The Proud and Damned

In 1870, ex-Confederate mercenaries and American Civil War veterans Sgt. Will Hansen (Chuck Connors), Ike (Aron Kincaid), Hank (Henry Caps), Jeb (Smokey Robards), and Billy (Peter Ford) have just emigrated from their home state of Texas to Colombia in South America. After their arrival, they are ambushed by Colombian soldiers who force them to come meet General Martinez, the evil, cold-hearted dictator of their country. Martinez sends them to San Carlos, a town where rebel forces are preparing to start a civil war against Martinez's army. The Texans are instructed to live among the rebels, and report back to Martinez what they know within the next couple of days. Martinez warns them that they'll be severely punished if they fail him.

The next day, while on their way to San Carlos, Will's gang runs into a gypsy family who are on their way to the same town. Will escorts them after he and the gypsies' daughter, Mila, fall in love at first sight. They all ride into San Carlos, meet the governor, and rent a cabin outside of town. Will and Mila sneak out that night and make love. Mila's father is angry when he hears of this, and slices her cheek. When Will finds out about this, he shoots Mila's father.

Being from famously rebellious Texas, Will's gang finds itself in sympathy with the San Carlos rebels. Will and his gang disobey Martinez's orders and don't report back to him, so Martinez kidnaps Will and hangs him. Will's friends find his body, give him a funeral, and vow to avenge his murder. They join the rebels in a battle with Martinez's army and drive them back. They later ambush Martinez and the rest of his surviving soldiers in a canyon, joined by the rebel army's captain. They manage to kill Martinez, but all are gunned down by his soldiers except for Billy, who was unconscious after falling from his horse. The film ends with Billy riding off into the sunset.

• Chuck Connors as Will Hansen
• Aron Kincaid as Ike
• Cesar Romero as San Carlos' Mayor
• José Greco as Ramon (the gypsy)
• Smokey Roberds as Jeb
• Henry Capps as Hank
• Peter Ford as Billy
• Andres Marquis as Gen. Alehandro Martinez
• Conrad Parham as Capt. Juan Hernandez (the mayor's nephew)
• Maria Grimm as Maria Vargas
• Nana Lorca as Carmela (the dancer)
• Anita Quinn as Mila (Hansen's gypsy girlfriend)
• Álvaro Ruiz as Chico
• Pacheco as Lieutenant
• Ignacio Gómez as Padre
• Ernesto Uribe as Aide
• Rey Vásquez as Innkeeper
• Bernardo Herrera as Rollo

With a working title of The Proud, Damned and Dead, the production was filmed in 1969 in Villa de Leyva, Colombia. The film was unusual for a Ferde Grofe production in that it was his first feature film production outside of the Philippines (not including the American International Pictures pictures High School Hellcats and Hot Rod Gang from which he had his name removed from their credits), and secondly that there was no pre-sale - the production was a huge financial gamble for him. George Montgomery is credited as a co-producer by virtue putting up $125,000 for Chuck Connors pay. Grofe was concerned about what he had heard of Connors' on-set reputation and insisted that Connors payment be placed in escrow and payment only made upon satisfactory completion of the film. In addition to the film's main stars, three smaller roles were filled by actors who would later appear in The Day of the Wolves: Andres Marquis, Smokey Roberds and Henry Capps.

Grofe was unable to distribute the film through his usual industry channels, and it would take another three years to sell the film to the Texan entity that eventually distributed the film. George Montgomery threatened to sue Grofe for the return of his funds once it became clear that there was no immediate film sale.

• List of American films of 1972

• The Proud and Damned on IMDb
• The Proud and Damned is available for free download at the Internet Archive