Post by Eddie Love on Aug 18, 2010 17:06:20 GMT -5
Brothers -- and three of the foulest, stupidest, Western bank robbers ever, (they’re right up there with Rod Taylor’s gang in THE DEADLY TRACKERS) -- are on the run from the federales. They kill a man to steal his horses and, after doing so, take turns raping his wife and burning down her home. The woman, HANNIE CAULDER, sets on a course of lethal revenge in this 1972 western.
Hannie is played by Raquel Welch, the reining sex symbol of the era, and donning merely a serape for much of the first portion, she looks fantastic. (Later, she does put on some tight-fitting leather pants and they don’t disappoint.) So much was made about Welch’s spectacular build, but it’s really her face that always startles me with its beauty. She is simply one of the most stunning women ever on film. She doesn’t get her due today, either as a cultural icon or as an actress who was fairly ambitous, as seen here and in other Westerns like BANDOLERO and 100 RIFLES.
True, her looks often make her roles effective, even if, at times, her performances fall short. I’m a big fan of her’s. But, I do recognize that, however earthy her characters are made to appear, there always seems to be something fundamentally prissy about Welch. (I feel the same way about Halle Berry.) And there’s something oddly refined yet vacant about her speaking voice that make it sometimes difficult for her to gain purchase on a character. But part of being a movie star is being someone people want to stare at, and with her preternatural good looks, you can’t take your eyes off her, and will have no problem staring at her as Hannie.
Shortly after her assault, Hannie takes up with a famed bounty hunter played by Robert Culp, who looks grizzled, yet bookish. At first he refuses to aid in her quest for revenge, but later, they take on a mentor and pupil vibe.
I posted recently about Culp as the star and director of HICKEY & BOGGS, and here again he is simply sensational. What a painfully underused actor this guys was! This picture simply belongs to him. He’s one of these actors who, when you listen to him speak, you would swear that he doesn’t know how each of his lines will end while he’s mid-sentence. He’s that real and alive. Also, there’s a shot of him and Hannie captured at sundown walking on a beach. It works nicely, but it’s a total cliché. But as you watch Culp walk along – not much more than a silhouette – he’s communicating so much about his character. Man, he was great.
Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin and Jack Elam, a true hat-trick of slime, play the creeps who attack Hannie. It really says something that Elam is the slickest member of the gang, they’re that gross. A little Strother goes a long way, and here he’s turned up to 11. You’ll count the minutes ‘til his number comes up.
The picture is directed by Burt Kennedy who was known at the time for crafting low-key “chamber” Westerns, that he often wrote, as well as the comic SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL… pictures. There are jarring shifts of tone here. Only about 10 minutes after Hannie has been brutally gang-raped, there are scenes of her in a local town with the customarily jauntily humorous Western underscore. Ummm…okay. Elsewhere, however, the picture is tightly paced – a little too tight; I could have preferred the climax to be teased out longer. Action-wise, there’s a mounted assault on Welch and Culp at about the halfway point that is the highlight of the picture.
Being an international production, the cast is padded out with some British talent of the day. Fast-fading sex symbol Diana Dors turns up for – if I counted correctly – four lines. And there’s a really nice, easy-going turn by Christopher Lee (!) as a gunsmith pal of Culp’s. There’s another star in an odd unbilled cameo and I wish I’d not known beforehand that he was in it. His appearance should come as a nice surprise to others.
While I suppose this picture posits itself as a revisonist feminist take on the Western, and plays on the women’s lib movement of the time, it ends up cheating in the end on Hannie’s revenge in a way that may frustrate audiences of today, who would probably prefer she go it alone.
But, if you’re a fan of Westerns of the 60s and 70s, you may have already queued this up as soon as it was released. The movie is barely 85 minutes long, which certainly recommends it as effortless viewing, but at the same time really doesn’t stick to the ribs in a manner that a brutal revenge tale probably should. It’s not a classic, but it’s solid. Welch is compelling and gorgeous and Culp really terrific.
Hannie is played by Raquel Welch, the reining sex symbol of the era, and donning merely a serape for much of the first portion, she looks fantastic. (Later, she does put on some tight-fitting leather pants and they don’t disappoint.) So much was made about Welch’s spectacular build, but it’s really her face that always startles me with its beauty. She is simply one of the most stunning women ever on film. She doesn’t get her due today, either as a cultural icon or as an actress who was fairly ambitous, as seen here and in other Westerns like BANDOLERO and 100 RIFLES.
True, her looks often make her roles effective, even if, at times, her performances fall short. I’m a big fan of her’s. But, I do recognize that, however earthy her characters are made to appear, there always seems to be something fundamentally prissy about Welch. (I feel the same way about Halle Berry.) And there’s something oddly refined yet vacant about her speaking voice that make it sometimes difficult for her to gain purchase on a character. But part of being a movie star is being someone people want to stare at, and with her preternatural good looks, you can’t take your eyes off her, and will have no problem staring at her as Hannie.
Shortly after her assault, Hannie takes up with a famed bounty hunter played by Robert Culp, who looks grizzled, yet bookish. At first he refuses to aid in her quest for revenge, but later, they take on a mentor and pupil vibe.
I posted recently about Culp as the star and director of HICKEY & BOGGS, and here again he is simply sensational. What a painfully underused actor this guys was! This picture simply belongs to him. He’s one of these actors who, when you listen to him speak, you would swear that he doesn’t know how each of his lines will end while he’s mid-sentence. He’s that real and alive. Also, there’s a shot of him and Hannie captured at sundown walking on a beach. It works nicely, but it’s a total cliché. But as you watch Culp walk along – not much more than a silhouette – he’s communicating so much about his character. Man, he was great.
Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin and Jack Elam, a true hat-trick of slime, play the creeps who attack Hannie. It really says something that Elam is the slickest member of the gang, they’re that gross. A little Strother goes a long way, and here he’s turned up to 11. You’ll count the minutes ‘til his number comes up.
The picture is directed by Burt Kennedy who was known at the time for crafting low-key “chamber” Westerns, that he often wrote, as well as the comic SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL… pictures. There are jarring shifts of tone here. Only about 10 minutes after Hannie has been brutally gang-raped, there are scenes of her in a local town with the customarily jauntily humorous Western underscore. Ummm…okay. Elsewhere, however, the picture is tightly paced – a little too tight; I could have preferred the climax to be teased out longer. Action-wise, there’s a mounted assault on Welch and Culp at about the halfway point that is the highlight of the picture.
Being an international production, the cast is padded out with some British talent of the day. Fast-fading sex symbol Diana Dors turns up for – if I counted correctly – four lines. And there’s a really nice, easy-going turn by Christopher Lee (!) as a gunsmith pal of Culp’s. There’s another star in an odd unbilled cameo and I wish I’d not known beforehand that he was in it. His appearance should come as a nice surprise to others.
While I suppose this picture posits itself as a revisonist feminist take on the Western, and plays on the women’s lib movement of the time, it ends up cheating in the end on Hannie’s revenge in a way that may frustrate audiences of today, who would probably prefer she go it alone.
But, if you’re a fan of Westerns of the 60s and 70s, you may have already queued this up as soon as it was released. The movie is barely 85 minutes long, which certainly recommends it as effortless viewing, but at the same time really doesn’t stick to the ribs in a manner that a brutal revenge tale probably should. It’s not a classic, but it’s solid. Welch is compelling and gorgeous and Culp really terrific.