Blue, with Joanna Pettet as the settler he saves.

Director Silvio Narizzano’s weird American version of the spaghetti Western is a very typical product of its extravagant 1968 era – and one of its many flops. Blue stars Terence Stamp, Joanna Pettet, Karl Malden, Ricardo Montalbán, and Stathis Giallelis.

In this truly odd Western, Terence Stamp is well cast in only one respect – his blue eyes referred to in the title – as a Mexican bandit’s adopted son Azul (which means Blue) who fights his foster father Ortega (Ricardo Montalban) when his gang mounts violent raids on American border towns.

 Ortega has three sons, Xavier (Carlos East), Manuel (Stathis Giallelis) and Antonio (Robert Lipton) plus Azul. Antonio is fatally shot while attacking Texas settlers. Azul fatally shoots Manuel while he attempts to rape Joanne Morton (Joanna Pettet) but one of the settlers shoots Azul.

After Joanne tells her father Doc Morton (Karl Malden) that Azul saved her, they nurse him back to health in their home. Ortega finds Azul, but when Azul refuses to return home, Ortega threatens to wipe out the settlers.

It is hardly surprising then that an uncomfortable Stamp gives a poor performance in a grandiose, ostentatiously showy, arty, unsuccessful film, which nevertheless is saved by Yakima Canutt’s exciting second unit action direction and Stanley Cortez’s striking Technicolor and Panavision anamorphic cinematography on lovely Utah locations.

Also in the cast are Joe DeSantis, Sally Kirkland, James Westerfield, Carlos East, Sara Vardi, Robert Lipton, Anthony Costello, Kevin Corcoran, Stathis Giallelis, Helen Kleeb, Dorothy Konrad, Peggy Lipton, Michael Bell, Joe De Santis, and Jerry Gatlin.

It was released by Paramount Pictures on May 10, 1968.

Blue is directed by Silvio Narizzano, runs 113 minutes, is made by Kettledrum Productions, is released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Meade Roberts and Ronald M Cohen, based on Cohen’s original story, produced by Judd Bernard and Irwin Winkler, and scored by Manos Hadjidakis [Manos Hatzidakis], with Art Direction by Albert Brenner, Hal Pereira and Al Roelofs.

Director Narizzano produced Burt Reynolds’s Fade-In (1968) on the same Utah locations using the shooting of Blue as a background.

It was the last film for 40 years of Disney child star Kevin Corcoran, then 19, until his final film It Starts with Murder! (2009). He died of cancer on October 6, 2015, aged 66.

Stamp eventually made another Western – Young Guns in 1988.

Shooting took place at Professor Valley, Sevenmile Canyon, Long Valley, Kane Creek Road, the Sand Flats, La Sal Mountains, and the Klondike Flats in Utah.

Terence Henry Stamp (22 July 1938 – 17 August 2025) 

Terence Henry Stamp is best remembered for Billy Budd, The Collector, Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), Poor Cow (1967), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema (1968), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) and The Limey (1999).

Joanna Pettet (born Joanna Jane Salmon; 16 November 1942 – 7 July 2026)

Joanna Pettet was cast in the 1966 adaptation of Mary McCarthy’s novel The Group in 1966, followed by The Night of the Generals (1967), Mata Bond in the James Bond spoof Casino Royale (1967), Robbery (1967), Blue (1968), and The Best House in London (1969), as well as the cult horror films Welcome to Arrow Beach (1974) and The Evil (1978).

Pettet was born in London, brought up in Montréal where she was adopted by her stepfather and took his surname, and moved to New York City when she was 16.

Her only child Damien Zach died aged 26 on July 7 1995, Though his biological father was Terence Stamp, he was given the surname Cord after she married American actor Alex Cord in 1968 shortly before his birth. Pettet and Cord divorced in 1989.

She retired from acting in 1990.

She had lunch at the home of Sharon Tate, just hours before the attack by members of the Manson Family on 8 August 1969.

The cast

The cast are Terence Stamp as Azul [Blue], Joanna Pettet as Joanne Morton, Karl Malden as Doc Morton, Ricardo Montalbán as Ortega, Anthony Costello as Jess Parker, Joe De Santis as Carlos, James Westerfield as Abe Parker, Stathis Giallelis as Manuel, Carlos East as Xavier, Sara Vardi as Inez, Robert Lipton as Antonio, Kevin Corcoran as Rory Calvin, Ivalou Redd as Helen Buchanan, Dorothy Conrad as Alma Wishoff, Helen Kleeb as Elizabeth Parker, Michael Bell as Jim Benton, Wes Bishop as Settler, Marian Mason as Mrs Kramer, Alma Beltran as Cantina Proprietress, Sally Kirkland as Sara Lambert, Peggy Lipton as Laurie Kramer, Jerry Gatlin as Wes Lambert, William Shannon as Police Chief, Michael Nader as Mexican Assassin.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6,498

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