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The Villain is a 1979 American metrocolor Western comedy film directed by Hal Needham and starring Kirk Douglas, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ann-Margret, Paul Lynde, Foster Brooks, Strother Martin, Ruth Buzzi, Jack Elam, and Mel Tillis. It is a parody blend of Western films and Warner Bros.' Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoons.

The Villain
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Hal Needham
Written by	Robert G. Kane
Produced by	Mort Engelberg
Starring	Kirk Douglas Arnold Schwarzenegger Ann-Margret Paul Lynde Foster Brooks Strother Martin Ruth Buzzi Jack Elam Mel Tillis
Cinematography	Bobby Byrne
Edited by	Walter Hannemann
Music by	Bill Justis
Production company	Rastar
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	July 27, 1979 (1979-07-27)
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$4.5 - 6 million[1]
Box office	$9.8 million[2]

Its title when released in the UK and Australia was Cactus Jack.

Plot

A beautiful woman, "Charming Jones" (Ann-Margret), is being escorted across the west by a naive, slow-witted cowboy, "Handsome Stranger" (Schwarzenegger), after claiming a large sum of money given to her by her father, "Parody Jones" (Martin). However, bad guy "Avery Simpson" (Elam), who delivered Charming the money, decides he wants it for himself. He hires an old outlaw, "Cactus Jack" Slade (Douglas), to rob them when they leave town.

Throughout the trip, Charming makes advances toward Handsome, all of which are met with indifference. Meanwhile, Cactus Jack proceeds to lay trap after trap for the two, all of which backfire. Jack's attempt to enlist the assistance of "Nervous Elk" (Paul Lynde), the chief of a local American Indian tribe, also fails.

Finally, Jack confronts the couple openly, at which point Charming gives up on romancing Handsome and instead kisses Jack, who proceeds to bounce around in red-hot elation.

Cast

Production

Hal Needham described The Villain as a “‘Roadrunner’ cartoon done with live characters.” The picture marked Needham’s third feature film as director and reunited him with actor Kirk Douglas. Prior to focusing on directing, Needham was one of Hollywood’s top stuntmen and stunt coordinators and, although he did not receive onscreen credit, Needham worked as a stunt double for Douglas on In Harm’s Way (1965), The War Wagon (1967) and The Way West (1967).[1]

The picture was financed independently by producer Mort Engelberg and Rastar Films, a production company founded by producer Ray Stark. Engelberg and Rastar had produced Needham’s directorial debut, Smokey and the Bandit (1977) which became one of the highest grossing films of 1977. Principal photography began 16 Oct 1978 on location in Monument Valley, AZ. Other filming sites in the state included Magma Mine, Benson, Rio Rico, the Flying V Ranch, and Western set of Old Tucson, outside Tucson, AZ.[1]

Filming

Parts of the film were shot at Monument Valley in Utah.[3]

Reception

Critical response

Most of the reviews of the film were negative. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one star, as did Walter J. Addiego of the San Francisco Examiner; Siskel described the film as "a direct ripoff of Tex Avery's marvelous Road Runner cartoons",[4][lower-alpha 1] while Addiego wrote that it contained "the sorriest collection of jokes in recent memory […] put together by a group who probably wouldn't make the grade in the Mel Brooks school of infantile humor."[5] Also giving the film one star was Kathleen Carroll, who, in the New York Daily News, summarized it as "a hopelessly stupid Western spoof about a hopelessly stupid gunfighter who learns his bad-guy tactics from studying a pulp novel titled "Badmen of the West" and who invariably ends up being outsmarted by his horse."[6] After the film premiered in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reviewer Linda Gross wrote:

The attitude of the entire movie is like one condescending dirty joke with lines like "What do you do when you capture a white woman?" or "I want to molest your lady friend."

Robert G. Kane, who worked for several years as a writer for Dean Martin's "Celebrity Roast", wrote the slim screenplay, which is full of such innuendoes. The humor has a smirky quality. Ann-Margret spends the entire movie trying to seduce Schwarzenegger, who keeps running off to gather firewood. It gets embarrassing.

"The Villain" is directed by former stuntman Hal Needham ("Smokey and the Bandit" and "Hooper"). Needless to say, the stunts, coordinated by Gary Combs, are pretty good, but the characters are like cartoons and the broad, burlesque humor is too simple to spoof.[7]

Lawsuit

In 1982, Needham sued the producers, claiming his company, Stuntman Inc., “received different treatment” in matters of equal profit participation among the parties of Rastar, Mort Engelberg, and Stuntman, Inc. In addition to asking for $250,000 in damages, Needham requested an audit of the picture’s finances.[1]

Notes

References

External links

• The Villain at IMDb
• The Villain at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Villain at the TCM Movie Database

На других языках

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- [en] The Villain (1979 film)

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[ru] Кактус Джек (фильм)

«Кактус Джек» (англ. The Villain, Злодей) — комедийный вестерн 1979 года. Один из первых фильмов с участием Арнольда Шварценеггера.

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