The professionals

Not so much a Magnificent Seven, not a Dirty Dozen but more a filthy four - The Professionals (1966) is an Oscar nominated western from director, Richard Brooks who also penned the excellent screenplay from the novel by Frank O'Rourke.

The title sequence shows us the four main characters, each a specialist in their own field, in action and then we follow them as they come together after being hired by a wealthy Texas oil baron to recover his wife who has been kidnapped by Mexican Jesus Raza, played brilliantly by Jack Palance. I won't give too much of the plot away but I will say, all is not what it seems.

Lee Marvin is marvellously stoic as the leader of our intrepid four but it is Burt Lancaster, as the womanising Bil Dolworth who gets all the best lines and scenes. Robert Ryan is also excellent as the horse wrangler and Woody Strode is superb as the negro with Apache tracking skills.

The DVD print on the special edition DVD is excellent and it should be watched in wide- screen if possible. On a good quality home cinema set up the disc really shines and although the sound is nothing special, it is adequate for a film of this period.