Movie Review: The Over-the-Hill Gang (1969) directed by Jean Yarbrough
Captain Oren Hayes (Pat O’Brien), (very) late of the Texas Rangers, is visiting his daughter Hannah Rose (Kristin Harmon) and son-in-law Jefferson Rose (Ricky Nelson) in Boulder, Nevada. Jeff, a newspaper publisher, is running for mayor on a reform platform. Current mayor Nard Lundy (Edward Andrews) owns not just the town’s biggest saloon, but Sheriff Clyde Barnes (Jack Elam) and judge Amos Polk (Andy Devine). It’s clear that the town’s crooked administration is willing to play dirty to stay in office.
As so often in this sort of story, the townsfolk are either cowed by the sheriff and his armed deputies, or apathetic to the corruption. So Captain Hayes decides to call on his best men from the Rangers days, Nash Crawford (Walter Brennan), Jason Fitch (Edgar Buchanan) and Gentleman George Agnew (Chill Wills). Which is a lovely idea, but there’s a bit of a problem. All of them have aged quite badly, and they’re no longer the strapping, eagle-eyed, lightning-fast men the Captain remembers. In fact, you could say they’re over the hill.
Faced with the reality of their diminished powers, the retired Rangers are initially unable to dislodge the corrupt mayor. With a little encouragement from the other saloon owner in town, Cassie (Gypsy Rose Lee), they realize they’ll have to rely on the cunning and trickery they’ve learned from a lifetime of law enforcement.
This comedic Western was an ABC Movie of the Week, and very well received, getting ABC’s top rating for the week, the first time a “made for TV” movie had done so. The cast is loaded with Western movie veterans, which no doubt gave a nostalgic thrill to audiences of the time. (I was a bit too young at the time to grasp who the actors were.)
The cast is having fun, and there are some comedic scenes that are right on target. At 70 minutes once all the commercials were cut out, the movie doesn’t overstay its welcome.
On the other hand, the places where commercial breaks would have gone are painfully obvious, and it’s clear that most of the money went into the casting rather than the cinematography. Some of the jokes are painful to watch because the script goes for the easiest laugh.
Content note: A couple of bloodless deaths, cheap jokes about poor eyesight. Should be okay for middle-schoolers on up.
Overall: A nice tribute to some fine actors perhaps past their prime. Well worth a view for fans of older Westerns. The final scene is a bit sad as the characters part, knowing that their age means they might never meet again, but they all came back for the sequel!
