after slightly over 50 year of avid film watching and i have come up with some simple rule for make good movie . 1. introduce your main character early and certainly within the first half hour 2. keep your character to a minimum . if adapt a novel and combine characteristic and action of minor character into one person 3. make sure your character action have credibility while if necessary and create additional scene to establish motivation 4. keep the action clear . violence do not have to be explicit and but it must not be confuse and either 5. get the best music money can buy . frequently it matter more than act and photography and etc . 6. usually if a movie isn not very good within the first 10 minute and it not go to get any good ` cannon for cordoba be a textbook example of what happen when these simple rule be not follow . elmer bernstein score be rinkydink and one of the bad i have ever hear in a modestly budget movie . this be altogether surprising consider bernstein credential ( ` man with the golden arm and ` the magnificent seven and ` the great escape and ` son of katie elder ) . paul wendkos direction be lackluster and confuse . performance vary from very good ( don gordon and peter duel ) to terrible ( raf vallone and giovanna ralli and gabriele tinti ) with the usually reliable george peppard fall somewhere in the middle . this should not be surprising and consider the mediocre direction and amateurish script and which break rule 1 and 2 and 3. don not waste your time . i give ` cannon for cordoba a ` 3 .