THE GOOD GUYS AND THE BAD GUYS
(director: Burt Kennedy; screenwriters: Ronald M. Cohen/Dennis Shryack; cinematographer: Harry Stradling Jr.; editor: Howard Deane/Otho Lovering; music: William Lava; cast: Robert Mitchum (Marshal Jim Flagg), George Kennedy (John McKay), David Carradine (Waco), Marie Windsor (Polly), Kathleen Freeman (Mrs. Stone), Nick Davis (Engineer), Dick Peabody (Boyle), Lois Nettleton (Mary), Douglas Fowley (Grundy ), Tina Louise (Carmel), Martin Balsam(Mayor Wilker), John Davis Chandler (Deuce), John Carradine (Ticker); Runtime: 91; MPAA Rating: PG; producer: Ronald M. Cohen/Dennis Shryack; Warner Bros; 1969)
“Leaden tongue-in-cheek comical western.“
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Burt Kennedy (“Sidekicks”/”The Rounders”) directs this leaden tongue-in-cheek comical western, that borrows freely from Sam Peckinpaw’s classic “Ride The High Country.” This disappointing Western is weakly scripted by producers Ronald M. Cohen and Dennis Shryack and limply directed by Kennedy. It features folk singer Glenn Yarborough earnestly belting out a few tunes, with The Ballad of Marshal Flagg being the main song. The pic aims to give homage to the now senior citizens who were once the good and the bad guys of the west. What results is a supply of enough cliches and nostalgia to fill a dozen barns. In the early twentieth century, the frontier town in New Mexico of Progress, which was tamed by the aging Marshal Flagg (Robert Mitchum), who still lives in the past and shuns the modern world. The marshal is unfairly relieved of his duty by the oily Mayor Wilker (Martin Balsam), up for re-election, when he warns him that his old nemesis, the old time outlaw Big John McKay (George Kennedy), is spotted outside of town and that he suspects his gang has come to rob the train bringing in $100,000 for the new bank in town. Just as Flagg is disrespected by the opportunistic mayor, McKay is also by the ruthless young gang leader Waco (David Carradine). Thereby the old timers team up to stop the gang of train robbers.
REVIEWED ON 6/19/2018 GRADE: C+ https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/