BY LEE PFEIFFER
I have a passion for Westerns of the 1960s, especially those mid-range productions that weren't designed to win awards but, rather, produce a decent profit on a modest budget. A typical example is director Burt Kennedy's 1969 film "The Good Guys and the Bad Guys" starring Robert Mitchum and recent Oscar winner George Kennedy. Burt Kennedy had no pretensions of being placed on the same pedestal as John Ford and Howard Hawks, but when it came to making fun, whimsical Westerns, he was among the top talents in the industry. Kennedy was coming off the recent success of "The War Wagon" and "Support Your Local Sheriff!", two fun-packed Westerns that proved to resonate very well indeed with the intended audiences. "Good Guys" doesn't work as well due to a weaker script that sees it play out like a TV Western. Still, it has the central ingredients to make for an enjoyable romp: the presence of two popular leading actors, a supporting cast peppered with marvelous players, plenty of scenery of the great outdoors and even an intentionally hokey ballad sung by Glenn Yarbrough that is played throughout the film to serve as a narrative device. (Shades of "Cat Ballou"!). The film was originally developed by Kirk Douglas and director Martin Ritt but they could never bring it to fruition in a manner that was mutually satisfactory.
The story opens in the booming town of Progress, New Mexico. The local, long-serving marshall is Jim Flagg (Robert Mitchum), who is all-too aware of the fact that he's nearing the end of his career. Yet, he still remains devoted to serving the citizenry with honesty and dedication. He learns that his old nemesis, Big John McKay (George Kennedy) has been seen in the area with his gang and they are planning to rob a train that's due to arrive in a few days that is carrying $100,000 in bank funds. Flagg notifies the town mayor, Wilker (Martin Balsam), who dismisses the concerns by saying train robberies are a relic of the distant past. Wilker is consumed with running for re-election and is bribing the population with free drinks and closing down the bordello, which delights the local women. (However, he privately assures the men that it will reopen right after the election.) He's also devoting his time to seducing a local, married beauty (Tina Louise). The unscrupulous mayor lures Flagg to a podium at one of his campaign rallies and shocks him by announcing Flagg will be retiring. The mayor summarily appoints his right hand "yes man" to take over as marshal. He gives Flagg a gold watch and a pension then sends him off to a round of applause. Ever-dedicated to his profession, however, Flagg tracks down McKay and is shocked to find that the once-notorious outlaw is now being bullied by the cutthroats in his gang. Flagg manages to put handcuffs on McKay and bring him to town with the intention of delivering him to a federal marshal in a different territory, given Mayor Wilker's indifference to the train robbery plot. You can predict where this is all going. Flagg and McKay wax nostalgic about the good old days when there was some honor and respect between lawmen and thieves. Flagg enlists his aid to help him prevent the train robbery which leads to a chaotic conclusion with the new partners boarding the train and being mistaken for gang members, the townspeople forming a massive posse in pursuit of the out-of-control train and everyone fighting each other in comic shoot-outs.
There's a lot of violence in "The Good Guys and the Bad Guys" but none of it is gory. In fact, there's only one dramatic shootout in which a sympathetic character is murdered. There are plenty of women of loose morals but they all have the requisite heart of gold. The byplay between Mitchum and Kennedy is fun but it's Martin Balsam who steals the film in a rare comedic role. Among the familiar faces who contribute to the yucks: young David Carradine and his father John (though they don't share a scene together), Marie Windsor, Kathleen Freeman, Douglas V. Fowley and Lois Nettleton as a widow with a young son who is in a flirtatious relationship with Mitchum. Harry Stradling,Jr.'s cinematography is a quite impressive, capturing the grandeur of the New Mexico and Colorado mountain locations and the miniature work seen in the spectacular train crash is also very good. Critics were anemic at best when it came to reviewing the film. The New York Times dismissed it as "a dinky prairie oyster" while a few other outlets at least acknowledged it was fun family entertainment. Mitchum would later say he regretted being in the film, stating ""How in hell did I get into this picture, anyway? I
kept reading in the papers that I was going to do it, but when they sent me the
script I just tossed it on the heap with the rest of them. But somehow, one
Monday morning, here I was. How in hell do these things happen to a man?"
The Warner Archive region-free DVD features the original trailer (which gives away some spoilers) and a lengthy featurette which covers the making of the film in the small railroad town of Chama, New Mexico through the eyes of a local young boy who gets to meet the stars and director and appear as an extra in the film.
"The Good Guys and the Bad Guys" didn't rank high on the list of career achievements for anyone involved in it but it provides enough fun moments to merit recommending.
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