Odyssey of Vengeance

Nevada Smith is an excerpt from The Carpetbaggers, blown into a widescreen western roomy enough to accommodate some of the sex and violence missing from the first, expurgated movie version of Harold Robbins' bestseller. Turning a thankless bit part created by the late Alan Ladd into a title role for Steve McQueen, Nevada follows a half-breed boy on an odyssey of vengeance in pursuit of three professional gunmen who murdered his white father, raped and skinned his Indian mother.

McQueen appears to have spilled the last of his Indian blood before the cam eras began turning. Tightly wound, unmistakably modern, he looks as if he would be more at home in the saddle of a Harley-Davidson than on a horse. He lends presence but not substance to the simple, single-minded character written by Scenarist John Michael Hayes.

Veteran Director Henry Hathaway delivers every shock of the linear plot without striving for subtlety. Among the sweaty stereotypes encountered, Brian Keith rings true as an amiable peddler who teaches young Nevada how to shoot. Keith warns the lad to give up his search for the killers, or "root with them in the garbage." Nevada prefers to root, and finds plenty of raw material. A winsome Kiowa Indian prostitute (Janet Margolin) and a Cajun slattern (Suzanne Pleshette) lend immoral support before he finally corners and cripples the third and last gunman (Karl Maiden) after joining his band of cutthroats. Nevada Smith unreels in refulgent color against a sweep of rocky crags and sagebrush more magnificent than usual, as though Cinematographer Lucien Ballard had tried to fill the back ground with something that might endure longer than the coarse-grained melodrama up front.

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