Reviews

I watched this, for the first time since it was in theatres when I was 10, on YouTube in HD720 letterboxed at 2.20:1 on my internet-capable Blu-Ray player - the picture quality was outstanding. It was a different kind of role for Duke and, despite the obvious fact that it's not one of his or Hathaway's best, I found it enjoyable for a variety of reasons. Besides Wayne, there's Claudia Cardinale, John Smith whom I remembered from "Laramie" and one of my favorites, Lloyd Nolan. Not to mention Rita Hayworth. I enjoyed Jack Hildyard's beautiful photography and wish more films had been photographed in Technirama - it was such a versatile format, very high quality like VistaVision. I didn't let the picture's script shortcomings bother me - for my money (none!), they just didn't matter - or the probable fact that, if all it took to capsize a ship at the dock was a bunch of people rushing over to the side rail, it never would've survived an ocean crossing. Heck, it's make-believe, and it has ample verisimilitude to satisfy me. Just kick back and enjoy it.

This movie's best assets are the shots of Randolph Scott sitting, almost motionlessly, astride a galloping horse. He was simply poetry in motion, along with Joel McCrea, Gary Cooper, and young Johnny Crawford. These four were the best horseback riders in filmed entertainment. You can stop reading right...HERE!

Since I have to include a minimum of 10 lines, let me continue by saying the worst horseback riders, IMHO, were John Wayne (ouch!) and Chuck Connors.

Coop's best scenes, I think, were in The Westerner and Northwest Mounted Police (both 1940). McCrea's were in Cattle Drive (1951), Wichita (1955), and Cattle Empire (1958). Scott's were in The Desperadoes (1943), Ft. Worth (1951), and one other I cannot recall. Strangely, none of his Boetticher pictures.

Connors was at his worst anytime his scenes in The Rifleman called for him to ride hell-for-leather for the ranch. Duke's were just about anytime he had to ride (oh, it hurts to say that - I just love John Wayne). There, I'm over the 10-line minimum.

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. If it drags a bit in some of the campfire scenes, it makes up for it in the action scenes. Must single out Rudy Diaz, who plays the chief Mexican bandit, as making a particularly vivid impression in his few scenes. Oh, I almost forgot, another rousing Jerry Goldsmith score worth owning on its own account. 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?