The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven. The first three are easy – baldy Brynner the leader, stone-face Bronson and Great Escape McQueen. Next two are pretty easy too – James Coburn, he’s in loads, and Man from Uncle Robert Vaughn.

So I rattle these names off and the old fella’s smiling. And then I tell him the next two, the two that everyone struggles with.

One of them is no problem – Brad Dexter, my surname’s Dexter, and I give the old fella the name. His Muppet eyebrows inch upwards.

And then the last name, the one that did for me at the pub quiz – Horst Bucholz, Horst flaming Bucholz.

I’d never heard of him until that quiz, but when I heard the answer, I wrote it down. The next day I bought the film and concentrated on him. I was determined to remember what he looked like.

So when the old fella said, ‘You know, Horst was my brother,’ I didn’t totally dismiss it as old man pub drivel because there was something familiar about his face.

Otto was the old fella’s name. He’d come over here as a mining engineer in the Seventies, met a Salford girl and settled down. Why couldn’t he be Horst’s brother?

Otto leaned towards me: ‘You know I was on the set, the set of The Magnificent Seven.’

‘Really! What was that like?’ I asked.

‘Hot like you wouldn’t believe,’ he said.

‘Did you meet any of the other actors?’ I asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Who?’

‘Brynner.’

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