Evil Roy Slade

Evil Roy Slade as mentioned in the review is a film that a lot of people are unaware of, and what a pity. If you have the sort of sense of humour related to Blazing Saddles then you will find this film a bonus. My Daughter watched this film when she was about 11 or 12 and loved it. I wont give anything away but look out for "Not wearing guns" and the "Shoe horn", classic stuff. Even though 30 years old I think the comedy still works, so find it, watch it and enjoy it.

Plot--An abandoned tyke grows up embracing everything silly and evil, eventually heading up an outlaw gang whose many shootouts never hit anything. The question is can he ever stop laughing at little old ladies and be accepted into polite society.

Hilarious spoof of all that was bright, shiny, and good in westerns of old. The tongue-in-cheek is done so well, it's impossible for former front-row-kids like myself to take offense. Astin's toothy, leering face is perfect as Slade. Every time he does something mean, like bump an old lady off the walkway, he flashes an evil leer.

But just as good as Astin is, the snappy one-liners keep coming. I love it when he does something mean and says that he's worked hard to reach rock bottom. Or his idea of complementing a girl when he says she's prettier than the sun glinting off a rifle barrel! And get a load of Shawn, duded out like a Vegas showgirl. But whatever you do, stay away from his guitar. Thanks to him, I expect the great Autry and Rogers are turning over in their fancy wardrobes. Anyway, the laughs keep coming as long as Slade's on screen.

My only gripe is that the comedic streak loses some momentum near the end as things serious up a bit. Then too, run-time was extended to give Berle some star exposure, even though his brand of verbal comedy appears miscast. Too bad that some kind of award is not given for farcical gems, because this wacko certainly deserves one, TV movie or no. And while we're at it, an award to Astin for the best comedic leer in town. All in all, a real little sleeper gem.

This movies was a masterpiece and a delight. Dick Shawn was stupendously funny, and the rest of the cast, perfectly cast. The movie was well directed ALWAYS kept you laughing and never let up. In this viewers opinion it is one of the 10 funniest and cleverest comedies of all times. I gave it a 10 and so did 297 people out of a possible 419 voters here on the data base. Will someone explain to me how you can have over half the votes a 10, have the Arithmetic mean = 9.1. The Median of 10.0 and still our beloved IMDb gives this movie a weighted average vote of 6.3? Come on I've heard of "weighted" but is the butchers hand on the scale here? Is it that those folks intellectual capacity just couldn't bare to see this film in the top ten of the top 100 movies? Hmmmmmm? Well guess what? The Direction, The Acting, The Script, and just the general "clevertude" (is there such a word?) Should put this film just about in the top 10 percent of films....Come on Fellas....be fair. At least level this out to 8.5 I can buy that a whole lot "weightedly" than 6.3 Just one viewers opinion.

Evil Roy Slade (Made For TV, 1972, director: Jerry Paris) - I first saw this movie when I was a small child (in an era of rather clever movies of the week), and then a few more times after that. I have not viewed it in over 25 years, however, but I still recall it being one of the funniest films I ever saw.

The humor was dark enough to attract my laughs, but not insulting or offensive (somewhere along the line, Hollywood forgot how to walk this delicate balance). Slade (John Astin, Gomez on TV's "Addams Family")is orphaned after a wagon train is attacked by Indians. No one (even the native-Americans or wolves) will aid him, so he ends up being raised by vultures with just an old teddy bear for a companion.

Naturally, he grows up mean and vile, eventually becoming the leader of a gang of bank robbers. During a heist, he meets pretty schoolmarm Betsy (Pam Austin) and it's love at first sight.

After he quits the gang, Becky tries to reform him, but railroad executive Mr. Stool (Mickey Rooney), hires retired singing sheriff, Big Bell (Dick Shawn, "It's A Mad, Mad Mad, Mad World") to capture the reforming outlaw.

With Dom DeLuise, Milton Berle, Edie Adams, John Ritter (later to star on "Three's Company"), Pat Morita (of "Karate Kid" fame) and narrated by Pat Butrum (Mr. Haney on "Green Acres"), "Evil Roy Slade" was one laugh riot from beginning to end. Maybe it's nostalgia for those good old days, but with others out there expressing the same viewpoint, I believe this picture still holds up well today.

Funniest line of dialogue that I remember: Betsy is trying to teach Slade mathematics. She asks, "You have three apples, and your neighbor has three apples. If he takes three of your apples, what do you have?" Slade: "A dead neighbor and all six apples."

Like a previous fan of this movie, I scored the movie a big 10. With so many other people also scoring it a ten, I am glad to see there are a lot of other people out there with a warped sense of humor. I also cannot understand why this movie only has a score of 5.7. I would like to know who owns the movie so that I could possibly convince them to put it out on DVD (in Australia - PAL system). With a score like this the movie will never be put out on DVD so that I can watch it at my leisure. Could I ask the person or persons who weighted the score down so heavily to please reconsider and let the movie get the recognition it deserves.