I love it when the title of the film keeps it simple - "The Good Guys and the Bad Guys". Can't make it any plainer than that for a Western. The two main characters keep it simple too; Robert Mitchum as the forcibly retired Marshal Flagg, and George Kennedy as old time nemesis Big John McKay. The pair team up after upstart Waco (David Carradine) takes over McKay's old gang, and gives him the bum's rush in a classic case of age discrimination. Back then you couldn't sue for such things.
This one is played for grins as much as it is for tough guy action. The smarmy and lascivious mayor of Progress is played by Martin Balsam, prone to getting caught with his pants down both literally and figuratively. I'm not sure what the Tina Louise character found interesting enough in the mayor to be caught dead in the same room with him. There was a line about her being a victim of internal combustion, so maybe that was it.
Something I never saw in a Western before, actually two things - there's a cool scene with an out of control buckboard where the two horses pulling it straddle a telephone pole - yikes! And how about McKay's spin around after being hit by a bullet in the shoulder trick. Very effectively done.
This probably won't be on anyone's list of Ten Best Westerns, but it's entertaining enough to devote the hour and a half or so to watch it. Mitchum and Kennedy play well off each other, and I liked the idea that they hooked up on a handshake, the way men of integrity used to do such things. I'm still wondering though why Buddy Hackett was in that opening crowd scene.
This one is played for grins as much as it is for tough guy action. The smarmy and lascivious mayor of Progress is played by Martin Balsam, prone to getting caught with his pants down both literally and figuratively. I'm not sure what the Tina Louise character found interesting enough in the mayor to be caught dead in the same room with him. There was a line about her being a victim of internal combustion, so maybe that was it.
Something I never saw in a Western before, actually two things - there's a cool scene with an out of control buckboard where the two horses pulling it straddle a telephone pole - yikes! And how about McKay's spin around after being hit by a bullet in the shoulder trick. Very effectively done.
This probably won't be on anyone's list of Ten Best Westerns, but it's entertaining enough to devote the hour and a half or so to watch it. Mitchum and Kennedy play well off each other, and I liked the idea that they hooked up on a handshake, the way men of integrity used to do such things. I'm still wondering though why Buddy Hackett was in that opening crowd scene.