Bandolero!
Tags: tragedy, murder

Plot synopsis:
Posing as a hangman, Mace Bishop (James Stewart) arrives in the Texas town of Val Verde with the intention of freeing his brother Dee (Dean Martin) from the gallows. Dee and his gang have been arrested for a bank robbery in which Maria Stoner's (Raquel Welch) husband was killed by gang member Babe Jenkins (Clint Ritchie). After freeing his brother, Mace successfully robs the bank on his own after the gang has fled with the posse in pursuit.
Dee has taken Maria as a hostage after they come across her wagon, during which Gang member Pop Chaney (Will Geer) shoots and kills the man escorting Maria. The posse, led by local sheriff July Johnson (George Kennedy) and deputy Roscoe Bookbinder (Andrew Prine), chases the fugitives across the Mexican border into territory policed by bandoleros, whom Maria describes as men out to kill any gringos (foreigners) that they can find. Maria further warns Dee that the sheriff will follow, because they have taken the one thing that he has always wanted: her.
Despite initial protestations, Maria falls for Dee and finds herself in a quandary. She had never felt anything for the sheriff, nor for her husband, who had purchased her from her family. The posse tracks them to an abandoned town and captures the gang. The bandoleros also arrive, shooting and killing Roscoe, so the sheriff releases the outlaws so that the men can fight back in defense.
In this final showdown, almost everyone is killed. Dee is fatally stabbed by the leader of the bandits, El Jefe, after savagely beating him when he attempts to rape Maria. Then Mace is shot by another. Babe and gang member Robbie O'Hare (Sean McGlory) die after killing several bandoleros. Pop Chaney is killed while going after the money Mace stole, and his son Joe (Tom Heaton) dies after trying to rescue him. Maria grabs Dee's pistol and shoots El Jefe dead, sending the now leaderless bandoleros into full retreat. Maria professes her love to Dee and finally kisses him before he dies. Mace returns the money to sheriff Johnson, and then falls dead due to his wound. Maria and the sheriff, with little left of the posse, bury the Bishop brothers and dead posse members without markers, after which Maria notes that no one will know who was there nor what had happened. They then begin the ride back to Texas.

Review: Former Quantrill raider Dean Martin gets caught robbing a bank where Raquel Welch's husband was killed.
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.
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.
While all the men ride out of town, Mace finishes off the bank that Dee failed on and rides on to meet up with the gang fleeing to Mexico  however even with a hostage, the Bishop gang are closely pursued by an angry Sheriff Johnson.From the very start this film marks itself out as a strange mix that relies on its stars more than anything else.
The best examples of this are Maria (who falls in love too easily), Dee (who is just Dean Martin and not an end of the road bandit) and Mace (who is just James Stewart).
Without comparing it to any of the acknowledged "greats" or even better westerns any of the stars made, "Bandolero" is a satisfying movie - interesting enough story with a bit of a humorous twist, well-mounted, beautifully shot, and everybody involved does their customary good job.
What more can you ask, seeing great guys like Jimmy, Dean, George, Harry Carey & Co., and of course Raquel, going thru long-practiced paces they knew so well by this time?.
Meanwhile , they're pursued by a sheriff (George Kennedy) , deputy (Andrew Prine) and a posse.This is a nice Western-pursuit plenty of action , violence , shootouts , and quite bemusing .
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..
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.
A patchy western which has rather ambivalent attitudes towards it's two main characters,the Bishop brothers,oddly played by Jimmy Stewart and Dean Martin!
It's most improbable to accept the above as siblings,never mind Western badmen.The film itself seems to wearily accept this as all throughout the two are treated as sympathetic ne'er-do-well's trapped by unfavourable circumstance,whereas the rest of Martin's gang are portrayed as ruthless villains.The best scenes are certainly in the first 30 minutes of the film,with Martin and his gang waiting to be hanged after a failed bank robbery;Cowboy drifter Stewart accidentally finds out about the impending execution of his brother,and overpowers the hangman involved so he can arrange an elaborate escape.All these early scenes work very well,continually laced with effective black humour,and an enjoyable concentration on Stewart and witty duologue's with such familiar Western character actors such as Ray Barcroft,Dub Taylor and Guy Raymond.After the escape,things oddly turn flat.Stewart robs a bank(non-violently)afterwards,Martin and gang gently abduct Raquel Welch,and are relentlessly pursued by Sheriff George Kennedy and deputies.There's good chemistry between Stewart and Martin,and one or two effective scenes thereafter,but BANDOLERO!
tends to get bogged down in dullish conversation and not enough action.A sub-plot of Ms Welch falling in love with Martin(after his gang ruthlessly murdered her husband Jock Mahoney) is even more improbable than Dino and Jimmy being members of the same family,and her attempt at a Latin-American accent(she is of Bolivian descent)is adequate but that doesn't automatically mean a good performance.Another sub-plot involving murderous bandits gives the film a surprisingly brutal and violent edge,aspects which were creeping into US film at this time in the late 60's,which as far as Western films were concerned reached a near zenith in the following year's THE WILD BUNCH.The film should've been shorter with better pacing,but isn't too bad thanks to Messers Stewart and Martin,despite their obvious miscasting..
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!
I certainly applaud a "non-Hollywood" ending, but this one was screwed-up pretty badly, thus removing any impact.This film is proof, once again, that great actors are only able to soar when the words they speak are worth listening to, and the director provides the right environment for the listening to take place.A missed opportunity overall, but gets a 4 from me primarily for the superior performance of Mr. James Stewart..
this movie has larry mcmurtry written all over it--as someone else has noted, three of the characters have names that later showed up in "lonesome dove", roscoe's last name is bookbinder, and larry mcmurtry is a bookseller and book fanatic, most of the film is set near the texas/mexico border, where lonesome dove is located, and dee and mace have a brotherly relationship much like call and gus (and don't forget "lonesome dove" began as a screenplay intended for james stewart and john wayne) and dee and mace talk about going to montana and starting a ranch......larry mcmurtry doesn't get a screen credit here, but i'll betcha he had something to do with the screenplay......anyone know for sure?.
The sheriff and his sidekick tracking James Stewart and Dean Martin are named July Johnson and Roscoe.
Mace Bishop (James Stewart) masquerades as a hangman in order to save his outlaw brother from the gallows, runs to Mexico chased by the sheriff's posse and fights against Mexican bandits.The film was shot at the Alamo Village, the movie set originally created for John Wayne's "The Alamo".
It stars James Stewart, Dean Martin, Raquel Welch and George Kennedy.
They are being pursued by the law led by George Kennedy, whilst having to deal with internal fighting and a date with blood thirsty Mexican bandits.Bubbling away in the mix is the tale of two brothers (Stewart and Martin) who went different ways during the Civil War, the conversations of such between the two most potent and worth sampling.
Hanging and the threat of sexual assault further stokes the fires, all while we are asked to take seriously guys with names like July Johnson and Roscoe Bookbinder!McLaglen directs with competent hands befitting the occasion, in other words let your star named cast operate without mugging for the camera - with the visual ticks of Stewart and Kennedy a joy as opposed to doing down the material.
At it's heart, Bandolero is a story of needlessly losing one's way, yet still managing to find a measure of redemption.Jimmy Stewart and Dean Martin star as Dee and Mace, the Bishop brothers, in their only big screen team-up.
What would have been exciting and appealing to a 17 year old is now viewed as repulsive trash, with two Old West recidivists (Jimmy Stewart and Dean Martin) running from the law (George Kennedy) with hostage Raquel Welch (Dow Corning) in tow.As Judith Crist used to say "the blood flows like Chianti" in Bandolero.
That's a little hard to accomplish when he meets up with a hangman-for-hire and, offscreen, ices the poor shlub without so much as a sigh.By the end of movie, the bad guys and the good guys have teamed up to kill other badder guys, and the sand of a Mexican town is fairly spongy with blood.Bandolero is a nauseating mess, better left at the nearest distribution center of Netflix, unless you're hooked on Chianti..
Mace Bishop (James Stewart) arrives in town posing as hangman Grimes looking to free his brother.
McLaglen, "Bandolero!" stars James Stewart as Mace, who masquerades as a hangman in order to save his brother, Dee, from the gallows (Dean Martin).
There are just two problems: Kennedy & his posse and a gang of wild Mexican bandits (bandoleros).Although there are some low-key amusing elements, the film is essentially a serious Western with quality adventure and drama.
Raquel Welch's performance never thrilled me in this film and her entire role was either looped by another actress, or she went in and looped all her own dialoge in post-production (I suspect the latter).Dean Martin trades in his tux for a leather holster, and although he's not playing the most convincing outlaw in the world, I always loved the way he portrayed his role here as the "bad egg" brother of Jimmy Stewart who longs to meet a fine woman and turn his life around.The trouble here is that he falls for a prostitute peasant girl (Raquel Welch) Some guys have all the luck!James Stewart is superb as usual, as is the great character actor Will Geer (they played opposite one another in another western classic, WINCHESTER '73) I love the scene between them in the cave where Stewart says "apologize, Mr.Chaney or I'll blow your head off" (words to that effect) Jerry Goldsmith also provides his usual excellent score.
This was the only time James Stewart and Dean Martin appeared in the same movie, i believe.
A movie which also shares the same cinematographer as this one, William Clothier, who shot billions of westerns.But i'll be honest, being a man and all, i naturally watched this mainly for Raquel Welch.
Is it possible that a western with a cast of Jimmy Stewart, Dean Martin, George Kennedy and Raquel Welch can be any bad?
The music score of Jerry Goldsmith isn't bad either.Jimmy Stewart and Dean Martin are looking very old in this one.
Mace Bishop (Stewart) overhears a hangman boasting he is on his way to a Texas town to hang brother Dee Bishop (Dean Martin) and his gang, captured during a botched bank hold up.
Though he has never held up a bank before, Mace just follows his natural urges.After that the story line bogs down as the Bishop gang rides into Mexico, trailed by single minded sheriff July Johnson (George Kennedy) and his posse.
More honest and perhaps more interesting performances are those by Kennedy, the love smitten sheriff determined to preserve his ladylove's honor, Andrew Prine as the faithful deputy who would have it be said of himself he followed July Johnson all over Mexico, and Will Geer, a vile unpleasant old man with the ability to distinguish between bad manners, picking one's nose, and occupation, bank robbing."Bandolero" is a serviceable western with some interesting elements, but it's not really all that memorable.
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 respectableThe 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....
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.
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".
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.
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.
Dean Martin & his gang rob a bank and kill a couple of people including Raquel Welch's husband.
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.
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.
When bank robber Dean Martin & his unsavory crew are set to be hanged, his clever brother James Stewart shows up as the hangman.
McLaglen starring James Stewart, Dean Martin, Raquel Welch and George Kennedy.
Andrew V McLaglen directed the movie.Summary: Posing as a hangman, Mace Bishop arrives in town with the intention of freeing his brother Dee from the gallows.
Bandolero has a star-studded cast that featured James Stewart, Dean Martin Richard Greer, and George Kennedy.
Yuck!Maria is also taken hostage by Dee played by Dean Martin(who might be the hero of the story or might be the brother of Mace played by Jimmy the real hero of the story depending on where your moral compass sits and/or which actor you like best) and Dee's band of criminals.
Dean Martin and Jimmy Stewart are unusually cast as brothers who meet up in the town of Val Verde, Texas.
Although there is one time during a battle with Mexican bandits where her blouse is ripped from the back, but the scene is played out more for it's savagery than for titillation.George Kennedy provides a competent but heavily understated portrayal of July Johnson, the Val Verde sheriff who puts together a posse to track down the Bishop gang after they flee from the gallows with Mace Bishop's (Stewart) intervention.
He is very underused and I desperately wanted to see more from his character and the relationship between him, Martin and Stewart but it takes a long time to get around to that too and we hardly see him for most of the middle of the movie.So there is a lot wrong with Bandolero.
This scored a 6 out of 10 in my IMDb rating, which is very good and tallied 15 points in my ranking system, a very good score.Here's what I thought was good about this movie: The co-leads, Dean Martin and James Stewart are great in this.
McLaglen.It's not the same level with Shenandoah, which this 90-year old director did three years earlier, but this still is an entertaining film.And it has James Stewart and Dean Martin playing Mace and Dee Bishop, who bring some A- quality to this film.And Raquel Welch is quite a woman.And I've always liked George Kennedy, who plays Sheriff July Johnson.Andrew Prine gives a great performance as Deputy Sheriff Roscoe Bookbinder.Will Geer is terrific as Pop Chaney.And so is Tom Heaton as his son Joe.Clint Ritchie is great as Babe Jenkins.Denver Pyle is very good as Muncie Carter.Harry Carey Jr. plays Cort Hayjack and he's superb in his part.Dub Taylor is great as always, this time playing Attendant.Jock Mahoney portrays Stoner.Guy Raymond plays Ossie Grimes.John Mitchum is Bathhouse Customer.This movie is a straight B-western, and it is that with style.It's quite a terrific moment when they're ought to be hanged, but get to escape because of Mace's gun.There's a lot of shooting in the end, when the Mexican villains arrive, and both of the brothers end up dead.A rather sad ending to this western, which also has some light comedy and romance.