James Hitchcock
The sixties brought us the Spaghetti Western and the Paella Western, and "Hannie Caulder", from the early years of the following decade, is a rare example of a British-made Roast Beef Western. Although it was shot on location in Spain and all the main roles are played by Americans- two British actors, Christopher Lee and Diana Dors, appear in cameos- it was made by Tigon British Film Productions, normally thought of as Hammer's main rivals in the British horror market. It formed part of a deal between Tigon and Curtwel, the production company run by Raquel Welch and her then husband Patrick Curtis, a deal which was also responsible for the horror film "The Sorcerers". (Despite Curtwel's involvement with "The Sorcerers" Raquel did not appear in that film).Jim Caulder, a settler in a remote part of the West, is murdered by the Clemens Brothers, three notorious outlaws. The brothers then proceed to steal Caulder's horses, set fire to his house and viciously rape and beat his beautiful young wife Hannie, leaving her for dead. Hannie, however, has survived, and swears revenge on the brothers. She meets a bounty hunter named Thomas Luther Price; the two become lovers and Price agrees to teach her how to shoot like a professional gunfighter.Like a number of earlier Westerns- "The Naked Spur" is an example which comes to mind- "Hannie Caulder" is essentially an examination of the ethics of revenge. Some films of this nature take the conventional view that two wrongs do not make a right and that it is wrong to take the law into one's own hands; such films generally end with the hero forswearing his quest for revenge. This viewpoint is here, rather surprisingly, expressed by Price, who tries to dissuade Hannie from killing for revenge. His arguments are twofold. Firstly, he is afraid that Hannie, with whom he has fallen in love, might be killed herself. Secondly, he warns her that taking revenge will change her forever. "Win or lose, you lose". Hannie, however, rejects these arguments. She tells Price that she wants to be changed forever, that she does not want to remain the defeated, humiliated woman that she is now. The implication is that Hannie can only achieve psychological closure by getting justice for the death of her husband and for her own violation and that as the official channels of law enforcement are closed to her- the local sheriff is far too cowardly to take on the bad guys- she has no choice but to become her own avenger. Raquel Welch's time as a major Hollywood star was relatively brief, lasting roughly between 1966 and 1976, and because of her "sex symbol" reputation she was offered plenty of roles which were designed to show off her face and figure more than her acting talents. "Hannie Caulder", however, is one of her finest performances. Westerns with a female protagonist were comparatively rare; Joan Crawford's role in "Johnny Guitar" was one of the few exceptions, and even that film bore the name of a male character. Women in Westerns were often meant to be the peacemakers, such as Grace Kelly in "High Noon", but Raquel makes Hannie into a superbly iconic avenging angel, the incarnation of justice in an unjust world. Robert Culp is also good as Price. With his spectacles, greying beard and soft voice, he appears a mild-mannered character, but appearances can be deceptive. As a professional bounty-hunter he is happy to admit that he kills men for money. ("Can you think of a better reason?") His surname Price, like that of Clint Eastwood's Munny in "Unforgiven", suggests that he is a man for hire. And yet he is also a man capable of strong emotions, shown in his feelings for Hannie. There is also a good cameo from Lee as Bailey, the gunsmith whom Price hires to build a custom-made revolver for Hannie. Burt Kennedy acted both as director and as scriptwriter, and seems to have been more proficient in the former department than in the latter. The film is well directed, but there are a number of faults with the plot and with the characterisation. The mysterious character known as The Preacher is never well integrated into the story, despite the important part he plays in one key scene, and we never learn why he should have got involved. More importantly, the way in which the Clemens brothers are portrayed adversely affects the film. The reviewer who described them as the Three Stooges transformed into murderous psychopaths had it about right. On the one hand, we are supposed to accept them as dangerous criminals, and they do manage to kill several people in the course of the film. On the other hand, the sense of danger which they pose is constantly being undermined because Kennedy cannot resist the temptation to send them up and treat them as figures of fun, hopelessly incompetent and forever bickering with each other. (In one scene they use too much explosive while blowing open a safe, with the result that they destroy all the money inside). "Hannie Caulder" is one of a number of decent Westerns made during the "twilight years" of the genre in the early seventies. (Very few were to be made in the latter years of that decade). It could, however, have been a better one had the heroine been confronted with adversaries more worthy of her steel. 7/10
MartinHafer
The 1960s brought much more adult fare to theaters. Not only were American films becoming tougher and more violent (with such as the ultra-violent "Bonny and Clyde") but the who idea of westerns was turned on it's head with the so-called 'Spaghetti Westerns' from Italy. Instead of the typical themes you'd see in the 1930-60 westerns, a new form of violence and sadism pervaded these films. These are not necessarily complaints--just observations about where films had gone. So in light of all this, a film like "Hannie Caulder" seems like a natural extension of these trends. It certainly is NOT the sort of thing you would have seen back in 1961, for example.When the film begins, three degenerates rob a bank and kill a whole bunch of folks. A bit later, they come upon the Caulder homestead-- murdering Mr. Caulder and raping his wife, Hannie (Raquel Welch). She is naturally angry and when she meets a traveling bounty hunter (Robert Culp) she persuades him to teach her his craft. After all, she intends to track down the and bring them to justice...her sort of justice. Fortunately for this movie, although the subject matter is very adult, it wasn't handled salaciously. The rape scenes are respectfully done and the film has some very good messages. Because of this, it's an adult film that is probably okay for teens to watch. Heck, I first saw it when I was about 10 and it didn't warp me. As for the quality of the film, the acting was quite nice, the action engaging and the story worth seeing. By the way, like many westerns the physics are all wrong. A bullet (such as from a .45 long cartridge) will NOT blow a person across a room and out a window. It looked good, though!
jfgibson73
What a terrible name. Hannie? Why not just Annie? That aside, I did enjoy this movie. It is a very basic rape/revenge story done as a Western. I don't think it was nearly as gritty as it was meant to be. When characters say things like, "You're a hard woman, Hannie Caulder," I felt like they could have done more to show how hard she had become, rather than just point it out with dialog. Also, there was a little bit of forced sentimentality, and some ill-placed comic relief that felt almost slap-sticky.This is just nitpicking however. It was very satisfying and watchable, at least for one viewing. Raquel Welch, who I probably know best from her guest appearance on Seinfeld, was very striking as the damaged frontier woman. A lot of people seem to really like the character that helps train her as a gunfighter. I found him more functional to the story than interesting. Christopher Lee had a cameo that had me asking if it was really him. And there was one unresolved plot point in that as far as I could tell, they never explained who the mystery man in black was. If you are in the mood for a lighter, easy-to-watch western, this should go down nice. Just don't expect the depth of, say, "Once Upon A Time..."
