Sam Whiskey

I think "Sam Whiskey" is a bit underrated and is actually one of Burt Reynolds' better films despite it's meager score of 5.9 on IMDB. It's very enjoyable...enough that you can look past the final portion of the movie which is, needless to say, farfetched....but fun.

Sam Whiskey (Reynolds) is certainly NOT a great hero in this film. He talks big and makes big promises, so that is why Laura (Angie Dickenson) hires this ne'er-do-well to do an anti-robbery! What is an anti-robbery? It's when you are paid to return something stolen without anyone being the wiser! In this case, apparently Laura's father stole gold from the local mint and replaced it with gold-painted lead blocks. Sam's job is to retrieve the faux gold and replace it with the original. First, he needs to hire some partners to help him. Second, he needs to retrieve the gold. Third, they need to somehow switch it with the fake stuff!

In many, many ways, this film is a like a lighthearted and slightly comic version of a later film, John Wayne's "The Train Robbers". The Wayne film is rated higher but I frankly enjoyed the Reynolds movie more even though how they replace the gold is hard to believe...especially since gold is MUCH heavier and difficult to work with than it is in the film! Worth seeing and fun...and, incidentally, the song Sam sings will DEFINITELY get stuck in your head if you do watch it!

It's no mystery that Burt Reynolds is one of the most underestimated actors of our time. In this particular film, he gave us one of his best comedy-stilish acting ("no-one noticed it", he said) which makes this movie working. Burt's acting would be enough to make it watchable, but also Ossie Davis and Clint Walker fit well in their roles.

For me the remarkable of this movie is a) the way it is directed and edited (it ain't dull for one second), although there are some silly situations (e.g. Burt firing with a machine gun to save his friends killing all his enemies without hitting his friends...), but hey, it's a comedy and it's not the story which is most interesting. It's the mood of the film and the way characters are portrayed. It contains a lot of fine jokes and dialogue ("I'm not riding this long way to bury your bird") and chemistry between Burt and Angie Dickinson is amazing. Also the more serious parts of the film (stealing the gold out of the fort) are working well.

Also, there are some things which seem to be rare in a film: The fact that no-one of the "thieves" have intentions killing his buddies to keep the gold for himself. No, they even break in to return it back to the government! It's hardly believable, but it is that fact that make the film and these characters charming.

I give it a 7 of 10

Sam Whiskey is directed by Arnold Laven and written by William W. Norton. It stars Burt Reynolds, Ossie Davis, Clint Walker and Angie Dickinson. Music is by Herschel Burke Gilbert and cinematography by Robert C. Moreno.

Widow Laura Breckenridge (Dickinson) offers Sam Whiskey (Reynolds) a $20,000 reward for the return of some gold that her late husband had stolen from the Denver mint. However, she doesn't want the gold for herself, she wants Sam to put it back into the mint before it's found to be stolen and soils her family name!

Maybe it's because I consider myself a Reynolds fan that I found this to be a whole bunch of fun? That I appear to be at odds with critical consensus about Sam Whiskey's worth as entertainment?

Stolen money burns a hole in your pocket.

Sam Whiskey knows exactly what it's doing, it mixes the caper movie with a Western setting and lets the principal players have fun with it. The quadruple lead players bounce off of each other with considerable charming results, the set-up is suitably daft, a reverse robbery if you like, and there's no shortage of suspense and action. In fact the various twists that arise as Reynolds, Davis and Walker go about their mission of goodwill for the sultry Dickinson, are well implemented into the plot. The De Luxe colour photography is most pleasing, though the absence of scenic panoramas is sorely felt, and the music score is complementary to the tone of the story.

True, the direction is hardly inspiring, the quirky nature of the whole thing narrows down the number of film fans it might appeal to and the idea is indeed thin. Yet for Reynolds fans it should be sought out, to see him at the end of the 60s before "his" time would come in the 70s. Watch him perform with a comedic glint in his eye, see Dickinson smoulder and raise temperatures, Walker play at odds with his macho persona, and Davis having fun being the tough boy of the group. Enjoy the cheekiness (Re: ludicrousness) of the caper, the early diving technique on show or sample the verbal amusement that comes from the stars. I just know I had a big enough grin on my face come the end to make this a strong 7/10 rating. Non Reynolds fans should probably knock a point off that rating, though.

Playing the title role Burt Reynolds settles into the cynical good old boy character he would really shine in for the 70s and 80s in Sam Whiskey. Burt's playing a man no better than he should be who often goes back and forth on both sides of the law who gets an interesting proposition from widow Angie Dickinson.

It seems during the late war between the safe her late husband robbed the Denver Mint of a lot of its bullion. She wants to give it back, but not so anyone would know it was ever stolen because some fake bullion was left in its place and about to be discovered as the U.S. government is about to withdraw Greenbacks and resume specie type money. He gets $20,000.00 from Dickinson for he and his associates Ossie Davis and Clint Walker.

They to devise quite the caper and that I won't go into. Reynolds took a lot of his style and persona from James Garner and his Sam Whiskey could have been Jim Rockford in the old west. Dickinson's the kind of woman you don't turn down, she knows how to keep a man's interest.

Special mention goes to Woodrow Parfrey as the inspecting Treasury man from the east. Without knowing it Parfrey and his hapless checker playing self become an integral part of the caper.

A caper western in the tradition of The War Wagon and a good one.

Sam Whiskey (Burt Reynolds) is a roguish cad in the Old West. Seductive Laura Breckenridge (Angie Dickinson) recruits him to retrieve a sunken treasure. In turn, he recruits blacksmith Jed Hooker (Ossie Davis) and gunsmith O. W. Bandy (Clint Walker) to do some diving.

It's a nice enough western. There are some nice light laughs. There are some fun enough characters. Burt Reynolds is the embodiment of this character. This is a group of fun actors doing fun characters. I don't really understand why the trio doesn't take the gold and run. So the second half isn't as compelling since they aren't being reasonable. One would have to believe that Sam is completely smitten and whipped. One would also have to believe that the other two are such good buddies that they would support him no matter what. All of that is too unlikely. That's if one ignores some other unreasonable elements. Ignoring all that, this is still some light fun without much harm.