Gone with the West

Rebecca: This is so bad it's almost good.

Enid: This is so bad it's gone past good and back to bad again.

"Gone With the West" (a/k/a "Little Moon and Old Jug or Jud"), is a James Caan-Sammy Davis Jr. western best described as "The Rat Pack on LSD". The cast includes "The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.". It is a horrible western, made even worse by the condition of the print they used to make the DVD (a 2005 release by Mill Creek Entertainment), but it does feature one of the most intense cat-fights in cinema history.

Old Jug McGraw (Caan) and April Dancer are sent to the town of Black Miller by Mr. Waverly to investigate a Thrush plot led by a former Green Beret sergeant. There's opium dealers too, a lot of dogs, and a woman named Billie, who's kinda purdy. Everything gets straightened out, though I just watched the whole movie and I couldn't tell you how.

This is probably something that James Caan either doesn't remember or will not talk about. It has a release date of 1975 but was more likely filmed anywhere between '70 and '72 considering Caan's career went into high gear by the end of '72, not to mention how young he and Stefanie Powers look. Obviously something went seriously wrong with the western that some non-entity named Bernard Girard directed, thus the "need" to offer some contemporary (mid-70's) wrap-around footage. Perhaps a total lack of coherence required adding the story-telling narrative. Regardless, the whole thing is a botch, modern-day accessory footage included. It has something to do with Aldo Ray as the town baddie who steals Caan's cattle and molests Powers and the two victims seek revenge by destroying Ray's rotten town. Davis, Jr. is Ray's hired gunslinger. Strange fact: Davis, Jr. was actually a quick draw in real life. Apparently he was clocked at one time as one of the fastest ever. Sammy seemed to be a natural at anything he attempted (just ask Linda Lovelace... but that's another story). Yet poor Sammy appears absurd in his Jack-Palance-from-'Shane' outfit and has little to do except act phony-tough and gun down a few bozos in his few scenes. At least Aldo Ray seems to be having fun (his paycheck happily covering his liquor bill, no doubt). Meanwhile, Powers adds a little comedy relief, a little skin, and not a word of English. Caan is fine (his pleasant demeanor unmolested by the knowledge the film he was ostensibly appearing in would later be edited by a mix-master). Oh, and the music score is as goofy and wrong-headed as the film itself.

there are really no words to describe how bad this movie is. thank god we bought it at the dollar store! the only way my sister and i watched it was in fast forward! we couldn't stop laughing, we only watched when we guessed the man was singing, we knew someone was dead! Stephanie powers had the best role, she really did not have much to say or do. i hope they all got paid a lot of money for this mess of a movie.you can tell this movie was made in the late seventies. the music and the way the camera angles were so bad, i thought i was watching a music video. the only way to watch this movie is with a lot of popcorn and a big drink.

Ex-convict James Caan is released from prison and sets out to exact some long overdue vengeance on Aldo Ray, the man who murdered his family years before and apparently the rest of the town as well.

There's some trashy fun at first but things run out of steam pretty quick and never recover.

A paper thin story, the obnoxious free-wheeling 1970's style direction, and the bad funk score are all pretty off-putting, as is the terrible performance by Stephanie Powers, who looks like Johnny Depp in Benny & Joon and is so verbally challenged she makes Tonto look like a radio talk show host!

The great Sammy Davis Jr. is sadly wasted in this. His leather-clad gunfighter character was the most entertaining thing in the movie and really deserved a better script!

I agree that this move must have originally been unfinished, or else something bad happened during the production - mainly because of the wrap-around present-day footage and narration that is completely redundant. What I can't figure out is how a cheapo movie like this got stars that were (of the time) pretty prominent, especially Caan. Well, Davis can probably be explained, because he appears in only a few scenes that were probably filmed in a day. I got a laugh out of his shiny black leather pants, and Powers was so mind-bogglingly awful (hardly speaking a word of English, by the way) that there was some extra amusement from that. Other than that, this is an incredibly painful western to sit through, with some of the most ludicrous plot turns even to hit the prairie.