Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

ksf-2 Alan Ladd, Lloyd Nolan, and Chill Wills star in this adventure where a bunch of mercenary americans try to make money by selling guns to the Cubans trying to gain their independence. Rossana Podestà is the token female, standing up for her homeland, caught up in all this. Nolan is "Pike", strutting and bragging the whole time. Most of the film is about just trying to get the guns to the island... it's a bit hokey, over-acting and hamming it up for the camera. and having the girl's little brother Juanito tag along is just silly, clearly a gimmick to tug on the heart strings. This one was nearing the end of the line for Alan Ladd; he had started as talkies were getting going. Directed by Gordon Douglas. According to wikipedia , he had started with Hal Roach in the early days, and moved up quickly. Check out Douglas' resume.. he sure directed some big films. This one is okay.. not great, but certainly entertaining. and includes talk of the U.S. ship Maine, which was sunk at Cuba in 1898. later floated and re-sunk off Florida 1912. interesting stuff.

MartinHafer Later in his career, the quality in most of Alan Ladd's films dropped dramatically. Surprisingly, after his terrific performance in "Shane", it was all downhill from there...and "Santiago" is as downhill as you can go!The film is set in the late 19th century--just before the Spanish- American War. Two groups of gun-runners are trying to outmaneuver each other and take advantage of trouble brewing in Cuba. While neither guy in charge cares about the revolution, one is comic book bad (Lloyd Nolan) and his character has no depth whatsoever. Heck, had they had Bluto from the Popeye cartoons play the guy, it would have been just as realistic. As for the other, it's played by Ladd and his character is very inconsistent throughout the film--going from selfish and greedy to selfless and kind!! None of this makes any sense and it's made worse by a very weak and uninteresting script and a love interest who is less appealing than a sheep. All in all, Ladd deserved better...and you can do better.

dbdumonteil The problem is that the heroes are supposedly fighting for the Cuban cause (against the Spanish invaders) but Cuba fell into American hands the same year;it would have been acceptable if Cash had remained an arms dealer ,just working for .....cash;but he tries to redeem himself,he's got a high moral conscience :he was a military man and he could never get over his shame,his demotion.His sense of honor is still intact and when he meets the beautiful Isabella,the rebels' Passionaria ,he is ripe for rehabilitation.If you forget history-and the "cultural"lines at the beginning-you have a watchable adventures movie which begins as a western ,continues as some kind of pirate tale and ends with a long walk through the jungle.As for Ladd,he did much worse than that :" guns of the Timberland" and mainly "Orazio e Curiazo " in which he plays like a zombie.

vitaleralphlouis It's not easy to explain what went wrong with SANTIAGO. It has a basic good story, a top-level cast, and an experienced director; yet it lies virtually flat as a pancake as it unravels on screen. It suffers a serious failure to involve the audience in either the adventure or the romance.This picture was made by Alan Ladd's production company. To Ladd's credit it's next to impossible to see this picture. Never issued in VHS or DVD, never re-issued, difficult to ever find a listing on eBay.Leave this one alone and seek out Iron Mistress, Boy on a Dolphin, or two dozen other very good films starring Alan Ladd.