The Villain

The Villain is a 1979 American comedy Western directed by Hal Needham. The story follows Charming Jones, a young woman travelling to a neighbouring town to collect a large sum of money from a bank on behalf of her father. A wealthy, unscrupulous banker wants the money for himself, so he hires the outlaw Cactus Jack to rob her along the way. Charming is accompanied by Handsome Stranger, a good-looking but somewhat naive cowboy hired to protect her, and Cactus Jack's repeated attempts to seize the cash go badly wrong every time.

Kirk Douglas plays the would-be robber, with Ann-Margret as Charming, Arnold Schwarzenegger as her escort and Paul Lynde as Nervous Elk, among a credited cast of 27. Robert G. Kane wrote the screenplay and Mort Engelberg produced; the film runs 89 minutes. It was Needham's third feature as director, arriving between Hooper and Smokey and the Bandit II, after he had established himself with Smokey and the Bandit.

Released on 26 July 1979, the film had a budget of 5 million US dollars. On IMDb it holds a rating of 5.3 out of 10 from around 8,400 votes, and on TMDB a rating of 5.8 out of 10 from 168 votes. A critics' rating of 3.7 out of 10 from seven reviews places it below both audience measures, so reactions were consistently muted rather than divided.