General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Villain (1979 film)

The Villain is a 1979 American Western comedy directed by Hal Needham, in which the bumbling outlaw "Cactus Jack" Slade (Kirk Douglas) repeatedly fails to rob a cash shipment escorted by the naive cowboy Handsome Stranger (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and the flirtatious Charming Jones (Ann-Margret). Needham described the picture as a "'Roadrunner' cartoon done with live characters," and it was his third feature film as director.¹

Key fact	Detail
Release	20 July 1979 (New York opening); Los Angeles opening 3 August 1979; MPAA rating PG¹
Runtime and format	89 minutes, color, sound, Panavision lenses and camera¹
Lead cast	Kirk Douglas (Cactus Jack), Ann-Margret (Charming Jones), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Handsome Stranger)¹
Key crew	Director Hal Needham; writer Robert G. Kane; producer Mort Engelberg; cinematographer Bobby Byrne¹
Budget	$4.5 million per a 4 Oct 1978 Los Angeles Times article; a 6 Dec 1978 Variety article listed costs at $6 million¹
Critical reception	0% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 7 reviews; Metascore 22, "Generally Unfavorable"²^•³
Audience score	39% on the Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter from more than 5,000 ratings²

Spoilers

Plot

Cactus Jack Slade arrives in the Western town of Snakes End and tries to rob the local bank; his explosives destroy the building but fail to crack the safe, and when his stubborn horse, Whiskey, refuses to help him escape, he is caught and jailed.¹ Meanwhile the silver mine owner Parody Jones sends his daughter Charming to Snakes End to collect a large cash loan, and asks the strong, kind-hearted cowboy Handsome Stranger to escort her home. Charming is captivated by the muscular cowboy, but the simpleminded Handsome appears oblivious to her flirtation.¹

The crooked bank owner Avery Simpson offers to buy Jack out of jail, plus a $500 payment, if Jack will rob Charming; if the cash never reaches Parody, Simpson keeps the money and takes control of the silver mine put up as collateral. Jack agrees, receives a $20 advance, and immediately spends it at the saloon.¹ Sony Pictures' synopsis adds that Handsome owes Parody Jones his life, and that Jack schemes to double-cross the double-crosser while plotting to outsmart Handsome with slapstick determination.⁴

Production

The picture was financed independently by producer Mort Engelberg and Rastar Films, the production company founded by producer Ray Stark. Engelberg and Rastar had also produced Needham's directorial debut, Smokey and the Bandit (1977), one of the highest-grossing films of 1977.¹ Before turning to directing, Needham was one of Hollywood's top stuntmen and stunt coordinators, and, without onscreen credit, he had worked as a stunt double for Douglas on In Harm's Way (1965), The War Wagon (1967), and The Way West (1967).¹

Filming began on 16 October 1978 on location in Monument Valley, Arizona, with other Arizona sites including Magma Mine, Benson, Rio Rico, the Flying V Ranch, and the Old Tucson Western set outside Tucson; shooting was scheduled to finish by 3 December 1978.¹ The film was copyrighted by The Villain Company on 17 September 1979 (PA44982).¹ The Numbers lists Columbia Pictures and Rastar Production as production and financing companies and records a wide domestic release on 20 July 1979 by Columbia.⁵

Supporting cast included Paul Lynde as Nervous Elk, Jack Elam as Avery Simpson, Strother Martin as Parody Jones, Foster Brooks as the bank clerk, Ruth Buzzi as the Damsel in Distress, Robert Tessier as Mashing Finger, and country singer Mel Tillis as the telegrapher; Bill Justis composed the score.⁵ The title song, with music and lyrics by Buddy Cannon, Bob Younts, and Billy Williams, was performed by Mel Tillis.⁶ End credits are superimposed alongside scenes of Cactus Jack's various sight gags from the film.¹

Reception

The film was poorly received by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 0% Tomatometer from 7 reviews, against a 39% Popcornmeter audience score from more than 5,000 ratings.² Metacritic records a Metascore of 22, "Generally Unfavorable," with 6 of 7 critic reviews negative and 1 mixed.³

Contemporary reviews were consistently dismissive. Variety wrote, "Rarely has so much talent been used to so little purpose."³ Janet Maslin of The New York Times observed that Douglas does a lot of stunts, some reasonably good, but that these form the would-be comic backbone of a movie after "heehaws" rather than laughs, which it does not get.³ Newsweek's David Ansen judged that, at 90 minutes, "this cartoon is about 80 minutes too long."³ Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "the sort of dumb comedy that never smartens up," faulting Needham's fragmented depiction of stunt sequences and noting that the film tries and fails to impose a genuinely cartoon-style gag in which Douglas paints a false tunnel entrance on a mountainside that the others drive through but he cannot.⁷ Judith Martin, reviewing for the same paper, placed the film alongside The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again in the family-comedy tradition of head bonks, ineptitude, and bosom gags.⁸

Audience response has been warmer than the critics'. Rotten Tomatoes users describe it as a Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon come to life, praise Mel Tillis's soundtrack, and single out Paul Lynde's chief character as a highlight.² Blu-ray.com lists a box office figure of $9,000,000.⁹ The film was released on video by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on 1 January 2002, and Sony lists it as available on DVD.⁵^•⁴

Place in Needham's career

The Villain followed Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and Hooper (1978) as Needham's third feature as director, reuniting him with Douglas, whom he had once doubled in stunts.¹ The Washington Post's Gary Arnold contrasted it with those successes: where Smokey had played like a happy, spontaneous accident, The Villain played like an academic exercise, with little conviction behind its kidding of Western cliches.⁷ The film remains one of the lesser-known entries in Schwarzenegger's filmography, made four years before his breakthrough in Conan the Barbarian.¹⁰

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026