jpdoherty
Disliked by some, the United Artists release BANDIDO (1956) is a reasonably enjoyable semi-western. Produced by Robert L.Jacks it is a handsomely mounted adventure in early Cinemascope and DeLuxe color arrestingly photographed by the great Ernest Laszo. Based on a story by Earl Felton, who also wrote the screenplay, the buoyant direction was by Richard Fleischer. Although something of a stranger when it came to making westerns Fleischer delivers the goods here without any trouble. His evocation of the Mexican revolution in 1916 (curiously the same year when the director was born) is perfectly established from the very opening shot and the bracing narrative is adhered to throughout its 92 min. Without any reason Fleischer is something of an underrated picture maker! Yet, classics like "Trapped" (1949), "Armored Car Robbery" (1950),"The Narrow Margin" (1952), "The Vikings" (1958), "Compulsion" (1959) and "Tora Tora,Tora" (1970) assure his standing as one of Hollywood's master craftsmen. While BANDIDO doesn't reach the lofty heights of any of these titles it nevertheless is still a fairly engrossing slice of entertainment.With bullets whizzing all around him American adventurer and gun runner Wilson (Robert Mitchum) arrives literally into the thick of the Mexican revolution to offer his services to the rebel side. Together with the leader Escobar (Gilbert Roland) and his men they set out to steal a major shipment of guns and ammunition from American arms dealer Kennedy (Zachary Scott) - not to mention Mitch himself giving Mrs. Kennedy (Ursula Thiess) the glad eye in the bargain. The picture ends with the rebel side finally getting possession of the huge cache of arms and using them in a fierce battle with the Federal troops.Performances are generally good throughout and the picture maintains an engaging pace. Dressed in Panama hat and white suit Mitchum, on one of his favourite stomping grounds Mexico, is very likable in his usual somni-eyed fashion. But the picture belongs to the charismatic Gilbert Roland. As Escobar he is the quintessential rebel leader. It is a part he was born to play. Good too is Zachary Scott as Kennedy the ill-fated arms dealer. However, there is a problem with the casting of the female lead! Ursula Thiess, an actress of limited appeal and with a gossamer thin screen presence, is dull and flat in her portrayal of the unhappy and bored Mrs. Kennedy. Whatever possessed the Mitchum character to be attracted to her in the first place is anyone's guess.Adding to the atmosphere is the fine score by the legendary Max Steiner. On loan from Warners this would be the composer's one and only score for a United Artists picture. The main title is a turbulent and aggressive full orchestral piece which points up the struggle and resolve of the Mexican proletariat. Then there is a wonderful central theme heard in different guises in the film as the mood demands. One winning rendition has it hauntingly sung by a guitar playing revolutionary at night. There is also a spirited military march for the Federal troops and some terrific action cues in the familiar Steiner manner for the many battle sequences. That same year 1956 the great Steiner would conceive his brilliant masterwork for John Ford's monumental "The Searchers".Not an outstanding movie by any stretch of the imagination but BANDIDO remains a reasonably good stroke of entertainment played out by an attractive cast and nicely structured by its makers. Well worth a peek!
ragosaal
"Bandido" is a sort of western settled settled during the Mexican revolution leaded by Emiliano Zapata against the ruling of Porfirio Díaz in the early 20th century.Robert Mitchum is an American adventurer that makes his living by selling guns to the part that pays better who predictably turns for the just cause. The villain is the always reliable Zachary Scott, obviously in the "wrong" side, married to the amazingly beautiful but wooden Ursula Theiss who obviously too turns her affections to Mitchum. Gilbert Roland is a revolutionary leader who also goes for the guns for his cause.Though not a great film at all, "Bandido" is an entertaining adventure with a simple script, a rather fast development, impressive outdoor locations (mainly at the seashore), a good colourful photography, romance and well handled action sequences.Richard Fleischer was a daring all-terrain director who gave as such good products in different genres as "Compulsion", "Soylent Green", "Blind Terror", "The Vikings", "Tora Tora Tora", "Ashanti", "The Boston Strangler" or "The Jazz Singer" (1980). He tries his hand in westerns here and he gets an acceptable movie surely enjoyable for fans of the genre.
zardoz-13
In a distinguished career spanning over four decades, film director Richard Fleisher called the shots on a number of memorable, well-made movies. In the 1950s, he gained acclaim with his hard-nosed crime thrillers, among them "Armored Car Robbery" (1950), "The Narrow Margin" (1952), and "Violent Saturday" (1955). Later, he would turn to true-life crime with "Compulsion" (1959), "The Boston Strangler" (1968), and "10 Rillington Place" (1971). Many remember him for his ground-breaking sci-fi films, among them "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954), "Fantastic Voyage" (1966), and "Soylent Green" (1973). Fleisher also ventured with serviceable results into the realm of fantasy with the seminal Kirk Douglas & Tony Curtis saga "The Vikings" and then later teamed up with Arnold Schwarzenegger to helm "Conan the Destroyer" (1984) and "Red Sonja" (1985). Fleischer directed the Darryl F. Zanuck-produced World War II epic "Tora, Tora, Tora" (1970) long before Michael Bay's turgid, soap operatic "Pearl Harbor," and he directed one of the more controversial biographies of the 1960s: "Che!" (1969) with Omar Sharif as the legendary Argentinian Communist revolutionary and guerrilla fighter Che Guevara and Jack Palance as Fidel Castro. Mind you, he has also made his share of turkeys: "Doctor Doolittle" (1967) with Rex Harrison and "Mandingo' (1975) with James Mason. During those 40 years, Fleisher experimented with virtually every genre. He made one Biblical epic "Barabbas" (1961) and "Amityville 3-D" (1983). Interestingly, he is least remembered for his three westerns: "Bandido" (1956), "These Thousand Hills" (1959) and the Lee Marvin outlaw epic "The Spikes Gang." Robert Mitchum plays Wilson, an American adventurer in a white linen beneath the Mexican border trying to arrange an arms deal between a trigger-happy Hispanic bandit colonel (Gilbert Roland of "The Torch") and another well-heeled gringo merchant Kennedy (Zachary Scott of "Mildred Pierce") who initially plans to sell his ordinance to the Mexican Army. Director Richard Fleisher helmed this atmospheric, 1916-circuit shoot'em up on actual Mexican revolutionary battle sites with extras who had served on both sides of the fracas and swapped lead with each other. Scenarist Earl Felton penned the exciting but occasionally contrived screenplay. Interestingly enough, "Bandido" qualified as the fourth collaboration between Fleischer and Felton. Earlier, they had worked together on Fleischer's hard-boiled crime thrillers. Compared with the westerns of the 1960s and the 1970s, "Bandido" is more noisy than bloodthirsty. Indeed, thousands of rounds of ammunition are expended, but you don't see blood-splattered bodies tumbling every which way as they would later in the films of Sam Peckinpah. Nevertheless, when this Mexican revolutionary melodrama came out in the 1950s, there weren't that many westerns of its kind being released. Indeed, Italian writer & director Sergio Corbucci drew inspiration from "Bandido" to make a couple of trendy Franco Nero spaghetti westerns: "A Professional Gun" (1968) and "Companeros" (1970). This type of spaghetti western became a sub-genre of its own during the 1960s and the 1970s. (Not only did Fleischer's "Bandido" inspire these Euro westerns, "The Vikings" had given rise to the short-lived Viking peplum movies such as "Erik the Conqueror" and "Knives of the Avenger.") Anyway, our money-hungry mercenary hero shows Escobar the bandit colonel how he can obtain the arms that he so desperately needs. Escobar and his peasant army commandeer the train that the Mexican government has provided Kennedy. At the same time, the villainous Gunther (gimlet-eyed Henry Brandon, best known for his treacherous Indian in the John Wayne epic "The Searchers"), the go-between Kennedy and the Mexican generals, suggests to Kennedy before the train falls into Escobar's hands, to send the Mexican revolutionaries on a wild goose chase to a sea-side villa where Gunther will arrange to have the soldiers rescue him. Gunther then escapes capture and heads off to warn the Mexican General about this turn of events. Instead, a wily Wilson convinces Escobar to hold Kennedy captive and send Kennedy's beautiful wife Lisa (German actress Ursula Thiess) with an escort to where the guns are stashed. Escobar is the kind of character who doesn't let people lie to him more than once. At the last minute, Wilson suspects that Kennedy has dispatched his wife and the revolutionaries on the wrong trail, so he rides after them. Wilson saves Lisa from being gunned down, but he puts himself at odds with Escobar who is only too willing to kill him. Eventually, Escobar's resourceful men capture Wilson and throw him in jail with Kennedy who realizes the error of his ways. At this point, Felton's screenplay gets a little too cute. When the bandits decide to execute Wilson, they allow him to take his jacket with him. Earlier in the action, our hero made a big deal out of the hand grenades that he kept in his suitcase with his linen, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that he uses a couple of hand grenades to break Kennedy and himself out of jail. They escape through a swamp and Kennedy grudgingly reveals the whereabouts of the ordinance. Predictably, when Kennedy bad mouths Wilson about his treachery, Escobar is nearby and learns what a nice guy that Wilson is and allows him to live. Kennedy dies in a blaze of gunfire and our heroes find the ordinance and save the day. The romantic subplot between amorous Wilson and Kennedy's unhappy wife generates few sparks and it's easy to see why Thiess' career foundered. Meanwhile, the camaraderie between Mitchum and Roland is first-rate, just the kind of stuff that Italian westerns who pay homage to. Later, Roland made several spaghetti westerns as a Mexican bandit type. If you can catch a letterboxed copy of "Bandido," you can see some truly gorgeous scenery and camera work. Mitchum would later encore in a similarly themed western from the same era entitled "The Wrath of God," where he would play another adventurer who lugged around a Thompson submachine gun in a suitcase rather than a pair of hand grenades.
