Shameless Self Expression

Rock-solid Delmer Daves (who has made some good movies like “Destination Tokyo” and “The Hanging Tree” ) western from 1956 is loosely based on Shakespeare’s Othello. Glenn Ford plays the title stranger who begins work as a cowhand for back-slapping, likeable, but slightly uncouth Ernest Borgnine. Valerie French (not very subtle, not very charismatic) is Borgnine’s unhappy, sexually frustrated Canadian wife who starts paying more attention to Ford than her husband, though Ford does not reciprocate. Rod Steiger is the scornful former top dog among Borgnine’s men, who wants French for himself and catches on that French has a thing for Jubal. The seething and absolutely despicable Steiger tries to make trouble for Jubal, who is completely innocent. Felicia Farr, best known for being Jack Lemmon’s wife, plays a nice girl from a deeply religious family whom Ford gets involved with. Charles Bronson has an early role as a fellow drifter and one of Ford’s few allies. Western pre-requisite Jac...

Three scummy outlaw brothers (Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin, and Jack Elam) have just attempted a bank robbery that went pear-shaped. They happen upon a homesteader and his wife, killing the former and gang-raping the latter (the title character, played by Raquel Welch). The next morning, they ride off presumably to do more evil, leaving poor Hannie in a horrible state. When she comes to, she’s found wandering about by a dour bounty hunter named Price (Robert Culp). She wants him to teach her how to shoot a gun so that she can seek revenge on the three dirty bastards who assaulted her and killed her husband. Price is initially reluctant, but Hannie won’t give up. Christopher Lee plays a gunsmith friend of Price who lives out on the Gulf of Mexico with his Mexican wife and a gaggle of children. He agrees to craft a gun especially for Hannie, accounting for her strengths and weaknesses.   Interesting, mostly stark 1971 revenge western with the occasional spaghetti touch from...