Thursday, September 1, 2022

Hannie Caulder (1971)

 Raquel Welch is title character Hannie Caulder, she teams up with bounty hunter Robert Culp in pursuit of the men who killed her husband, raped her, and burnt down her home. Director Burt Kennedy, who had been making Westerns since the 50's, at times approaches the material as a kind of diet Sam Peckinpah, two members of The Wild Bunch (Ernest Borgnine and Strother Martin) are among the badies. But the tone is all over the place, it takes stabs at being the kind of womens revange picture that was becoming a thing in the 1970's, but then other impulses take over and the man who made 'Support Your Local Sherif' tries for comedy. After a surprisingly intense early rape scene, comic ogling of Ms. Welch feels particularly icky.

The movie is simply not very good, not well written, weak performances throughout, only servicably directed. It just feels wrong, with the budding romance between Welch and Culp being one of many examples. The parts that aren't bad mostly feel so so, Christopher Lee plays a gun smith who thinks of himself as an artist, and the promise of that conceit feels never fully realized. Fading British sex symbol Diana Dors late in film apperance is a simlar let down. It's like some good movies have been digested and this is the shit that came out the other end. *

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