SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

contact-562-20249 One of the top ten Westerns of all time. Otherworldly acting by Raquel Welch. Is Racquel Welch Hannie Caulder? Or is Hannie Caulder Raquel Welch? Great supporting cast: Robert Culp, Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin, Jack Elam, Stephen Boyd, and Christopher Lee. One of those rare movies like Casablanca or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance that you can watch once a year, and every time it is like watching it the first time.

Fred Schaefer HANNIE CAULDER was released in America in the summer of 1972 and played for about a week and then was gone; I caught it on TV some years later, and being a total western fan, loved it. But HANNIE CAULDER is not your typical gunfighter out for vengeance movie, for the gunfighter is a woman and she's played by Raquel Welch, the most beautiful woman of the era.As in all good westerns, the plot of HANNIE CAULDER is basic and simple: the title woman is brutally raped by the three Clemens brothers in the opening scenes after they have murdered her husband. Determined to get even, she implores Thomas Luther Price, a bounty hunter, to teach how to use a gun proficiently so as to exact payback on the villains who committed such an unspeakable crime against her. Price is initially not receptive to Hannie's pleas, but in the end goes against his better judgment and teaches her how to go up against a man with a gun and walk away alive with him dead. But Price warns her that the cost of retribution is high, even when well justified and deserved, and that she should just walk away. "Win or lose, you lose, Hannie Caulder."Of course Hannie does not listen, there'd be no movie if she did, and inevitably there is a showdown with the Clemens brothers, revenge is had and the cost is taken. This movie is a piece of total entertainment for many reasons:Raquel Welch at the peak of awesomeness in one of her best roles, that a woman would stride through the Old West in poncho and tight jeans is a piece of pure fantasy; so is the makeup and permed hair she sports throughout the movie. But damn, she is a sight to see and we always keep expecting the breeze to blow that poncho up and reveal that she is going totally bra-less-a real 1970's thing. Raquel Welch was never considered to be a great actress, but I think this is a great performance, especially in her scenes with Robert Culp as Price, we totally understand why this wary bounty hunter would succumb to her ample charms.A great supporting cast, starting with the villains, played by three of the toughest amigos of the day: Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin, and Jack Elam, expert scenery chewers all of them. It's a real jarring contrast that the Clemens brothers are played for laughs after we are presented with a truly brutal rape scene. Director Burt Kennedy, who also did THE WAR WAGON and SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF, simply allowed Borgnine, Martin and Elam to play to their strengths, and for us fans of these three, this movie is a real treat. It's also a treat for us Christoper Lee fans to see him in what has to be his only western role as a former Confederate gunsmith living on the coast down in Mexico. Former British sex symbol, Diana Dors, makes the most of her few scenes as a whorehouse madame. Stephen Boyd appears in a cameo as the Preacher, a mysterious character, whom I've always thought of as an Angel of Death in this story, come to claim his own.A great score by Ken Thorne, which ranks as one of the finest pieces of music ever in a western. And there is great dialog: "I wouldn't want to be you anytime."The woman seeking bloody revenge plot was a novelty back in the early 70's, but I think no one has quite done it as well since; most pro feminist versions of this plot try to go way over the top and lack the humor of HANNIE CAULDER. And people who have a problem with rape being used as a easy dramatic device in novels and movies do have a point.It's sad HANNIE CAULDER was not a big hit, it had everything needed to be a blockbuster. I think it was made about four years too late and by the time it came out, westerns were going out of favor with audiences. Too bad, see it now for the great entertainment it is.

Wizard-8 The British have had an iffy record when it comes to making westerns, with even their better efforts (like "The Hunting Party") often having some major problems. "Hannie Caulder" has some glaring problems. We don't really get to know the heroine before the events that put her on the path to vengeance, so we don't see how the trauma affected her. Most of the movie consists of her heroine training for vengeance, so that when she is ready for revenge, less than a quarter of the movie is left to run. And there are uneasy changes in tone, with the goofy and comic portrayal of the three bad guys right next to people graphically killed.Still, I have to admit that I did find the movie entertaining overall. It's certainly not boring, for one thing. Underrated actor Robert Culp gives a good performance as the bounty hunter who helps the heroine. It's also fun seeing Christopher Lee in a western. Those who like their westerns gritty and graphic will get their fill here. So though the movie has some big flaws, it is all the same very watchable.

merklekranz Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin, and Jack Elam, play outlaw bumbling brothers in "Hannie Caulder". After killing her husband and brutalizing her, Raquel Welch seeks revenge, with the aid of a bounty hunter, Robert Culp. Despite the fact that Raquel Welch looks the part of a frontier woman about as much as Woody Allen looks like Clint Eastwood, the film works. It is refreshing to have three great character actors as the squabbling villains, and the acting by everyone is totally acceptable, even with the uneasy shifts between humor and violence. There also appears to be several nods to Sergio Leone's western trilogy, Raquel wears a poncho, much like Clint Eastwood. In the cemetery two additional graves are being dug, before the occupants are dead, similar to the "A Fistful of Dollars" number of coffins mistake. Lee Van Cleef's slapping around the whore in "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", is duplicated by Ernest Borgnine in the rape scene with Raquel Welch. Finally, the film progresses at the leisurely pace of a "spaghetti western", and admirers of that genre should seek this one out. - MERK