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‘Bandolero’ comes at the tail end of a lot of careers, and exists mainly because having a lot of big names in a picture ought to make same money. This as opposed to say, there being any point or value to the picture itself. The story is ultimately something better suited to an episode of television than to a feature-length picture, and the movie therefore comes to us from too late a decade. It reminds of 50s pictures, when that sort of thing was acceptable, and perhaps part of the point is something like homage, but if so, it doesn’t quite work. ***

Dean Martin plays a criminal leading his ‘gang’, and the film opens with his botching a bank robbery. His gang is locked up by George Kennedy, and Raquel Welch enters the picture from the sidelines, as the wife of a man Martin’s gang happened to kill during their attempted escape. Flip to Jimmy Stewart’s entrance, as a man who becomes interested in the gang’s capture from afar, and we’ve got our main players. Stewart takes the place of the hangman who comes to perform the deed, and he soon helps the gang escape. Along the way they pick up Welch as insurance, and the rest of the film follows the gang into Mexico as they try and stay one step ahead of Kennedy and posse. ***

There is a certain interest, perhaps, in seeing these stars together, and Stewart provides an interesting character as always, but the film itself is a deserved flop, with little to recommend. The supposed character-study aspects of the film play very false, and Welch’s inevitable reaction at the end is only so much Hollywood gimmick. The course of the play does not, as it believes, lead to such a conclusion. Meanwhile, we’re exposed to more and more of Welch as the thing progresses, and we come to understand that her chief resource as an actress is simply being very pretty.

The DVD transfer is a fine one, and the only real statement to be made in the negative is that there are a few moments where we can notice some compression artifacting. They are quite rare though, and overall the picture quality is great. The colors are rich and bright, fleshtones are exceedingly accurate, and the contrast and detail are superb. ***

The sound is quite good, all things considered. There are a few strange drops in level, some quite noticeable, but there is little that will really detract from the viewing experience. There isn’t much play to surround, but there is a bit. Tracks are clear and distinct, though certain aspects come through in that somewhat ‘fake’, by today’s standards, way. Pay attention to the gunshots in any older western, and you’ll know what I mean. They just don’t seem like their really ‘there’, but somehow sound as though they are coming from offscreen. –

There is an obvious play to capitalize on Welch films, by releasing a host of them at the same time, and this bodes well for the quality of the transfer. Indeed, this is a fine release by those standards, and the film looks incredible. Unfortunately, this is a film which has passed into utter obscurity, and with good reason. Still, the movie is fairly interesting merely in seeing these names together.

Marc Eastman

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