Ross Bodine (William Holden) and Frank Post (Ryan O'Neal) are a couple of cowboys complaining about life. They work for cattleman Walter Buckman (Karl Malden). They play with the idea of robbing a bank and riding off to Mexico. They are forced into a fight and wreck the saloon. Walter holds back their wages to pay off the damages. The two men see no way out other than to really do the robbery. Ross robs banker Joe Billings while Frank holds his wife Sada hostage. They allow him to keep some money to pay the local cowboys but Sada convinces him to steal it. Walter is angry that his two employees did the robbing. His two sons, John Buckman (Tom Skerritt) and Paul Buckman (Joe Don Baker), join the posse.
The poster is a little funny. The intention seems to be portraying this a light fun action western. I don't actually find it funny. It tries to be light at times. Mostly, it's bit muddled and long. I would rather have some better action. Blake Edwards is using too much slow motion when he doesn't need it. The bank robbery should be better. The horse roundup is the best action. Otherwise, the action is less than impressive. All in all, this is fine but I would find a comedian to be one of the leads especially if Blake intends this as a comedy. Apparently, the studio took over the finishing and Blake disowned the final product. At least, he got material for another film. I doubt he has a sense of the western genre.
