After watching Ted Kotcheff's Billy Two Hats, I thought to myself that the movie is a pleasant little nothing of a western, but that there must have been a belief that Israel might be the location for a whole new generation of spaghetti westerns, but in this case, something like, Lox and Bagel Westerns.
I don't know enough of traditional Jewish food to know if that joke was worth it. So, forgive my ignorance.
The best part of Billy Two Hats is Desi Arnaz, Jr.'s wide-eyed, gob-smacked look when he hears or sees something he didn't anticipate. It actually works. The character has been through a hellish upbringing, but he's still innocent enough to be stunned by human ugliness.
Arnaz is an old guy now, and I don't know if he did much after this movie, but there was an inkling that he could have grown into a fairly substantial character actor.
Gregory Peck is just embarrassing. That Scottish stuff that comes out of his mouth is like sticking a car key in your ear to clean it and somebody comes by and bumps your elbow. Peck had good hair, though, and his later scenes, stuck under the wagon, were better because he didn't say much.
David Huddleston and Jack Warden are fat and mean, respectively.
So, nothingburger? The only reason I watched this movie is that I thought the title was intriguing way, way back when I watched a "making of" preview at the end of some network movie that ended fifteen minutes before the late news on the ABC affiliate. I thought the idea of a western shot in Israel was cool. The actors seemed familiar.
I never saw the movie, not even when it got shown on regular TV.
This is where I'd normally say something snarky about my being wise in high school, but it wasn't true. I watched Billy Two Hats because it was convenient. ROKU TV is free. I had time to spare.
Actually, you don't kill time, you murder it.
