Wild Rovers *** (1971, William Holden, Ryan O’Neal, Karl Malden, Tom Skerritt, Joe Don Baker, Lynn Carlin, Rachel Roberts) – Classic Movie Review 10,115

Writer-director Blake Edwards’s 1971 Western film Wild Rovers stars old-timer William Holden from The Wild Bunch and Ryan O’Neal fresh from Love Story as two likeable cowboy ruffians, Ross Bodine and Frank Post, cowhands on Walt Buckman’s R-Bar-R ranch, forced on the run to Mexico after they rob the local bank.

Their employer Walt Buckman (Karl Malden) and his two sons, John (Tom Skerritt) and Paul (Joe Don Baker), are incensed at this betrayal by their employees, and the two sons set off to chase after them.

The public rejected Edwards’s buddy-buddy Western intended to rival the success of the 1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But there is plenty of brawling action, a rousing performance by Holden, heading a fine cast, plus a quality score by Jerry Goldsmith and beautiful Metrocolor photography by Philip H Lathrop.

Wild Rovers (1971) with Ryan O’Neal.

The MGM studio hacked it down to 106 minutes for release in 1971, but, happily, the 136 minutes fully restored version is now also available as the extended Director’s Cut.

Edwards hired Jerry Goldsmith because his regular composer Henry Mancini was working on another movie.

Also in the cast are Lynn Carlin, Rachel Roberts, Joe Don Baker, Moses Gunn, James Olson, Leora Dana, Victor French, Sam Gilman, Charles H Gray, William Bryant, Jack Garner, Caitlin Wyles, Mary Jackson, William Lucking, Ed Bakey, Ted Gehring, Alan Carney, Ed Long, Lee de Broux, Hal Lynch, Boyd ‘Red’ Morgan, Bennie E Dobbins, Bob Beck, Geoffrey Edwards. Herb Tanney, Bruno VeSota, Dick Crockett and Patrick Sullivan Burke.

Despite its box-office failure, apparently grossing only $277,092, Holden immediately went into another Western, The Revengers (1972). He worked with Edwards again on S.O.B. (1981), Holden’s last film.

Julie Andrews recalled that her film-maker husband Blake Edwards ‘had six ideas a day’.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,115

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