Review: El Diablo

Anthony Edwards plays a milquetoast schoolteacher who reads dime store western hero novels about gunslinger Kid Durango. When a pretty young local lady (Sarah Trigger) gets kidnapped by bandit El Diablo (Robert Beltran) and his gang, Edwards is irate. However, no one in town is willing to do anything about it. So the meek bookworm decides to go find the real Kid Durango to aid him in his quest to rescue the girl and defeat El Diablo. When he does find the Kid, he finds the real Kid Durango (played by Joe Pantoliano) is not quite what he’s written up to be.

 

So far as TV movie westerns go, this light-hearted 1990 offering from director Peter Markle (the ice hockey flick “Youngblood”, the notorious “Wagon’s East!”) is a pretty enjoyable one. The screenplay comes from western fan John Carpenter (director of “Halloween” and “They Live”) alongside Tommy Lee Wallace (director of “Halloween III: Season of the Witch”, and “Stephen King’s IT”) and Bill Phillips (who scripted Carpenter’s film version of “Christine”), with Carpenter also serving as executive producer. The clue to his involvement is perhaps an unconventional leading man in Anthony Edwards. Just as Carpenter turned the hero-sidekick dynamic on its head in his best film “Big Trouble in Little China”, we have a ‘hero’ here who is actually a milquetoast schoolteacher who is in over his head with any kind of violent heroics.

 

Carpenter and co. clearly viewed a lot of ‘townie’ westerns before making this, filling the early section of the film with familiar western character types, with a sorta-young Jim Beaver even turning up as the requisite ‘Gabby’ Hayes/Denver Pyle-type. The underrated Anthony Edwards is immediately perfect as the tenderfoot who wants to be a hero and rescue the girl. He’s brave enough, just completely out of his element. Edwards looks comically absurd in his woolly chaps being dragged by an unruly horse. Far less effective is “Star Trek” actor Robert Beltran as the chief villain. He lacks any presence or menace whatsoever. Even worse, he is off-screen for about 90% of the film. The main villain! His El Diablo sure as hell isn’t as bad arse as the ZZ Top song of the same name. Sarah Trigger was one of several nondescript blondes of the time who came and went without much notice in the 90s, and she doesn’t really make you notice her here either as the love interest/kidnappee. Aside from those two, the only flaw here is that it’s a touch episodic.

 

We get some pretty good character work elsewhere in the cast. Lou Gossett Jr. is having fun here as the experienced gunslinger who aids our wannabe hero. He’s a really underrated actor who some might suggest squandered his Oscar clout with subsequent “Iron Eagle” films, Chuck Norris’ “Firewalker”, etc. However, watch him in “Roots”, “Diggstown”, “Skin Game”, “Enemy Mine” and this film and you’ll see he’s a good and versatile talent. The underrated John Glover is jolly good fun as a huckster preacher, and M.C. Gainey is always good value, here playing kind of a good guy for a change. Miguel Sandoval has some of his best moments as a likeable Mexican bandit, while veteran action movie punching bag Branscombe Richmond even turns up as a Native American with face paint that more resembles WCW-era Sting. And when you finally meet the storied Kid Durango, it’s the last actor you expect and the last kind of accent you expect from him: an effete Joe Pantoliano with a slight English accent, in a fun, eccentric performance from one of the best and most prolific character actors of the 80s and 90s. One of the highlights of the entire film comes from Gainey’s facial expression upon seeing white-haired, white horse-riding dandy Pantoliano. It’s priceless. The film is full of little amusements like that, if not many bigger amusements.

 

I can see why this lightweight TV western isn’t especially well-known or well-remembered. However, I’d recommend it, especially if you enjoy light-hearted westerns or Anthony Edwards. He gets a good showing of his talents here and if the film were made in an earlier decade it would’ve gotten a theatrical showing and an appreciative audience. A likeable B-movie that might hit the spot if you’re in the right mood.

 

Rating: B-