The Kissing Bandit

1948
U
1h 40m

IMDb RATING

5.3/10

729

YOUR RATING

Ricardo, the milquetoast son of a Mexican bandit, would rather lead a quiet life in Boston. But the family would rather that he follow in his father's footsteps and become "The Kissing Bandit".

Play trailer3:24

1 Video

17 Photos

Comedy Musical Western

Ricardo, the milquetoast son of a Mexican bandit, would rather lead a quiet life in Boston. But the family would rather that he follow in his father's footsteps and become "The Kissing Bandi... Read allRicardo, the milquetoast son of a Mexican bandit, would rather lead a quiet life in Boston. But the family would rather that he follow in his father's footsteps and become "The Kissing Bandit".Ricardo, the milquetoast son of a Mexican bandit, would rather lead a quiet life in Boston. But the family would rather that he follow in his father's footsteps and become "The Kissing Bandit".

Director
- Laslo Benedek
Writers
- John Briard Harding
- Isobel Lennart
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.3/10

729

YOUR RATING

Director
- Laslo Benedek
Writers
- John Briard Harding
- Isobel Lennart
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

User reviews24

Featured review

Really Bad Role for Sinatra

The Kissing Bandit (1948)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Chico (J. Carrol Naish) has Ricardo (Frank Sinatra) come to Mexico because it turns out that he's the son of the infamous Kissing Bandit. Chico plans on taking the guy, who has been staying in Boston, and turning him into the next Kissing Bandit to steal more than just the heart from Teresa (Kathryn Grayson) but Ricardo has other ideas.

THE KISSING BANDIT is apparently a film that Sinatra hated making and it's pretty obvious that this film simply wasn't meant for him. While going through some Sinatra pictures on Turner Classic Movies, host Robert Osborne made some good comments about the legends early days at MGM. Instead of playing off his image and music, MGM instead decided to make Sinatra play nerdy roles where the characters didn't know how to speak to women and usually made a fool of themselves. With these types of roles it's easy to see why Sinatra's career would pretty much crumble before being rescued with FROM HERE TO ETERNITY.

As for THE KISSING BANDIT, it's pretty darn bad on several levels but we can start with Sinatra who is downright awful here. Why on Earth anyone would think this would be a good role for him is just mind-blowing and you have to wonder if someone in MGM's office really wanted to kill his career with this film. Playing a Mexican bandit is just downright stupid and especially with there being no attempt for even an accent. It's also clear that Sinatra isn't giving the character much effort but I guess we can't blame him.

Naish and Grayson are both good in their roles and I'd argue that the Technicolor is quite good and at least gives us some pretty stuff to look at. With that being said, the rest of THE KISSING BANDIT is rather bad with some really boring dance numbers and all of the songs are rather forgettable. One has to wonder what Sinatra thought about singing these things.

THE KISSING BANDIT is a film Sinatra hated and it's easy to see why.

Videos1

Trailer 3:24

Official Trailer

Photos17

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Storyline

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Trivia
Frank Sinatra did not want to make this movie, feeling that he was not right for the part. (He was right. It was more of a Bob Hope-type vehicle.) But the studio, anxious to build him up as a leading man, forced him to be in it. He stated later that he never watched the film, since he was embarrassed by the whole thing. Kathryn Grayson likewise disliked the film, saying that it was her least favorite of all her films. In later years, Don Rickles would often zing Sinatra about it; e.g., "Frank, I saw 'The Kissing Bandit.' It's over."

Goofs
The intro placards introduce "California, when it was ruled by Spain". Then the first character is wearing a Mexican hat and requires payment in pesos. This is accurate because California was part of Mexico (New Spain) when it was under Spanish rule, and "peso" was the informal name of the Spanish piece of eight in the American colonies.

Quotes
Ricardo: Chico, I know all about the hotel business. I've studied! Look, I brought my cookbooks and plans to make this the finest hotel in all California. I - hot water in every room. Clean sheets on every bed. And window boxes. Window boxes in every window with pretty flowers.