Bandolero!

Despite teaming James Stewart and Dean Martin, Bandolero may be one of the reasons the Western died.

The plot sees George Kennedy as a sheriff purusing outlaw brothers Stewart and Martin into bandit country after they kidnapp a wealthy widow, played by Raquel Welch.

It’s a film that doesn’t know what it wants to be. Though it re-teams director Andrew V. McLaglen, screenwriter James Lee Barrett, and star Stewart, who had previously made Shenandoah together, this outing alternates between not taking itself seriously, and taking itself far too seriously, sometimes in the same scene.

Stewart and Martin are two actors with charisma to spare, yet both seem flat here, as if they realize the stinker they’re producing. Granted, Stewart does have a lot of fun in the film’s best sequence where he poses as a hangman, but that’s about it.

Then there’s the Raquel Welch problem. Cute though she may be, she offers nothing in the way of believability, and can’t carry her few dramatic scenes.

For western fans, or fans of the stars, Bandolero’s casting may be too good to resist, which is likely what the studio and filmmakers were counting on; banking on the reputation of those involved rather than putting together a decent product. Skip it.