The Bandits (1967)

Robert Conrad is Chris Barrett, a bandit who’s been caught by bounty hunters along with friends Josh Racker (Roy Jenson) and Taye Brown (Jan-Michael Vincent).

But they’re rescued from the hangman’s noose by Mexican rancher Valdez (Manuel Lopez Ochoa) and his men, then help Valdez fight off an attack by French under the command of the vicious Capt. Sanchez.

By the time the fighting ends, Valdez has lost his brother and returns home with just two amigos and the three gringos.

But that’s still enough men, he figures, to retrieve a stash of $100,000 in gold they’ve stolen from the French and that’s been hidden at a nearby monastery.

The question: Will the gringos agree to help Valdez and the Mexicans in their fight with the French? And, if so, what will be their price for doing so?

Manuel Lopez Ochoa as Valdez with Robert Conrad as Chris Barrett in The Bandits (1967)

Review:

Fans of Robert Conrad and Jan-Michael Vincent — this was his first film — will probably enjoy this more than other viewers, who are more likely to focus on a thin plot and some implausible scenes.

Take the film’s opening. Valdez’s men open fire on the bounty hunters. Bullets are whizzing all over the place. Bodies are falling. But Conrad and his comrades manage to twist and crane their necks to keep from hanging, and their brave horses never spook.

And during a short stay at Valdez’s hacienda, two of the gringos — played by Conrad and Vincent — manage to fall in love with Mexican beauties. Roy Jenson? He drinks so much a far less attractive Mexican woman looks pretty enough to bed, a decision he’ll regret the next morning in one of this film’s stabs at humor.

Conrad also co-wrote and co-directed this film, made in Mexico while on hiatus from “The Wild Wild West.” Perhaps the most interesting thing about the film is that there are alternate endings for English and Spanish viewers.

Jan-Michael Vincent as Taye (Boy) Brown in The Bandits (1967)

Roy Jenson as Josh Racker in The Bandits (1967)

Directed by:
Robert Conrad &
Alfredo Zacarias

Cast:
Robert Conrad … Chris Barrett
Jan-Michael Vincent … Taye “Boy” Brown
Manuel Lopez Ochoa … Valdez
Roy Jenson … Josh Racker
Pedro Armendariz Jr. … Priest
Maria Duva … Valdez’s wife

Also in cast: Quintin Bulnes, Jose Luis Caro, Jose Chavez, Elizabeth Dupeyron, Juan Antonio Edwards, Jose Angel Espinosa Ferrusquilla, Pascual Garcia Pena, Jose Loze, Joaquin Martinez, Jose Eduardo Perez. Hortensia Santovena, Fanny Schiller

Runtime: 88 min.

Robert Conrad as Chris Barrett in The Bandits (1967)

The dark-haired beauty who turns the head of Taye Brown (Jan-Michael Vincent) in The Bandits (1967)

Memorable lines:

Josh Racker, as he hangs from a tree: “It’s not dying I mind, it’s having pigs like this cash in on it.”

Chris Barrett, upon receiving a cool reception at Valdez’s hacienda: “I thought these were your people.”
Valdez: “My people hate the gringos as much as the French.”

Taye Brown: “What good is gold when you’re looking up from the ground (dead).”

Capt. Sanchez harasses Chris’s girl in The Bandits (1967)