Before there was Blazing Saddles, Garry Marshall took the same satirical pen to the old west and the old western that Mel Brooks did and manage to fashion Evil Roy Slade. With John Astin in the title role, the film is about an outlaw who no matter how hard he tries just can't seem to change his lawbreaking ways. Even with the incentive of schoolmarm Pamela Austin and a marriage promise, Astin is unredeemable.
This film seems like a mini reunion of It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World with key roles in the comedy going to Edie Adams, Milton Berle, Mickey Rooney, and Dick Shawn. Rooney has some good scenes as the railroad tycoon who Astin keeps robbing, especially with Henry Gibson playing Rooney's not too bright son. Very similar to how Mel Brooks cast himself as the governor in Blazing Saddles.
Shawn also in the end may prove to be the last singing cowboy ever to grace the big screen. Check in his scene how one of those early RCA phonographs is playing a modern LP of Shawn warbling some cowboy ditties. Shawn is the retired marshal who Rooney lures out of retirement to get Astin. Very good work by him as well.
Sad to say that Evil Roy Slade was put into the shade somewhat by the better known and bigger budgeted Blazing Saddles. Still this is a very funny film with a lot of talented people at their best.
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