Can you imagine Telly Savalas as historical Mexican figure Pancho Villa? Neither could I. This 1972 Spanish production had a quartet of American actors and the rest of the cast was Spanish. In addition to Savalas, the film also starred Anne Francis, Clint Walker, and Chuck Connors.
They accounted for Savalas’ bald head early in the picture. He was a prisoner due for execution the next day being transported on a train and a Mexican general wanted him to look like a convict. Along comes American gunrunner Scotty(Walker), dressed like a sea captain in pea coat and hat with an anchor emblem on the front, on an engine pushing a flat car loaded with Villa’s men from behind and rescues him. He likes the new look, thinking he looks professorial.
They had to be making a comedy here. If not, they failed miserably with one of the oddest things I’ve seen in a long while. The overacting reached new heights in ridiculousness. What it looked like was that the four American actors lent their names strictly for a paycheck. All of them had done much better work both before and after this terrible little film.
PANCHO VILLA shows a new version of why Villa raided the New Mexican town of Columbus and killed a number of soldiers and civilians. His gunrunner friend, Scotty, had gone to buy weapons and been double-crossed by a dealer named McDermott.
Anne Francis plays Flo, Scotty’s wife, and the pair seem to hate each other. In a scene with Savalas, both have conflicting stories of how they ended up together.
Chuck Connors plays spit-and-polish Colonel Wilcox, an insane officer who commands the American garrison at Columbus. He wants everything by the manual at the expense of efficiency and there’s one ridiculous scene in the mess hall where he has all his officers pursuing one lone fly, destroying the whole room in doing it. His bug-eyed expression says it all.
The final sequence has two trains rushing at each other on a single track, Savalas in the engine of one, Connors on the other, both exhorting full speed ahead. Both come together, then stop, the picture frozen. Next, the wreckage all around. Savalas is not shown bailing out, but proudly riding to his doom.
Next Connors, in full body cast, is receiving a medal for his heroic actions from Black Jack Pershing just before his pursuit of Villa into Mexico. On the train, he’s served dinner by none other than Villa himself. Right at end, he seems to recognize the Mexican leader and allows him to leave,
An altogether silly movie that is good for maybe one viewing, But no more.
Not The Baseball Pitcher 
I think I have seen this. Or parts of it. I remember the Chuck Connors stuff. definitely of the bizarro persuasion.