Thursday, November 26, 2020

Hannie Caulder (1971)

Hannie Caulder (Raquel Welch) and her husband are living a happy life when the Clemens brothers ride onto the scene.  Emmet (Ernest Borgnine), Rufus (Strother Martin), and Frank (Jack Elam) murder her husband and then gang rape her.  On their way out the door, they light the house on fire and leave her to burn.  Unsurprisingly, she escapes the inferno and swears vengeance.  Soon thereafter, noted bounty hunter Thomas Price (Robert Culp) comes across Hannie.  She hires him to teach her to shoot.  Though he advises her not to seek revenge, he agrees to train her and also take her to a gunsmith, Bailey, to make a revolver more suited to her.  Bailey (Christopher Lee) lives in Mexico and hosts the pair while Hannie is trained.  While they are with Bailey, some bandits attack.  Hannie finds herself unable to gun down a man who is about to kill her.  Again, Price advises her to abandon her plans for revenge.  Instead, the two part company though it is clear that he has fallen for her and she him.

Here is a Spaghetti Western with ketchup for blood and filmed in Spain.  The Clemens brothers prove to be hapless bumpkins who spend most of their time berating each other.  They're like the three stooges at times.  With the exception of their initial murder/rape/arson, these guys seem more like they are in some campy comedy western.  Very odd.  As a character, Hannie isn't well-developed.  If not for stupidity or outside intervention, she would have been killed by 2 of the 3 brothers.  Why is she so intent on letting them know she's after them or even scheduling where to meet.  Hey, they are wanted criminals; just shoot them without warning.

Mediocre.

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