The above line of dialog is all you need to know about the abbreviated mental capacity of the two lead characters played by Paul Newman and Lee Marvin, and why they were such losers trying to be important cattle brokers in Mexico, and of course failing miserably. The Summary quote above was just one of Marvin's many bright ideas that went nowhere.
Newman and Marvin were terrific here, but two other stars in this comedy, to me, were Marvin's great old '60's red Buick convertible and, of course, the terrific Strother Martin, whose hilarious line of "wait, wait, wait" in this film was almost as effective as his very famous one in Cool Hand Luke and his less famous one in Butch Cassidy of, "yes, there are plenty of jobs don't you want to know why?" He was the best at memorable lines, and he had some of the best ones in many of Newman's films over the years. Wayne Rogers(MASH) was in it too, playing a cattle buying middleman who was just about as dumb as the star characters.
This film was very entertaining in the very funny and goofy way Newman and Marvin played off each other with their lines, both thinking they were so clever when they were really just abject loser dopes. Newman's character was actually a good and simple guy underneath it all but he was just too dumb to breath out, and Marvin's sleazy small time crook and deal negotiator character thought he was so clever but was actually laughable in his incompetency. "Spies are everywhere", he said as he grossly overestimated his importance to the world, which was next to nothing.
Reminded me a lot of old Laurel and Hardy film stories, where great plans always came to nothing after much useless, but hilarious, activity.
Very entertaining film and a lot better than its rating for the very funny interplay of these 3 terrific actors.
