La mia pistola per Billy

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.

I saw this film on Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

It seems others have made a virtue out of this film's odd credentials and quite possibly used these against the film itself. On the face of it and if you didn't know (most folks won't, or care) then this is a decent western, with a Sam Peckinpah sense of gritty realism and dynamism.

The story follows a familiar one; an aged Scottish Gregory Peck and a young half-caste youth become fugitives - then friends - after a bungled bank robbery. They are pursued by racist and violent sheriff Jack Warden who hounds the pair, right to the bloody finale. There's good action and the unusual Israeli scenery actually adds a bit of variety to the surroundings.

The interestingly titled Billy 'Two Hats' is given an unusually sympathetic and approachable role, especially considering the western genre's tendency to the opposite toward native American characters. This again, adds to the flavour of the film, giving it a nuance that marks it apart from dozens of others.

I'd not heard of 'Billy Two Hats'; its title got me interested in the TV listings and found it well worth the time and effort but not quite enough to buy it on DVD.

I think this movie is underrated as a western. Or maybe it's just under-seen, which is really a pity. With nice color photography, it's got some really great western visuals, a meaty storyline, a collection of disparate characters whose fates you really start to care about, and some memorable, quotable dialogue here and there. Jack Warden is excellent as a gruff frontier sheriff "just doing his job," as it were. He's a toned-down and more accessible version of Gene Hackman's over-the-top bastardly sheriff in "Unforgiven." Gregory Peck, playing a words-of-wisdom-spouting Scottish outlaw with a big heart, is really quite good with his Scottish accent (no, it's not perfect, but passable), and has some memorable lines. Desi Arnaz Jr. is quite the sympathetic character as a half-breed Kiowa Indian outlaw being brought to justice by the sheriff. The supporting cast is quite good, and oh.. that nasty little band of outlaw Apaches they run into is truly a scary lot. You can't help but wonder how many white settlers they raped, murdered and pillaged.

All in all, the movie is packed with memorable western images and meaningful lines of dialogue . See it if you get a chance. I'd love for this movie to get more air time.

I haven't seen this movie since I saw it in its initial release where it was playing to a nearly empty theater. It was shot in widescreen, the format appropriate to the genre and the movie would undoubtedly suffer if seen on TV. Granted that the foreign location gave it an odd quality but the desert vistas are no less magnificent. I'm not a particular fan of the western film genre but this one seems to have clung to my memory. Peck's Scottish burr seems forced at times but it does not detract from what is essentially a visually compelling entertainment. If it becomes available in DVD(widescreen) format, I'll certainly buy a copy.

This movie gets broadcast so often that I am surprised there are no other comments. All the performances are excellent, the typical plot of pursuit of the outlaws is well handled, and the racism theme that would probably not fly if the movie were made today is realistically dealt with.

The surprise is Desi Arnaz Jr. in one of his few roles. No great acting is required of him, but he does a very creditable job, and the already handsome young man is smashing in his dark Indian make-up.