Die Bestialischen

A revenge tale set in the West.

It would be a ridiculously horrible movie on its own. Keenan Wynn and the other four "savage men" are just the same annoying Hollywood stereotypes we see in most movies, laughing while they kill. For some reason, they even kill a pretty woman when they claim they want women for other reasons, so don't look for "motivation" in this movie.

For whatever reason, they don't kill the other pretty women, but rape her. Of course she goes for revenge with the help of Henry Silva, and since this is the seventies, Silva has to be a Native American in order to be anything but a slob.

What saves this movie, somewhat, is the comic relief from a posse led by John Anderson, who is always a step behind the heroic pair. The rest is pretty much fast forward formula.

...this might have been a decent western. The story, of a school teacher captured, raped and left for dead by thugs, whose then saved by a lone Apache she forms a bond with is nothing new. And neither is this rather dull movie. The ending is entirely predictable (again, in the hands of a more imaginative director, perhaps this would have been avoided). The saving grace is the beautiful Michele Carey, who actually shows some skin and Henry Silva as the Apache, Chatto. Keenan Wynn is surprisingly good as the lead villain, but the set ups are almost bad enough to be TV westerns and again, the story fails in the end.

Was generous with a 4 rating. Interesting scenery. Poor directing. Questionable if editing was bad or that was all they had to work with. Silva is virtually mute so writers weren't necessary.

I've never understood why well established pros like Keenan Wynn and Henry Silva would have accepted the script of this Dick Bakalyan low budget western that looks more like a porn western or why the late actress-model Michele Carey, who worked with Elvis, John Wayne and Ben Gazzara, would agree to play a gang rape victim in a sick, brutal piece of junk. Wynn looked like he really enjoyed playing a sadistic killer and rapist. Sometimes I wonder if actors are genuinely embarrassed by some of the films they make. Silva, an engaging actor, plays a rare good guy who helps Michele get revenge. A really unpleasant movie that has numerous titles.

This would-be "with-it" revenge story in Western garb is notable only for having a female protagonist thus anticipating the cult item HANNIE CAULDER (1971). Still, Michele Carey's terrible central performance and her squeaky voice basically sink the film entirely as she projects little emotional scars from her ordeal; in fact, she seems to get back into a happy mood way too soon after her rape! The sadistic cast of characters are led by notorious bandit Keenan Wynn and Henry Silva is surprisingly cast as the Apache good guy who helps Carey carry out her retribution (interestingly, he had previously appeared in a similar - and much superior - tale, THE BRAVADOS [1958]). Another nail in the film's coffin is the sheer poverty of the direction which generates no suspense whatsoever as Silva and Carey are merely seen to effortlessly stumble upon each of the rapists' new hideout, kill them off without much ado and exit the scene; add to that the puerile fast-cutting technique employed intermittently which grows tiresome before too long. The trebly ironic ending, then, is a valiant attempt at resurrecting the movie but by then it is too late and only a fairly decent score saves the whole thing from a BOMB rating.