Review: Hannie Caulder

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 writer-director Burt Kennedy, later to provide a lot of the basis for Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” films. Christopher Lee’s gun-maker is clearly the basis for QT’s Hatori Hanzo character (though strangely QT himself claims the character is based on Robert Culp’s character. I think that may have been a slip of the tongue). The mostly off-screen rape scene looks and sounds an awful lot like the bloody wedding from “Kill Bill vol. 2”. Obviously QT fleshed it all out and decked it all out in ‘film geek’ speak and QT’s own brand of mythology, but the bare bones definitely do exist here.

 

Immediately one is surprised at how violent it is for Kennedy, best known for comedic westerns like “Support Your Local Sheriff!”. Despite the presence of Kennedy, Welch, and Culp this is no light-hearted romp. It’s basically a rape-revenge thriller (not normally my favourite genre) set in the Old West. It’s just that the rapists/murderers happen to be a trio of loudmouth imbeciles. Raquel Welch will never be confused for an actress, but for my money this is by far her best work. I can’t think of anyone else who would’ve sold this part as well apart from maybe Faye Dunaway or Barbara Steele. In fact, Welch is surprisingly better and more suited to the material than the usually charismatic Robert Culp. Culp’s a terrific TV actor, I love “The Greatest American Hero” in particular. However, here he comes off like a dour Robert Redford or James Garner, and those guys would’ve. He doesn’t seem suited to westerns and frankly seems a bit pissed off for much of the film. He’s OK and grows into the part by the closing stretches, he’s just not the best guy for the gig. As for the trio of bad guys, these unrepentant, sleazy scumbags haven’t a trace of humanity in them, and thoroughly deserve their impending fate. Antagonistic and argumentative Elam probably gets the least interesting role of the three, but Borgnine and especially Strother Martin (in his second-best turn behind “Cool Hand Luke”) definitely score here. The versatile Borgnine is a million miles from sweet-natured lug “Marty” as the loud and angry ‘brains’ of the trio. However, Strother Martin damn well walks off with the entire film here if you ask me. He gives an aggravatingly chatty but thoroughly sleazy performance as a dim-witted but unrepentantly evil creep.

 

The main reason I watched the film was for the unusual casting of Christopher Lee, prolific icon of British cinema especially the horror genre, here playing a sympathetic, laidback gunsmith. A bearded, straw hat-wearing, cigar-chomping gunsmith. He’s not on screen very long, but he’s a welcome presence, and I’m sure he welcomed the change of pace, scenery, and genre. One little bonus of having his character around is that we get to see some of how a gun was made back in the old west, it’s quite interesting. Lee rarely (if ever) phones in a performance, and as a fan I was pleased to see him doing something a little different to show off his underrated versatility. That’s fellow brit Diana Dors as an English brothel madam. It’s not an especially necessary character, but fans of British cinema will likely be interested in her presence here. Speaking of presence, there’s the rather inexplicable presence of Irish-born Stephen Boyd in what amounts to little more than a walk-on as a black-clad gun-slinging stranger called ‘Preacher’. Uncredited, the tiny and ill-defined appearance makes one wonder if Boyd was filming a spaghetti western nearby and accidentally wandered on set during filming. Obviously that’s not the case, but is there footage of his that was left on the cutting room floor to help explain the character better? He sure does look the part, but what the fuck is he doing here? Is he supposed to be the Grim Reaper of spaghetti westerns, perhaps? That’s my only guess right now.

 

Scripted by David Haft (whose only other significant work is as a producer and occasional writer on a TV show called “Steve Canyon”) and an uncredited Kennedy, the film deserves credit for mixing entertainment with scenes that show just how difficult killing is and how unpleasant it is. Sure, it’s the ‘little lady’ who is having a hard time killing, but the point still works in general I think. I also appreciated that Kennedy and Haft refuse to yuk it up too much with the trio of villains. They’re rapist thugs after all. I’ve heard some compare them to the Three Stooges, and yes the scenes of Borgnine yelling at his two idiot brothers are funny, but make no mistake…these scumbags are absolutely loathsome creatures, lesser than human. I think there’s more focus on that than the head-clanging slapstick that the film’s detractors (and even some of its champions) seem to have taken in.  As shot by cinematographer Edward Scaife (“Khartoum”, “The Dirty Dozen”), it’s a good-looking film with some lovely shots of sunset beaches during Lee’s scenes. We also get a good music score by Ken Thorne (“Juggernaut”, “Superman II”, “Superman III”) that might remind you a bit of Elmer Bernstein (“The Magnificent Seven”), which I think is a heck of a compliment. Another compliment? It’s the best thing about the entire film.

 

A solid, if not necessarily earth-shatteringly original western with lots to like, and not really much to dislike. Welch has never been better, Martin is unforgettably loathsome, and Lee is effectively cast against type. Good stuff, and a must for Tarantino-philes.  

 

Rating: B-