Bronco Billy Movie Review - Starring Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke

By David Terr

"Bronco Billy" is a thoroughly entertaining film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. The storyline and acting are both quite good. I also think the film tells an important lesson about life, which is to strive to become the person you want to be, regardless of your upbringing or past experiences.

Bronco Billy (Eastwood) runs a Western-theme traveling circus show around the country. The cast of the show travel in various cars and trucks, though they hardly make any money. Meanwhile, Billy is looking for a new girl for his knife throwing act.

Miss Antoinette Lilly (Locke) is an unhappy rich heiress, who must marry John Arlington, a man she can't stand, in order to keep her family fortune. She and John travel to Sun Valley, Idaho for their honeymoon, which is also where Bronco Billy and his show are performing. Lilly ends up driving John crazy, so he leaves her without a penny. Lilly runs into Billy and asks him for a dime to call home. However, she is unsuccessful and asks Billy for a ride to the next town. She ends up insulting him very badly and he throws her out of his car. Fortunately for Lilly, Lefty, another man in the show, picks her up in his truck.

Since Billy needs a new assistant for his show, he asks Lilly, who reluctantly agrees to do one show. She messes up her lines on purpose. Afterward, she's ready to leave, but she catches a glimpse of a newspaper that says she's been murdered by her husband. She decides to remain with the show in order to get even with her husband, rather than tell the world she's still alive.

The show starts having lots of problems. First, Leonard, one member of the show, gets arrested for dodging the draft. Billy ends up bribing the sheriff to get him released, but is late for the show. Meanwhile, one of the kids in the show lights a firecracker, which ends up burning down the tent. Everyone manages to get out safely, but now the show has no tent and no money, so they can't continue. The members of the show decided that Lilly is bad luck and try to get Billy to let her go.

In order to obtain money for a new tent, Billy decides to rob a train. The robbery attempt is unsuccessful, however, since the train is way too fast. Next, Billy decides to visit his friend who's in charge of a mental institution and asks him to donate Billy a tent made from American flags sewn together by the inmates. The man in charge, who's a big fan of Billy's show, agrees to help him out. Unfortunately, the institution turns out to be the same one at which John Arlington has been sent for his confessed murder of his wife.

After talking to Running Water, a woman in the show, Lilly decides she's in love with Billy. She pleads for him to make love to her and they spend the night together. The next day, however, John appears and tells Billy that Lilly is his wife. Soon the word is out that she's alive, so her mother picks her up and sends her back to New York.

Now both Lilly and Billy are heartbroken. Lilly tries to kill herself by taking an overdose of pills and Billy starts drinking heavily in a local bar. Running Water calls Lilly and tells her Billy needs her back in the show, whence she spits out the pills and goes off to join him. The movie ends very happily, with Lilly and Billy in love and back together in the show.

Bronco Billy - Dave's Top Movies

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