Customer Reviews

Brothers O'Toole [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While the movie itself is a very entertaining John Astin vehicle, the DVD is terribly disappointing. It's completely unrestored with severe film scratches, sparkles and audio pops throughout.
And to add insult to injury, there is a rather large, dark and distracting watermark in the lower right corner of the screen.
If you're looking for a high quality release of this film, look elsewhere.

"The Brothers O'Toole"(1973/R)...This was a slapstick kind of comedy/western, and it garnered more then a few chuckles from me.
John Astin and Steve Carlson are the brothers who can usually con their way into or out of any situation. Astin is the brains(and plays a double role), and Carlsen the ladies man. But when Astin is mistaken for a really bad hombre, and captured and held prisoner by the quirky towns folk while awaiting a hanging, they must figure their way out. A fabulous funny cast includes Pat Carroll,Jesse White, Lee Merriwether(in quite a different role for her)and Hans Conried provides some laughs as well.

For a really good deal you can get this funny western along with 7 other westerns onThe Great American Western 2/DVD The Gun and the Pulpit/Boot Hill/Gunfighters/Little Moon & Jud McGraw/The Jackals/My Outlaw Brother/Jory/The Brothers O'TooleThe volume is a mix of comedy and drama. For film details click on the product link I included above and see my review.

So if you are looking for a John Ford quality western, pass this one by, but for some rainy day fun with some fabulously funny actors, check it out. And by the way, although rated R the rating is no where near what an R film is today. I would probably consider it more along a PG-13 lines, but parents should probbly check it out first anyway.

Happy Trails...Laurie

recommended for more western fun:The Over the Hill Gang - AND - The Over the Hill Gang Rides Again
The Great American Western: Yuma, Wackiest Wagon Train in the West, Sunset Carson Rides Again, the Gunfighters

A generous 3 stars.

I've seen so many films after four decades of viewing that I'm trolling around trying to find unknown classics.
Caught a minnow this time.

Astin can be very funny and is the only real highlight here, but the script is so ham-handed it doesn't give him much to work with. The occasional funny line shines here and there, but the trope of satirizing westerns has been done so well elsewhere that it needs to be great to really carry one's interest, and Brothers O'Toole is almost never great. Good-hearted, yes, but that's about it.

It's the kind of film you were delighted to find at 3 am on your local tv channel in 1977, but it's now 2010 and we have literally tens of thousands of movies to choose from on tv, online, and at the vid store. In that light, it's hard to recommend watching this until one has seen maybe 500 other westerns. It's too slapstick and not quite as smart as it wants to be; one gets the feeling that half the cast and crew were in some way inebriated during the production, and it all feels like a sort of hippie-made western that never really comes off.

By the way, my tv analogy is no fluke: this print is from a tv airing! The print is fair, the transfer likewise...but get this: at various moments throughout, there's a TCM logo on the bottom right (Turner Classic Movies, probably). Yes, they made this dvd from a tv copy. I don't think I've ever seen that before. Yet somehow it's perfect, as that's what this feels like: a barely decent tv movie. Still, how did this get pressed for public consumption?! And also btw, the dvd is the barest bones ever, with one option: PLAY.

We got quite bored before it was halfway through, and laudable brevity is one of the best things about this movie. But unless you love Astin, and even then have seen most of his other films, I'd put this one near the bottom of your list.

Many and maybe most forgotten films were forgotten for a reason. Brothers O'Toole is certainly one of them. Not terrible, but neither is it very good. It's kinda like the Scooby-Doo of westerns: vaguely funny for the irony but after 30 minutes it's time to go mow the lawn.

Or at least change the channel.

About the only movie I consider funnier than "The Brothers O'Toole" (1973) is "The Big Lebowski" (1998). Both have the same combination of huge exaggeration coupled with subtle parody, exploding film conventions of their respective genres with completely out-of-place dialog. My appreciation of this no doubt speaks to a twisted sense of humor and an appreciation of the absurd; of which there is so little in more mainstream comedy features. So if you happen to be "Duckman" off-kilter, then "The Brothers O'Toole" is a film that you should seek out.

John Astin's success the year before in another western parody, "Evil Roy Slade" (1972), inspired a sequel of sorts. Or at least a reprise of his title role, this time playing a very similar extreme outlaw character named "Desperate" Ambrose J. Littleberry. When not busy terrorizing citizens, poor Desperate is a henpecked husband. An almost unrecognizable Lee Meriwether wonderfully overplays his shrewish wife Poloma. It is definitely her signature performance and I laugh every time I think about what the Miss America pageant people must have thought about this hysterical portrayal.

The humor in both films is nicely twisted but "The Brothers O'Toole" is several notches above "Evil Roy Slade" on the IQ scale, which may account for it being a bit more obscure. Think "Support Your Local Sheriff" vs "Support Your Local Gunfighter" for an example of the same type of comparative difference.

For Astin this is a duel role, as he and Steve Carlson play the title characters; a pair of too sophisticated drifter brothers Michael and Timothy O'Toole. Michael is an unambitious cardsharp and Timothy is a small-time rogue and roué. They come to the tiny town of Molybdenum, Colorado (Molly B'Damn to the locals) from separate disasters. Michael has just been ridden out of another town and Timothy is fleeing the shotgun wedding bells and angry father of his latest conquest, Bonnie Lou MacClanahan (Miranda Berry who is flat out irresistible).

The town is a collection of characters played by a collection of character actors like Richard Erdman, Pat Carroll, Allyn Joslyn (the reluctant sheriff), Jessie White (the slimy mayor). Joslyn and White are especially good, as is Hans Conried who plays a financier obviously modeled on Cornelius Vanderbilt.

The main plot device is mistaken identity as Michael O'Toole is mistaken for A. J. Littleberry and thrown in jail. Michael's summation at his trial and a later diatribe about the town are simply comedy classics, as is pretty much everything done and said by Richard Jury who plays the town's greedy undertaker, Harmon P. Lovejoy.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

The talking is fast. And plenty of camp. It is not "Blazing Saddles" (which is funny in a whole other direction) - there is hardly much swearing (except for just about all the characters saying "Molly-B-Damn" because they are too stupid to say "Molybdenum"). And much of the movie (I think) exists just to set up the 40 second monologue that John Astin gives toward the end. May be too slow or intellectual (???) by today's standards but I think this movie is a hoot!

Quirky western comedy starring John Astin (Gomez from the Addams Family TV series) in a dual role, as Michael O'Toole, sophisticated eastern con man; and as "Desperate" Ambrose, a seedy western bandito. O'Toole finds himself in a dilapidated mining town in western Colorado, named "Molybdenum"; but the residents can't pronounce it, so they call the town "Molly-Be-Damn". O'Toole is mistaken for Ambrose and arrested, but is acquitted at trial before a weary and confused circuit judge. When O'Toole tries to open a casino with stored gambling equipment, the mayor tries to sabotage opening day by hosting a "Belchin, Cussin, and Spittin Contest". Michael's brother Timothy enters the contest and draws the wrath of Michael, who lets loose a memorable speech that wins the cussin contest although it contains no cussing. If you like John Astin, and off-beat comedies, you will enjoy this movie. It's one of my favorite western comedies, and one that seems to have slipped under the radar for most people.

This always seemed like a sister film to Evil Roy Slade and, if you liked that one, you'll probably be happy with this, especially at the price. It's been a long time since I've seen this, so the rating is a guess, and it was a TV movie to begin with, so the quality is probably at Slade-level as well (okay with a standard-def display). A nice treat for lovers of comic westerns and/or John Astin.

This is a different kind of movie. its funny and entertaining. A laffable one. I hope you enjoy it. Pop some corn and relax and enjoy with a croud.

Two conartist brothers wander in to a western mining town that is fading away after the rush. One brother is jailed based on mistaken idenity and the other brother assumes it's part of a con-game. Astin, condemned to die, finally manages to escape and is ultimately cleared when the wife of the outlaw (also played by Astin) identifies the real culprit.

The brothers then hang around the town and start a casino to help the people. As this endevour fails, a parapetitic engineer is introduced to declare the town is sitting on a rare mineral and everyone is rich. A jilted bride, mentioned at the beginning shows up with her father wanting to proceed with the cerimony and the brothers take to the road again.

A disappointment after the film "Evil Roy Slade." Astin delivers what he can, but is trapped in a script that offers a sequence of events that hardly manages to masquarade as a plot, as my disjointed synopsis above displays. Some of the dialogue is clever,(thus the extra star) such as the cussing contest that Astin accidently wins while trying to berate the town's people. But generally, story events are unconnected (sometimes illogical), with later scenes untied to prior actions. Thus the audience is never invited to care about the movie's characters.

Visual quality is relatively poor, reflecting cheap production values when the movie was made. All in all, only the most harden Astin fan would want this in his collection.

Save your three bucks! This movie is one of the worst I have ever seen! It's slow and NOT FUNNY!