Thu 28 Jul 2016
A Western Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: HANNIE CAULDER (1971).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[3] Comments
HANNIE CAULDER. Tigon British Film Productions, UK, 1971. Paramount Pictures, US, 1972. Raquel Welch, Robert Culp, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, Strother Martin, Christopher Lee, Diana Dors. Director: Burt Kennedy.
Hannie Caulder is the type of movie that could only have been made in the 1970s, a time of comparably anarchic freedom for directors, producers, and screenwriters. Take a few well known characters actors and cast them as buffoonish rapists, add a strong willed feminist protagonist to be portrayed by a leading sex symbol, and then cast Robert Culp and Christopher Lee as a bounty hunter and a gunsmith, respectively, and you’ve got yourself a Western cult classic in the making.
But wait, there’s more. While a Spaghetti Western aesthetic, replete with notably fake red blood, gives the film a gritty edge, a mysterious character, a gunslinger dressed from head to toe in black, adds a quasi-mystical element to the proceedings.
Raquel Welch stars as the film’s title character, a woman who is savagely raped and beaten by three outlaw brothers portrayed by Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, and Strother Martin. After that experience, Hannie Caulder sets out on a course of revenge against the men who attacked her and murdered her husband.
Soon enough, she comes under the tutelage of bounty hunter Thomas Luther Price (Culp), a solitary man who – not surprisingly – begins to develop romantic feelings toward Hannie. Price is a man torn. On the one hand, he’s willing to teach Hannie the art of gun fighting; on the other, he doesn’t want Hannie to become a killer like he is.
All told, Hannie Caulder is a solid revenge Western. Look for Christopher Lee in his portrayal of Bailey, a boutique gunsmith camped out in Mexico. The interactions between his character and Price and Hannie Caulder are among the best in this truly unique Burt Kennedy film. It may not be among the best Westerns ever filmed, but it’s certainly a spunky little 1970s meditation on violence that isn’t easily forgotten.
July 28th, 2016 at 5:43 pm
I really like this movie. It’s even better if you see it at the drive-in on a hot summer night with mosquitoes buzzing around your head . . . or maybe I just remember it that way.
July 28th, 2016 at 7:33 pm
This is a good review!
I was greatly impressed by this film, seeing it when it first came out.
It has good camera work and photography.
July 28th, 2016 at 8:38 pm
The film could have gone wrong in so many ways so easily — think of that one with Sharon Stone — instead it works as a solid Western revenge film, attractive to look at, expertly staged and choreographed, with quirky eccentric and interesting characters.
Borgnine, Elam, and Martin could easily have gone overboard in their roles as cartoonish, but instead they manage to create savage but somehow human monsters that at least for the length of the film you are willing to accept as real.
You have to credit Welch too, not a gifted actress, but more than just a face and body. She throws herself into the role and manages to hold her own on screen against a slew of gifted scene stealers from the trio of despicable villains to Culp, Lee, and Boyd.
Ironically this ends up being one of the better Westerns of the era, and along with 100 RIFLES shows Welch could do more than be menaced by cavemen and Harryhausen fx while wearing a stylish fur bikini.