Bandido (1956)

INFORMATION FROM IMDb

Plot Summary
American arms dealer Kennedy hopes to make a killing by selling to the "regulares"
in the 1916 Mexican revolution.
American mercenary Wilson favors the rebel faction headed by Escobar,
and they plot to hijack Kennedy's arms; but Wilson also has his eye on Kennedy's wife.
Raids, counter-raids, and escapes follow in a veritable hail of bullets.
Written by Rod Crawford

Cast
Robert Mitchum ... Wilson
Ursula Thiess ... Lisa Kennedy
Gilbert Roland ... Colonel José Escobar
Zachary Scott ... Kennedy
Rodolfo Acosta ... Sebastian
José Torvay ... Gonzalez (as Jose Torvay)
Henry Brandon ... Gunther
Douglas Fowley ... McGhee
and many more...

Directed
Richard Fleischer

Writing Credits
Earl Felton ... (story and screenplay)

Produced
Robert L. Jacks ... producer

Music
Max Steiner

Cinematography
Ernest Laszlo ... (photographed by)

Trivia
The film was shot on many of the actual battle sites of the 1916 Mexican revolution,
the period during which this film is set.
Many of the older Mexicans hired as extras in the film were former soldiers of Pancho Villa
and others were former government troops who fought them.

The film was a collaboration between Robert Mitchum's
independent production company DRM Productions
and Robert L. Jacks Productions and it marked Mitchum's first producing effort.

Goofs
Continuity
When Kennedy confronts Wilson and Lisa at the stairs
the long shot from behind Kennedy's shoulder show Wilson holding Lisa's right forearm
as she stands to Wilson's left and slightly behind.
The following close shot shows Wilson holding Lisa's left forearm with her half-hidden behind him.

Errors in geography
Near the end of the movie Robert Mitchum says the barges with the arsenal are at Playa Blanca,
which is on Mexico's west coast NW of Acapulco.
In the final scene after telling Gilbert Roland that he was headed north toward
the border where he left Ursula Thiess in a "pawn shop",
he trots along the beach with the Pacific Ocean on his right -- clearly heading south.

Filming Locations
Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico (street scenes)
Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico
Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico
Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico
Yaltapec, Mexico
Bavispe, Sonora, Mexico
Torreón, Coahuíla, Mexico
Churubusco Studios, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico (studio)

Bandido is a 1956 American Western film starring Robert Mitchum.
The supporting cast includes Ursula Thiess, Gilbert Roland, and Zachary Scott.

The film, set in the Mexican Revolution and filmed on location around Acapulco,
was written by Earl Felton and directed by Richard Fleischer. Robert Mitchum
also co-produced the film through his DRM Productions company.

Production
The film was based on an original screen story by Earl Fenton called Horse Opera.
It was about an American movie company in the early 1900s who is captured by Pancho Villa.
The hero was a soldier of fortune, the right hand man to Pancho Villa,
who falls for the movie company's leading lady, rescues her from Villa,
takes her to Hollywood and becomes a movie star.

A producer, Robert L Jacks liked it and set up the film at United Artists,
with Robert Mitchum to star and Richard Fleischer to direct.
Fleischer had worked with Fenton several times but says the screenwriter
wrote a script which diverted significantly from the original treatment,
removing the movie company, the leading lady, Hollywood and Pancho Villa.
Fleischer wanted to pull out of the project but United Artists were worried
they would lose Mitchum and threatened to sue

This film was shot on location in Mexico at Cuernavaca, Tepetlán, Palo Balero in Xochitepec,
Yautepec de Zaragoza, Acapulco, Iguala and the Hotel Hacienda in Cocoyoc, Morelos.

Reception
Fleischer wrote that the film "turned out to be quite a good, commercially successful picture.
It has, however, absolutely nothing to do with the picture I started out to make."

User Review

Possibly the essential Mitchum is to be found in Fleischer's "Bandido."
15 September 2002 | by Righty-Sock (Mexico)

Quote from righty

The Mitchum Adventurer combines awareness and intelligence with a drawling, almost sleepy relaxation... Possibly the essential Mitchum is to be found in this standard action movie - Mitchum stands fearlessly on the balcony of 'Villa Hidalgo' hotel, with a glass of scotch in his hand, to observe the local war, and lob a few hand grenades at the side

which is going to pay him less for his services as a gun-runner...

Mitchum is clearly an adventurer by nature who prefers to make love than war... He does not set out with the intention of fighting in the Mexican civil war... but gets caught up in the struggle of Gilbert Roland and his rebels against the repressive Federales...

Lisa Kennedy, the Thiess character, encounters him soon... and gradually comes to love his nonchalant... laid-back stance... (As usual, Mitchum radiates dignity, intelligence and quiet strength... )

There is an endless battle... followed by a bout of drink... followed by an assault on an ammunition train... followed by a chase across a swamp... followed by a confrontation between rebels and federal troops... and with hundreds of extras running through dust and dodging explosions while nothing much is actually happening...

Gilbert Roland fares better at suggesting the turbulent emotions roiling beneath masculine bravado... His Escobar has a positive flaw: he's desperate for bullets and explosives...

Robert Mitchum was far from being the man in the street, this movement towards increasing involvement made him the representative of the audience in a way that figures of more obviously heroic stature - Peck or Wayne or Gary Cooper - cannot be. His screen persona differed from theirs in its apparent accessibility, without losing the essentially heroic dimension of capacity for action, an ability to deal with situations as they arise...

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