The Tony Franciosa character in Rio Conchos: So Charsimatic, So Troublesome

I'm on record a bunch of places around here (The Kremlin Letter, Big Jake, Hombre, The Shootist) about how great an actor I think Richard Boone was. John Wayne peaked higher and bigger than Boone, but Boone delivered his own brand of rough charisma with a great speaking voice.

I come here to note a "guilty pleasure movie" of mine where yet another unsung actor gave Boone a great foil..and generated his own brand of charisma.

Tony Franciosa also went by Anthony Franciosa. He debuted in the fifties with an Oscar nomination(A Hatful of Rain) and some prestige roles(The Long Hot Summer, A Face in the Crowd) but really got his star thing going as he aged a bit into his thirties and forties. In the sixties and seventies.

He had it all: handsome features, brilliant smile, and a smooth, resonant voice that had just a touch of Cary Grant to it(both in timbre and in phrasing.)

Franciosa became more of a TV star than a movie star, and as a TV star, he developed such a reputation for temper tantrums that he was suspended and then fired from his lead on the TV series "Name of the Game." (But that didn't stop him from landing future TV series; good actors are always sin demand.)

"Rio Conchos" is about four men sent on a mission. In a nice bit of symmetry, two of them are "Dudley Do-Right Squares"(Stuart Whitman and Jim Brown as cavalry officers) and two of them are "Cool Guy Rogues" (Richard Boone and Tony Franciosa.) And "Rio Conchos" favors the two Hip Rouges.

Thus, every scene between Richard Boone and Tony Franciosa is a gem in this movie. Boone has the uglier face, but he matches Franciosa in vocals and in macho style.

There is a thread of surprising kindness in the Boone/Franciosa relationship in Rio Conchos. Boone is presented as a bloodthirsty killer of Apaches, driven by their torture, rape and killing of his wife and daughter. He's also an ex-Rebel in conflict with Whitman's ex-Union man.

But deep within Boone, we learn, are reserves of honor and empathy. And friendship. Boone elects to save Franciosa from the hangman's rope by demanding that he join the mission. Franciosa thanks Boone and says "I am in your debt. Forever!"

And there follows the difficulty(in 2018) in hanging with Rio Conchos from 1964. For Franciosa, an Italian-American, is playing "Rodriguez" -- a Mexican complete with accent and sombrero. And Rodriguez, it turns out, is untrustworthy, "wily" --a smiling double-crosser who is almost always lying about his true intent.

But not entirely. One thing I like about "Rio Conchos" is that Rodriguez DOES, I think, really like Boone's Lassiter and DOES see Lassiter as a fellow rogue and "literal" rebel. It is only as Rodriguez learns that Lassiter does have a sense of duty(to the mission) over greed(giving up the money that could be earned by selling rifles not only to the Apaches, but to a crazy ex-Rebel general who wants to re-start the Civil War WITH Apaches)...that Rodriguez makes the practical move and acts to kill his "partner."

Its a great little scene where Franciosa and Boone come to realize that their friendship only goes so far, that Boone isn't the rogue he looks like, and that Franciosa IS.

Thus, Tony Franciosa "leaves" Rio Conchos(dead, regretfully killed by Boone) by the end of the second act and his charisma is sorely missed as only "Boone and the two Square Guys" complete the mission against the Apaches and the Crazy Rebel General.

I've watched Rio Conchos enough times to notice that Franciosa really has fun with Rodriguez. You LIKE this guy, you HOPE he will turn out to be OK, a good guy -- and along the way, he IS . He helps shoot and knife all manner of adversaries, he's a part of the team for as long as it suits him. You're always watching Franciosa in the frame while the other actors deliver dialogue, because you are trying to gauge just how honest he is, how committed to the team, how resilient as a member of the team. He's pretty good -- especially with a knife (in one scene, he stabs one guy, pulls out the knife and throws it into the chest of another guy being dragged by a horse, and then plucks the knife out of THAT guy as the horse drags him past.)

I'm afraid that Tony Franciosa's duplicitous character in "Rio Conchos" tracks what I've read of Franciosa in real life: that the suave, handsome, cool guy with the great voice masked a man of nasty temper and rage. (James Garner wrote that his co-star Franciosa kept REALLY punching stuntmen on their movie "A Man Could Get Killed" -- until Garner "had to pop him one.")

Its too bad. As movie and TV stars go, Franciosa had the goods, certainly in Rio Conchos. I doubt this role would "play" today. The untrustworthy Mexican? Nope. Played by an Italian-American with an accent (as when he says "Consider-a-cee-own.") Nope. Betraying the white guys AND a black guy(Jim Brown)? Nope.