Reviews & Ratings for
Bandolero! More at IMDbPro »

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 4:

[1] [2] [3] [4]

Index

38 reviews in total

---

17 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
Spoiling a good necktie party, 5 January 2006

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

Bandolero starts out as an amiable western. Former Quantrill raider Dean Martin gets caught robbing a bank where Raquel Welch's husband was killed. He and his gang are sentenced to hang and the town of Valverde Texas even sends for a professional hangman to do it right. Of course Dean's brother James Stewart hears about it and waylays the hangman and takes his place.

Stewart helps effect an escape for the outlaws minutes before the hanging. And after Dean and his gang get away, Stewart goes and robs the bank that they were unsuccessful in robbing in the first place.

Up to this point Bandolero is one of the funniest westerns I've ever seen and had the film stopped right there and been a television special it would have gotten rave reviews.

But Bandolero changes and becomes deadly serious as a posse led by Sheriff George Kennedy and Deputy Andrew Prine chase them across the border and into Bandolero (bandit) country. Mexican bandits who have no use for Americans. These are probably the ancestors of Alfonso Bedoya's bunch from Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Along the way Stewart and Martin connect and Martin takes Raquel Welch as a hostage.

Bandolero is a good film, but it's far better in the beginning when it is played for laughs than when it becomes serious. Still I would recommend it to western fans.

---

15 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
Stewart steals the show, 16 January 2005

Author: (oshram@aol.com) from Cleveland

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Having paid my debt to the library, I was once again able to rent DVDs from them, and I got right back into the swing of things with this western from 1968. I like westerns as much as the next guy, but honestly, I checked it out because it was a Raquel Welch film, and like most of her oeuvre, it's basically harmless but hardly ever aspires to be anything other than mildly satisfying.

There's some odd casting in Bandolero; Dean Martin (!!) plays Dee Bishop, a ne'er do well, and Jimmy Stewart (!!) plays his brother Mace (what is this, Star Wars?), a slightly more noble ne'er do well. Will Geer – best known as Grandpa on the Waltons – is along for the ride as a cantankerous old outlaw named Pops, and George Kennedy rounds out the cast as the simple but good-hearted sheriff with a name far better than the rest of the film, July Johnson. Lastly of course, we have Welch (note how I avoided using the 'rounding out' joke on her?), who plays Maria Stoner, a Mexican ex-whore who has married a rich man and is his trophy wife (shades of Anna Nicole Smith). When Dee kills Stoner in the first reel, Maria is left all alone, and is taken hostage by Dee after his narrow escape from the gallows.

The plot is fairly straightforward; the sheriff loves the woman who will have nothing to do with him, and he tracks her all over God's brown earth (i.e., Mexico) to get her back. Inexplicably she falls in love with her husband's murderer (Raquel falling for Dean Martin? That's like Natalie Portman falling for Patrick Dempsey. Come on) as they travel deeper into bandito country. As we get to know the characters we find that pretty much everyone other than Dee and his brother in the outlaw gang is a rotten apple (which is such a shock, seeing as how they are bank robbers), and only Mace really has any couth at all.

Martin, ostensibly the star, is okay here. I never considered him much of an actor, but he's serviceable here. Welch is okay; mostly she has to look good, which isn't hard for her (her hair and nails are always impeccable). I liked Will Geer's world-weary sarcasm and venality, mostly because it was such a change from Grandpa. And Kennedy tries his best to be a likable simpleton, playing everything straight and honest; July's a good guy, but there's not enough to him to tug much at our sympathies. The big surprise is Stewart, who doesn't really seem right for the role of an aging desperado; but his insistence on playing it just less than serious is terrific, and most of his scenes right up until the end are highly amusing. In fact he and Martin have surprising comedic chemistry, and several of their scenes play as asides, everyone stopping what they are doing to listen to the two brothers riff. Stewart imbues the film with some much-needed humor, and steals the show at the same time.

Bandolero isn't remembered as a classic, with good reason, but it isn't a bad film. It would be forgettable if not for Stewart, but with his comedic licks it rises to be a moderately engaging comedy. There are scores of better westerns, and even better Welch films (and many better Stewart films), but overall, for an evening's diversion, you could do much, much worse.

---

15 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
Dour and downbeat but well-staged Western with emphasis on hanging and rape; an unusual mixture but smoothly assembled…, 11 January 2003

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

In the sixties Stewart has shown no signs of losing interest in the Western, completing three for Andrew V. McLaglen—the emotional but dignified 'Shenandoah,' 'The Rare Breed,' and 'Bandolero!' He also joins his old colleague, Henry Fonda, for 'Firecreek' and made "The Cheyenne Social Club," under the direction of Gene Kelly…

Stewart embraced the Western relatively late in his career, but did so whole-heartedly and has earned special place in the history of the genre... He probably didn't expect McLaglen to inspire him to a character excessively theatrical, McLaglen's forte was action, and this he delivered in a professional, if hardly spectacular style... The entire tone of the picture, which co-stars Dean Martin as his outlaw younger brother and Raquel Welch, singularly out of place in a Western setting, is decided1y superficial…

Raquel Welch seems painfully ill at ease as the grieving widow of a man killed by fugitive outlaw brothers (Martin and Stewart) in a holdup… She comes across more as a camp-follower than as an outraged widow, who gradually falls in love with Martin… Her suit is aided by Stewart, who would like his younger brother to leave his life of crime and settle down to something more respectable

The plot piles on the Western clichés… It is the post-Civil War west; older brother Stewart fought in the Union Army, younger brother Martin in the Confederate ranks… Pretending to be a hangman (he has stolen the guy's getup on the road) Stewart rescues Martin from the scaffold… After they've held up a bank, intrepid sheriff George Kennedy chases Stewart and Martin to Mexico, with hostage Welch in tow… In a peculiar plot twist, the outlaws find themselves temporary allies with the sheriff when they are set upon by Mexican bandits…

McLaglen does keep the action moving, and Welch tries to be sexy in the style audiences had come to expect of her, but is suffocated under her frustrated widow character...

---

16 out of 24 people found the following review useful:
Names of 3 characters in this movie re-used in Lonesome Dove, 26 June 2003
Author: NC Lyle (lyle-12) from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

This is a pretty entertaining movie - not one of the best westerns any of these actors ever made, but it's always fun to watch Jimmy Stewart and George Kennedy do their thing. Dean Martin isn't bad, Raquel Welch looks great, but at this point she still needed to expand her talent. Entertaining plot, decent action, but the thing I think is most interesting are the names of three of the characters: The sheriff is July Johnson and his deputy's name is Roscoe, and the main villain's name is Dee, all names used in the same way in the great TV movie Lonesome Dove.

---

10 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
All-star western made big money in 1968, now a faded hit..., 11 June 2006

Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca

"Bandolero!" is a time-filler which has been appropriately relegated to the late-late show, although it was one of the top-grossing moneymakers of 1968. Despite a solid cast, it's a formula western with the actors going through the motions. James Stewart does have the rare opportunity to play a bad guy (albeit a decent bad guy), while Dean Martin, also a villain, is improbably cast as Jimmy's brother! George Kennedy is the salt-of-the-earth sheriff who tries bringing them in, and his love for kidnapped Raquel Welch is rather touching (she's an easy presence on the screen). Too bad the movie has so little energy; the violence (including several shootouts and a bloody attack by Mexican bandits) is surprisingly vicious for a star-driven western, but otherwise it's a lazy, middle-of-the-road effort. **1/2 from ****

---

4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Formula late-60s Andrew V. McLaglen western, 19 June 2003

Author: westerner357 from U.S.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Dean Martin & his gang rob a bank and kill a couple of people including Raquel Welch's husband. Sheriff George Kennedy captures the gang right outside the bank and locks them up. They are found guilty and are sentenced to be hung.

James Stewart plays Martin's older brother who disguises himself as a hangman and smuggles them some guns in order to make their escape. Along the way, they run into Raquel Welch's wagon and take her hostage. They cross over the border into Mexico with Kennedy and his posse close behind and battle Mexican bandits and the unrelenting heat as they make their way south.

And of course, Welch starts to fall in love with Martin in the process of this whole formula thing, making things even more complicated than they should be. It seems the rest of the gang (except for Stewart & Will Geer) want a piece of her for themselves, so both Martin and Stewart have to keep them in line in order to make sure nothing happens to her.

The film is entertaining enough and the ending gun battle with the Mexican bandits in the deserted Mexican town is fairly exciting, although the bandits kill Stewart and Martin while sheriff Kennedy is too busy shooting back at the bandits, himself. The tears shed by Welch over her loss look unconvincing and overacted, but that's all beside the point, I guess.

With our two anti-heroes dead, there's really not much of a happy ending to this one, but I'll still give it 5 out of 10 for being rousing and slightly entertaining.

---

12 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
THIS IS A GOOD RIDE., 30 December 2001
Author: (mibailiff@webtv.net) from St. Clair Shores, MI

Sure, Dean and Jimmy starred in better westerns in their careers, RIO BRAVO and THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, to name a few, but this one doesn't have John Wayne. The Duke didn't need to be here. This is a good ride that holds the formula western of better days to its heart and you're none the worse off for having given 90+ minutes of your time. And yes, Raquel Welch is gorgeous, baking in the hot Mexico sun. Dino doesn't sing, but the soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith is haunting.

---

3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Ride like hell to the border., 10 September 2005
Author: Michael O'Keefe from Muskogee OK

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Can a decent western be made without John Wayne? You're darn tootin' pard. James Stewart takes on the identity of a hangman, in order to free a gang of outlaws gravitating around his brother(Dean Martin). This outfit of misfits take a beautiful woman(Raquel Welch)in tow as they try to get to the Mexican border before Sheriff George Kennedy and his posse. The sheriff is not overly concerned about the bad guys being on the run as much as his woman being their hostage. There is some great Utah scenery and a slew of talented supporting stars...the likes of: Will Geer, Andrew Prine, Denver Pyle and Harry Carey Jr. Wayne never shows up for this one and Martin doesn't sing. But there is one hell of a shootout to make BANDOLERO! a watchable western.

---

4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
A Fun Western, With A Valuable Lesson To Be Learned, 28 November 2007

Author: ferbs54 from United States

An entertaining Western whose major selling points are a winning cast and beautiful outdoor photography, 1968's "Bandolero!" proved an easy 100 minutes for me to sit through. In it, James Stewart rescues brother Dean Martin and his sleazy gang from a neck-stretching party in 1867 Texas, after Dino & Co.'s botched bank robbery. They hightail it over the Mexican border with the recently widowed "vistoso" Mexican Raquel Welch as their hostage, while sheriff George Kennedy and his posse follow in hot pursuit. Truth be told, Kennedy is more hot for Raquel than the pursuit of justice, and who wouldn't be? Racky, 28 here and at the peak of her sex goddess phase, looks terrific, and acts very passably. She makes for a very convincing Mexican (although, in real life, her father was Bolivian and her mother of English descent). Stewart (need it even be said?) is fine as always, and supplies much of the film's humor with his double takes and slowpoke delivery. This is no Anthony Mann Western, however, and Stewart was ever so much more impressive in oaters such as "Winchester '73" (1950) and especially "The Naked Spur" (1953). Dino, it should be added, is also fine as a decent guy who just can't seem to make good. "Bandolero!" also features some amusing lesser characters (particularly that hangman!) and a surprisingly gritty and quite violent conclusion. It's no Peckinpah bloodbath, but following what is essentially a fun, lighthearted Western, it does shake the viewer. Lesson to be learned: Don't press your sexual "favors" on a Mexican woman if she's anywhere near a six-shooter!

---

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Good as an action movie but fails in the romantic part., 4 April 2007

Author: tmwest from S. Paulo, Brazil

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The problem with this western is that because of James Stewart and Dean Martin it builds up your expectations, and it ends up delivering routine stuff. But very enjoyable routine, the only drawback is the miscasting of Raquel Welch, very unconvincing, and looking more like a doll. The key point of the film should be love that starts growing between Dean Martin and Raquel, that should have been really hot, but what happens is certainly cold. There are some old timers in small parts like Don "Red" Barry, Jock Mohoney and Harry Carey Jr. James Stewart and Dean Martin are very good as the "bad guys" who are really not so bad, also George Kennedy as the Sheriff that is hunting them and ends up fighting with them against the "bandoleros". Good as an action movie, but fails in the romantic part.

---

---

Page 1 of 4:

[1] [2] [3] [4]

Add another review

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Ratings	External reviews
Parents Guide	Plot keywords	Main details
Your user reviews	Your vote history