Hannie Caulder - Desejo de Vingança

Ah sue me! I think it's great. Raquel Welch plays Hannie Caulder, a gorgeous cowgirl who is raped and left widowed by three scuzzy brothers played by Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin and Jack Elam. Hell bent on revenge, Hannie hooks up with smooth bounty hunter Thomas Luther Price (Robert Culp excellent), learns how to fire weapons and pursues her quarry to the day of reckoning.

That is it, it is what it is, Welch is stunningly beautiful and sexy and director Burt Kennedy wastes no opportunities to capitalise on this fact. If we are honest she's miscast, but it really doesn't matter, nor does finding Christopher Lee in the picture as a wily old gunsmith!

The mix of humour with a rape revenge storyline is a little uncomfortable at times, but not insultingly so, while Kennedy has a good eye for action. Edward Scaife photographs (Panavision) pleasingly out of Almería in Spain, and Ken Thorne's musical score trundles along without intrusion.

It's off-beat, even unique, and while it misses the chance to be a feminist Western of some standing, there's a real good time to be had here for those willing to buy into the daftness of it all. 7/10

By 1971 the ripples the spaghetti western movement were in full effect in both sides of the Atlantic and Hannie Caulder is definitely a product of those times and the progeny of the films of Leone, Corbucci or Parolini more than the traditional oaters of John Ford or Anthony Mann. It's evident in the bloody gunshots, the sexual violence and the way the revenge plot unfolds.

Undoubtedly part of the genre revisionism that turned the western upside down in the early 70's is the genre reversal tactics that director Burt Kennedy employs. We had seen a woman adopting a traditionally masculine role in the bossy, no-nonsense, gun-totting saloon owner Joan Crawford played in Johnny Guitar. Hannie Caulder however takes a different approach and adopts almost verbatim the narrative skeleton of a typical spaghetti western - the anti-hero, traumatized by a past event, looking for revenge. Then proceeds to cast the beautiful Raquel Welch (and her tanned, well toned thighs) in a role that in Italy would have been exclusive to the likes of Franco Nero, Anthony Steffen or Maurizio Merli.

Three bank robbers on the run from the Mexican Federales stop in a horse station, kill the owner, rape the wife, burn the place down and leave her to die. A passing bounty hunter takes the wife under his wing and travels with her to Mexico to meet a gun maker that used to work for the Confederates. It's there that the typical "training" part of the anti-heroine takes place and where she makes the turn from a "wounded animal" to a woman coming to terms with the path of revenge she has chosen. By the end of the movie Hannie Caulder has transformed to a gutsy, smart and wisecracking antiheroine and in no uncertain terms has embodied the "angel of death" aspect of the black-clad antiheroes of the spaghetti western - which is also evident in the final fight that takes place in the middle of a sandstorm.

A major asset of the film is the cast. Not because they turn in Oscar worthy performances - they don't. But it's always heart-warming to see so many familiar faces in the same film. Apart from the ravishing miss Welch, Christopher Lee appears in a brief role as the gunmaker (and it's funny to hear his British accent so far removed from the foggy sets of Hammer studios), Ernest Borgnine yells his way through the film (annoyingly so) as the leader of the three bank robbers and Jack Elam and Strother Martin steal every scene as the other two brothers of this formidable trio.

Pretty terrific western is outlandish, yet engrossing, satisfying and often funny (both intentionally and unintentionally). After being violently raped, widowed and left for dead by three dirty, cackling brothers, Raquel Welch learns to shoot a gun from hot-headed bounty hunter Robert Culp and hopes to seek her revenge on the mangy trio. Welch is sexy and droll as Hannie Caulder, and we are on her side from the get-go. She receives excellent support from Culp, Christopher Lee as a gunsmith and the three villains, Jack Elam, Strother Martin and Ernest Borgnine. A fairly unusual western which, until "Ms. 45" and "Sudden Impact", pretty much stood alone in the female sharpshooter genre. A large portion of its success belongs to Ms. Welch, convincing and sympathetic while riding the vengeance trail...but always remembering, "win or lose--you lose." Nobody won any awards for this, but it is exceptionally well done. *** from ****

The main virtue is more the acting than the story. The smart use of the mix of tension and humor. The presence of Christopher Lee in an atypical role for his career and the most than decent result , Raquel Welch demonstrating more than you expect and Robert Culp giving all the flavors of the lonely stranger from westerns. And, not the last, off course, a great dirty, vulgar, cruel, defining the term family in admirable way , trio gived by Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam and Strother Martin. So, just impressive.

Burt Kennedy who up to this point on the big and small screens worked with established Hollywood legends and in America, goes to Europe for a dish of pasta. A tasty dish at that in the form of Raquel Welch in the title role of Hannie Caulder.

Three fleeing Clemons brothers having just robbed a bank stop at a ranch to water and maybe steal some fresh horses. They shoot the owner and then ravish his wife who is Raquel Welch.

Imagine Nevada Smith where the mother doesn't die but seeks the three men out herself to even the score and you have Hannie Caulder. As Steve McQueen had a mentor in gunsmith Brian Keith she gets a good one in bounty hunter Robert Culp.

Her quarry as the notorious and probably inbred Clemons brothers are Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam and Strother Martin. They are as nasty as the three who ravaged Nevada Smith's mother and they all come from the same parents. You could also compare them to the Clegg family of outlaws in the John Ford classic Wagonmaster.

Raquel Welch and Robert Culp make a fine pair of heroes, if they're not clean cut like Roy Rogers and Dale Evans they sure do look tall in the saddle.

By 1971 rape and other sexual issues could and were discussed in westerns. Westerns were more adult at that point though fewer were being made. Burt Kennedy whose films lean to the comic like The Rounders, The War Wagon, The Good Guys And The Bad Guys gets quite serious here. He also for the first time uses a woman protagonist.

It's a good film, but Burt Kennedy cheats a bit to give the film an artificial happy ending. But for that it could have been great.