For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I remember this movie being shown on TV every Christmas day for years and I fell about laughing every time I saw it. Then it disappeared from the screen and Christmas afternoon was never the same. It was never even available on videotape. Then one day I found a DVD copy online from the US and Christmas is back. Even though it is 40 years after it was made my son in law can't stop laughing when I play it and now the grandchildren are getting into it as well. The quotes don't stop. If only they made shows like this today, there is nothing wrong with humour that doesn't involve obscenities. Classic comedy, this deserves to be in the top 100 comedy movies of all time (I would have it in the top 10 but I am biased.) Pure gold.

When I saw 'Evil Roy Slade' on daytime television sometime in the '80's, I assumed it was intended to cash-in on the success of Mel Brooks' 'Blazing Saddles' ( 1974 ). The made-for-television comedy Western features a few of Brooks' supporting players, as well as employing a similar mad-cap sense of humour.John Astin ( 'Gomez' from 'The Addams Family' ) plays the titular character, an outlaw whom no-one has ever loved, a man with a fondness for wearing black and robbing banks and trains, usually those belonging to millionaire 'Nelson Stool' ( Mickey Rooney ), known in some quarters as 'Stubby Index Finger' on account of his...stubby index finger ( cowboys even sing songs about it ). Whilst robbing a bank, Slade meets and falls for ( and who wouldn't? ) the lovely schoolteacher 'Betsy Potter' ( Pamela Austen ). She wants him to go straight, and he is so smitten with her he agrees. But to do this he needs £50,000. As he does not have it ( his gang blew all their ill-gotten gains on bullets and spilt whisky ), he decides to steal it. Tired of forever being robbed by Slade, Stool brings out of retirement the legendary Marshal Bing Bell ( Dick Shawn )...Like I said, I thought this was a 'Blazing Saddles' knock-off until I saw it was made in 1972 - two years before Brooks' picture broke new ground ( and wind ) in comedy. It was written by Jerry Belson and Garry Marshall, the team behind the hit series 'The Odd Couple' ( Marshall later directed 'Pretty Woman' starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere ). Though as you would expect it is nowhere near as vulgar as Brooks' film, it occasionally manages to get a bit near the knuckle, such as Slade forcing a crippled man to dance by shooting at his legs, a blacksmith turning out to be a black man named Smith, and Dom DeLuise's outrageously gay psychiatrist. The director, Jerry Paris, later made several entries in the 'Police Academy' franchise.Though Rooney gets top billing, its Astin's film and he's great, though basically 'Gomez' in a stetson. Milton Berle is also good as Betsy's well-meaning uncle, who gets Slade a job in a shoe shop. When shoes won't fit the feet of one customer, Slade whacks them with a stick so as to make them swell up. The worst part for Slade about going straight is having to make do without his guns. As soon as he takes them off, he finds he cannot walk! But the film really hits its comic stride with the arrival of 'Marshal Bing Bell', hilariously played by the late Dick Shawn. The character is a parody of 'singing cowboys' such as Roy Rogers. The sight of him galloping across the prairie in a Liberace-styled white suit covered in sequins and singing a flat song on a guitar is hysterical.Funniest moment - Slade gatecrashes Betsy's wedding, only to find he has been lured into a trap. Everyone present - including the caterers - have brought along guns. The only one without is the organist!Things To Look Out For - a small appearance by Penny Marshall as a bank teller. She later became famous through playing 'Laverne' in the hit sitcom 'Laverne & Shirley'.

Orphaned as a baby and raised by buzzards (!) John Astin is the meanest (and quite possibly the dumbest) man in the west and a thorn in the side of railroad man Mickey Rooney. Falling in love for the first time, he vows to go straight and takes a job as a shoe salesman in Milton Berle's store!This made-for-television movie, co-written and produced by Garry Marshall, is probably the funniest ever made, with a seemingly endless barrage of hilarious sight-gags and one-liners, as well as a fun cast of comedic stars like Henry Gibson, Pat Morita, John Ritter, Ed Begley Jr., Penny Marshall, and Dick Shawn as a flamboyant rhinestone covered lawman.A few of the best scenes involve Astin's stagecoach fight with iconic little-person Billy Curtis, who's probably best remembered for High Plains Drifter and The Terror Of Tiny Town, and psychiatrist Dom DeLuise's attempts to cure him of his wickedness. The scene where he teaches Astin how to walk again, this time without guns, is a riot!This really should have been given a theatrical release. It's that good!

I loved this movie when I first saw it. I used to have guys over to watch and we would be rolling on the floor laughing. We have an unofficial club that often quotes some of the lines. I even made my wife get up at 2 a.m. to watch it (1977, no VCR at the time). She was not keen at the time but loves it now.The characters, John Astin, Mickey Rooney and the rest, were spectacular in their roles. Some of my favourite scenes are the "shoe horn", "close window to break with gun before shooting", "many of my friends met their maker swinging like that", actually the list is endless.Another classic comment about this movie is that no one gets killed (well almost no one). Even though they are shooting at each other within a couple of feet, they all seem to miss hitting one another. This adds to the humorous aspect of the truly funny movie.I too wish this was on DVD. I cannot understand why NBC or whomever does not put out a DVD copy. Fantastic movie. If you want a side splitter this would be the best movie to get or rent..