JOE KIDD
Directed by JOHN STURGES Screenplay by ELMORE LEONARD
For the first time in movie history, Clint Eastwood wears a derby.
Other than that, it's business pretty much as usual in Joe Kidd, a leisurely Eastwood western in which the star is presumably recuperating from the rigors of his recent Dirty Harry and Play Misty for Me. In the title role, Eastwood is the leading maverick of Sinola, N. Mex., a town in the grip of a land war between the Anglo settlers and disgruntled Mexicans, led by a firebrand named Luis Chama (John Saxon).
When Chama roughs up one of his hired hands,...