Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)
114 mins | Western | 28 May 1970
Director:
Don SiegelWriters:
Albert Maltz, Budd BoetticherProducers:
Martin Rackin, Carroll CaseCinematographer:
Gabriel FigueroaEditor:
Robert F. ShugrueProduction Designer:
José Rodriguez GranadaProduction Companies:
The Malpaso Company, Universal Pictures , Sanen ProductionsTwo Mules for Sister Sara was Albert Maltz’s first credited theatrical screenplay since The Naked City in 1948 (see entry). In Nov 1947, he was blacklisted as one of the original “Hollywood Ten.”
Actor James Garner and producer Aaron Rosenberg planned to make Two Mules for Sister Sara in the fall of 1966, according to the 21 Sep 1966 DV, but neither man stayed with the project. Budd Boetticher, who wrote the original story, sold it to Rosenberg and producer Carroll Case on 20 Oct 1966, with the agreed understanding that he would direct, the 24 Dec 1968 DV noted. However, when Rosenberg withdrew from the project and Case teamed with producer Martin Rackin and Universal Pictures, Don Siegel was hired to direct instead. Boetticher sued Case, rescinding the original contract.
Principal photography began 3 Feb 1969 in the Mexican state of Morelos, near the town of Cocoyoc, thirty miles from Cuernavaca, according to a production chart in the 7 Feb 1969 DV and an on-set article from the 6 Apr 1969 LAT. At the time of the reporter’s visit, the company was six weeks into the production and had four more weeks to go, before moving to Mexico City, Mexico, for three days of shooting interiors. The 12 Feb 1969 DV noted that the film was being shot in sequence, and that actress Shirley MacLaine’s nude, attempted rape scene at the beginning of the story had already been shot. Filming fell a few days behind because she later contracted pneumonia and flew to Los Angeles, CA, to recuperate. The $4.5 million budget ...
Two Mules for Sister Sara was Albert Maltz’s first credited theatrical screenplay since The Naked City in 1948 (see entry). In Nov 1947, he was blacklisted as one of the original “Hollywood Ten.”
Actor James Garner and producer Aaron Rosenberg planned to make Two Mules for Sister Sara in the fall of 1966, according to the 21 Sep 1966 DV, but neither man stayed with the project. Budd Boetticher, who wrote the original story, sold it to Rosenberg and producer Carroll Case on 20 Oct 1966, with the agreed understanding that he would direct, the 24 Dec 1968 DV noted. However, when Rosenberg withdrew from the project and Case teamed with producer Martin Rackin and Universal Pictures, Don Siegel was hired to direct instead. Boetticher sued Case, rescinding the original contract.
Principal photography began 3 Feb 1969 in the Mexican state of Morelos, near the town of Cocoyoc, thirty miles from Cuernavaca, according to a production chart in the 7 Feb 1969 DV and an on-set article from the 6 Apr 1969 LAT. At the time of the reporter’s visit, the company was six weeks into the production and had four more weeks to go, before moving to Mexico City, Mexico, for three days of shooting interiors. The 12 Feb 1969 DV noted that the film was being shot in sequence, and that actress Shirley MacLaine’s nude, attempted rape scene at the beginning of the story had already been shot. Filming fell a few days behind because she later contracted pneumonia and flew to Los Angeles, CA, to recuperate. The $4.5 million budget was expected to grow to $5 million. Filming ended in mid-May 1969.
The film became a U.S.-Mexican production during filming when Universal Pictures signed a deal with Sanen Productions of Mexico, the 23 Apr 1969 Var reported. Sanen contributed $500,000 to the budget. Martin Rackin took only sixteen American “hand-picked key personnel” to Mexico to film Two Mules for Sister Sara, including stars MacLaine and Clint Eastwood, and relied on local actors and technicians, including director of photography Gabriel Figueroa. Rackin told the 10 Sep 1969 DV that 1,100 Mexicans worked on the film.
Copyright records list the film's running time as 105 minutes.
While three men in the Mexican desert strip the clothes off a woman and attempt to rape her, Hogan, a gunfighter, arrives on horseback and shoots the trio to death. Hogan himself finds the disrobed victim attractive, but he is shocked to learn that she is Sister Sara, a nun involved in the Mexican revolutionary movement against the French. He agrees to take her to the revolutionaries' camp and promises to help them attack the French garrison at Chihuahua if they offer him enough money. En route Hogan is surprised to find Sara smoking a cigar and sneaking a drink of whiskey. Later, near the revolutionaries' camp in Santa María, Hogan attempts to dynamite a French ammunition train, but he is hit in the shoulder by a Yaqui Indian's arrow. After Sara bandages his wound, she climbs a high train trestle to place the dynamite and then sets off the explosion by firing a rifle into the charge. When they arrive at the rebel camp, Sara astonishes Hogan by disclosing that she is actually a prostitute with an intimate knowledge of the French fort, the revolutionaries' major military objective. They devise a plan for Hogan to take Sara to the fort as a prisoner in order to gain the confidence of the French soldiers so that the gates will be opened for the Mexicans. The plan succeeds, and the fort is captured after a bloody battle; Hogan and Sara take their share of the spoils and ...
While three men in the Mexican desert strip the clothes off a woman and attempt to rape her, Hogan, a gunfighter, arrives on horseback and shoots the trio to death. Hogan himself finds the disrobed victim attractive, but he is shocked to learn that she is Sister Sara, a nun involved in the Mexican revolutionary movement against the French. He agrees to take her to the revolutionaries' camp and promises to help them attack the French garrison at Chihuahua if they offer him enough money. En route Hogan is surprised to find Sara smoking a cigar and sneaking a drink of whiskey. Later, near the revolutionaries' camp in Santa María, Hogan attempts to dynamite a French ammunition train, but he is hit in the shoulder by a Yaqui Indian's arrow. After Sara bandages his wound, she climbs a high train trestle to place the dynamite and then sets off the explosion by firing a rifle into the charge. When they arrive at the rebel camp, Sara astonishes Hogan by disclosing that she is actually a prostitute with an intimate knowledge of the French fort, the revolutionaries' major military objective. They devise a plan for Hogan to take Sara to the fort as a prisoner in order to gain the confidence of the French soldiers so that the gates will be opened for the Mexicans. The plan succeeds, and the fort is captured after a bloody battle; Hogan and Sara take their share of the spoils and depart.
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