MORE WILD WILD WEST

US, 1980, 94 minutes, Colour.
Robert Conrad, Ross Martin, Jonathan Winters, Joyce Brothers, Harry Morgan, Rene Auberjonois, Victor Buono, Emma Samms.
Directed by Burt Kennedy.

More Wild Wild West is a feature based on the very popular television series The Wild Wild West of the '60s. There was another feature, telemovie, The Wild Wild West Revisited.

This telemovie takes the central characters, played by Robert Conrad and Ross Martin, agents of Washington in the 19th. century, and gives them tongue-in-cheek adventures. The film is full of ironic humour - an American version of, say, The Avengers from Britain. All in all, the entertainment is quite delightful and eccentric.

Conrad and Martin are effective as heroes. Conrad is the romantic type -being pursued by a Mexican lady and her sharpshooting family. Martin is an actor who enjoys donning disguises. Harry Morgan is their boss - and does a comic 1980 comment about CIA and spies.

However, it is the minor characters and guest stars who are enjoyable. This film focuses on Jonathan Winters as a western celebrity who, in the vein of Dennis Price in Kind Hearts and Coronets, murders all his relations by spectacular explosions around Europe - all done in humorous style with Winters himself portraying each victim. He is manager of a circus in the West, a master of explosives as well as having the capacity for making himself invisible. Winters is excellent in this role. Rene Auberjonois is an eccentric British military man. But, best of all, is Victor Buono as Dr. Messenger. He looks and speaks like Henry Kissinger - and indeed his role as Under Secretary of State organising international visitors for a peace conference -(quite explosive) is an expert parody of Dr Kissinger, making the film worth seeing.

Direction is by Burt Kennedy, who directed a number of excellent westerns during the '60s and '70s both serious (Welcome to Hard Times) and comic (Support Your Local Sheriff). He made several John Wayne features (The War Wagon, The Train Robbers) and Robert Mitchum vehicles (Young Billy Young, The Good Guys and the Bad Guys). This film is in typical Burt Kennedy vein.