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THE VILLAIN (1979)

SUMMARY:            RUNNING TIME: 1 Hour, 29 Min.

In 1979, Rastar Films released director Hal Needham’s cartoony spoof playing up classic Western genre clichés.  Set sometime and somewhere in the Old West, rancher Parody Jones (Martin) badly needs a loan for his struggling ranch.  He sends his beguiling daughter (and she knows it), Charming (Margret), off to a frontier town to collect a much-needed loan from the local banker, Avery Simpson (Elam)

Yet, the unscrupulous banker wants to keep the money for himself, not to mention the Jones ranch upon foreclosure.  After bungling an overnight bank heist in the same town, notorious “Cactus” Jack Slade (Douglas) faces either an imminent hanging, or he can secretly work for Simpson.

Specifically, Charming and her ultra-dense bodyguard, Handsome Stranger (Schwarzenegger) are traveling cross-country by wagon through the desert back to her family’s ranch.  To earn his fee from Simpson, all a down-on-his-luck Slade has to do is rob them during this journey. Shadowing the ornery Slade is another of Simpson’s inept cohorts: Native American Chief Nervous Elk (Lynde), who has brought along a horde of marauders from his tribe.

With the help of his frisky horse, Whiskey (the smarter half of this outlaw duo), Slade pulls out all the stops trying to intercept his intended quarry.  Meanwhile, Charming tries her best seducing her oblivious protector.  

“Cactus” Jack Slade: Kirk Douglas

Handsome Stranger: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Charming Jones: Ann-Margret

‘Whiskey’: Ott the Horse

Avery Simpson: Jack Elam

Parody Jones: Strother Martin

Damsel in Distress: Ruth Buzzi

Nervous Elk: Paul Lynde

Mashing Finger: Robert Tessier

Bank Clerk: Foster Brooks

Telegraph Agent: Mel Tillis

Sheriff: Jan Eddy

Train Conductor: Mel Todd

Bartender: Jim Anderson

Saloon Crowd: Laura Liza Sommers, Ed Little, Dick Dickinson, & Richard Brewer

Townspeople: Uncredited

Nervous Elk’s Raiders: Uncredited

Notes: Tillis also performs the title song.  Interestingly, this comedy offers the rare sights of seeing both Lynde (in a politically incorrect role) and Schwarzenegger riding on horseback.

REVIEW:

This wacky, live-action Hal Needham cartoon tries to be the next Blazing Saddles, with its obvious homages to Chuck Jones’ classic Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote gags.  Despite the plot’s inability to reach its potential, reliable veterans Kirk Douglas and Ann-Margret, at least, are game trying to make the best of this comedy-Western misfire. 

The unavoidable obstacle, however, is that they can’t overcome such weak storytelling, let alone jokes (too many off-color) that fall flat … just like Slade often does.  Case in point: the movie’s finale abruptly shifts into the closing credits without even resolving the evil banker sub-plot.  This omission spells out that Needham’s movie is merely settling for a series of hit-or-miss gags vs. concocting an actual story.   

If there’s any hilarious incentive/guilty pleasure to see The Villain (aside from perusing one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s earliest roles), then it’s the fact that Ott the Horse (aka ‘Whiskey’) steals this movie from Douglas several times over.  Suffice to say, he’s a far better thief that the moronic “Cactus” Jack Slade.   

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                        3½ Stars

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BDC
October 2020