Avaliações de usuários

Though this film seems to have had a cute idea for a tongue-in-cheek western send-up at its heart, the result was so bad it reminds one of the cheesy pornographic films from the same era. Surely the production values are that low, and and as others have noted, the editing was such as should have earned any film-school student a failing grade. How a name-brand a cast like this one ever got involved with something so poor is to be wondered at. Perhaps no less wondrous is why really awful films like these get released on DVD while so many other infinitely more redeeming ones still fail to see the light of day (I personally am still waiting for "The Secret of Santa Vittoria" with Anthony Quinn). Rest assured, younger viewers, that this disaster is far, far below even the average quality of films of its time. Speaking of which, the 1975 release date cited in these pages cannot be accurate because the Oldsmobile Cutlass so prominently featured in the beginning of the film (yet another waste of otherwise perfectly good celluloid in connection with this movie) was not on the market until the 1978 model year.

When an innocent convict (James Caan) is released from prison in the Southwest he teams-up with an AmerIndian woman (Stefanie Powers) to exact vengeance on a town of sadistic revelers in the desert. Aldo Ray plays the sinister town boss, Robert Walker Jr. the weary sheriff and Sammy Davis Jr. a black-clad gunslinger.

"Gone with the West" has a strange history: It was actually shot in 1969 under the working title "Man without Mercy," but not released until 1974-1975. This explains how scenes from the movie were available for use in the theater sequence of "Messiah of Evil" (1973). A reedited version with new music and additional scenes (a new intro & conclusion set in modern times) was released in the late 70s under the name "Little Moon and Jud McGraw" wherein Caan's character, Jebediah Kelsey, was changed to Jud McGraw. I viewed the original "Gone with the West" version.

The movie SEEMS like a serious Western with the typical sadism of Spaghetti Westerns (for example, the opening features a woman being raped with a town mob heartily enjoying the spectacle), but the goofy jazz/rock score keys off that it's supposed to be satirical. If there's any doubt, the ending scene tells all. Speaking of the music, it's akin to the groovy rock in low-budget biker flicks, e.g. "The Cycle Savages" (1969), except that a great acoustic piece surfaces occasionally, similar to something Heart would do back then.

When I discerned that the film wasn't to be taken too seriously I started to chuckle with it, a little anyway, and was entertained by several sequences, like the knock-down drag-out brouhaha of two women, Sammy Davis Jr.'s deadpan gunfighter and the guy humorously singing "Abide with Me" deadpan, as well as the over-the-top hellish close.

Unfortunately, the editing is incoherent, like whoever put it together was on acid. Not to mention there's zero meaningful dialogue with Powers babbling in an AmerIndian language the whole time (or was it Spanish?). So, there are items to appreciate in this eccentric Western, but you have to persevere through its outlandishness and defects.

The film runs 1 hour, 32 minutes, and was shot in Las Vegas with the title sequence shot at Vasquez Rocks, California, just north of Los Angeles in the high country.

GRADE: C-

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!

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 has to be one of the worst movies ever! How did it take three people to write a story with nearly no dialog and very little plot? How did anyone get talked into financing this bomb? How did they manage to get James Caan and SAMMY DAVIS JR.! to appear in this thing? I think this movie gave Sammy Davis Jr. cancer. He probably never let Sinatra or Dean Martin know he was in this thing. It is that utterly bad. It is more confusing than some bizarre Fellini flick. I watched the whole thing and I have NO idea what it is about, just a collection of scenes that don't add up to a story. I don't know what any of it means - the cockfighting, the woman and little kid getting shot, the two hookers (?) getting into a fight, the wrestling match in the bar (which is perpetually in a fight scene), the cowboy singing 'Abide With Me' every so often. Weird, weird, weird. Maybe it would make sense if you watched it on LSD, since it was apparently written under that influence. I can't recall another movie which has left me feeling so stunned, like 'What the HECK was that?' No wonder it's in the public domain; nobody would have spent the few dollars to keep the copyrights going. Wow. This whole movie makes no sense whatever.

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.

Newspaper folk from the city, doing a piece on ghost towns, get an earful from a batty old crone near San Juan Batista who tells them a tall tale of the Old West. Excruciating western, apparently played for laughs, pits lonesome cowpoke James Caan against small town strong-arm Aldo Ray, with Stefanie Powers as an Indian love-interest who apparently doesn't speak English. Showing definite, crippling signs of post-production interference, this threadbare film is so ineptly edited, one feels as though he's watching a proposed pilot for a TV series which never sold. It isn't fair to call the end results a 'film' or a 'movie'...it's simply an excuse for the actors (good ones, mind you) to make a little extra money. Hopefully, the cast and their managers were well-paid. NO STARS from ****

One of the more memorable sequences in MESSIAH OF EVIL (1973) features a major supporting character meeting her doom while at a movie screening preceded by the trailer for GONE WITH THE WEST; by sheer coincidence, within the same week I rented the former on DVD, I also came across the latter – having rented this particular budget-priced Western collection primarily because it also included THE JACKALS (1967), a remake of William A. Wellman's YELLOW SKY (1948) which I intend to revisit presently in tribute to its recently deceased co-star, Richard Widmark! The footage seen in MESSIAH OF EVIL – of a mean-looking gunslinger played by Sammy Davis Jr.(!) – promised a fun movie but, even if his cameo did prove to be its brightest spot, having now had the misfortune to sit through the damn thing in its entirety, it's perfectly clear now that the trailer had been inserted only because GONE WITH THE WEST was an as-yet unreleased debacle which needed all the exposure it could get!

This truly lamentable attempt at a Western spoof was evidently shot prior to James Caan attaining stardom with THE GODFATHER (1972) and, although he does manage a couple of decent bits, he is a long, long way from his scene-stealing turn as Mississippi in Howard Hawks' EL DORADO (1966). Despite some surprising nudity by both of them, Stefanie Powers is simply terrible as an all-Spanish-speaking Indian girl(!) and Barbara Werle fares no better as Aldo Ray's nymphomaniac wife. Ray himself is embarrassing as a grizzled cowboy and Robert Walker Jr. barely registers at all in the role of an ineffectual sheriff. Even less rewarding is seeing Hollywood veteran Heather Angel as a loony old woman – who is actually an elderly version of the same character played by Powers; not that it matters much but the film opens in a modern-day setting and the bulk of the narrative is made up of Angel's reminiscences (by which time, it seems, she had learned to muster the English language).

Retitling the film to LITTLE MOON AND JUD McGRAW (which is the name sported by the print I watched) only served to jettison the puerile original but did zilch to mask the film's glaringly rampant deficiencies (particularly those of an editorial nature). Director Bernard Girard may have been behind a couple of interesting movies prior to this one – the James Coburn caper, DEAD HEAT ON A MERRY-GO-ROUND (1966) and the Christopher Walken psychological outing, THE MIND SNATCHERS (1972) – but it's no surprise at all that GONE WITH THE WEST sealed his fate in filmdom forever. There is no doubt in my mind that this is one of the worst movies of the Seventies but, arguably, I'd even go so far as to name it the worst Western I ever laid eyes on!

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.

Poorly presented western starring James Caan (as Jud McGraw) as an outlaw type trying to be good in a corrupt town. Robert Walker (as the Sheriff) shares his beard, Aldo Ray (as as Mimmo) takes a bath, Sammy Davis Jr. (as Kid Dandy) wears black leather pants, and Stefanie Powers (as Little Moon) shows her bare buttocks. To appear more Native American, Ms. Powers wears an "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" hairpiece. She successfully holds it on during a struggle with Mr. Caan. This film was first shelved, then released as "Gone with the West" in 1975. It should have stayed gone, but was re-produced with new framing and narration as "Little Moon & Jud McGraw" in 1978. The stunts, especially those involving fire, are done well. Otherwise, this is a movie mess.

** Gone with the West/ Little Moon & Jud McGraw (1975/1978) Bernard Girard ~ James Caan, Stefanie Powers, Aldo Ray, Sammy Davis Jr.

Substandard script resulting in a completely forgettable movie in whole and in part. Uneven segues from scene to scene. No interesting dialogue. Film never gets out of the paddock. No amount of acting from the main characters brings the film to life.

The list of actors attracted me to this movie, but from there it all went downhill. I could not make sense of any part of it. The acting was nonsensical was it actually directed or was it just thrown together, the music was annoying and didn't fit with the action, was it meant to be a comedy, a parody 🤔, oh no, just a complete waste of time!

1 star because it was fun watching Sammy's gun skills. You'd think it would be better with a good cast. No lines to remember, dialog is practically non-existent. Even the soundtrack stunk. Time I wont get back.

Wow. What a mess. This showed a lot of promised in the beginning. Getting out of jail, James Cann goes back to his hometown, seeking revenge for the death of this wife and son. I like Cann in this movie. His strong presence is needed. Another point - I admire the female characters fighting for what they believed in. Women standing their ground for respect. During a bar brawl, I saw one gal punched a guy down in self defense! These two points really don't save the movie. Gone with the West feels incomplete. Though this movie was filmed in 1972, it wasn't released till 1975. Somewhere during production, they must have run out of money and ideas. The soundtrack is annoying, it can drive you up the wall. Though I liked seeing the familiar faces of TV veterans Robert Walker and Sammy Davis, they don't have much to do. By the way, Stefanie Power's character makes a poor comic relief. The last scene with Cann and Powers looking back at the camera is just plain odd. I purchased this DVD for a dollar, so I didn't risk much. Its just frustrating to see this film. Gone with the West could have been a decent movie if given additional thought and money, Is this western another reason why the genre went away during the 1970s?

The only way someone could think this movie was not sensational is if their sense of humor was highly uncultivated or if they were just extremely immature. The asides make it clear this movie was made just for laughs. The characters names, the costumes, and the starring roles of such Hollywood heavyweights as James Caan, Stephanie Powers and Sammy Davis Jr. especially made this film hilarious on almost the same level as Blazing Saddles. My roommate and I pride ourselves in having a refined sense of taste and we enjoyed this film thoroughly. And we didn't even have to be intoxicated to laugh uproariously throughout the entire film. The last scene in which Stephanie powers remarks to James Caan that the only person he didn't kill was the camera man was the icing on the cake.

I watched the "Little Moon and Jud McGraw" version of this film mentioned in the IMDB trivia (it's currently posted on YouTube). I would love to know the exact story about how this film got made. IMDB has only a bit of information, but it looks as if the film was made in several pieces. The original material was filmed about 1969....and some material was very sloppily added by someone else in the 1970s. How these people gained access and rights to the original material, I have no idea. But to make a 'new' film, they sloppily edited some footage and created a disjointed mess...and then added a 1970s prologue and the most awful narration you can imagine. The end result is amazingly bad...amateurish even. But you cannot blame the actors in the original film...they had no idea such an awful mess would be made of their work. In many ways, the finished product looks WORSE than such schlock films as "Plan 9 From Outer Space"! So, don't trust anyone who gives the movie a 10...unless they find the product so bad, so stupid and so awful that it's worth seeing just for a laugh! Surely you could do better than watch this. Heck, sitting in the dark and barking for 90 minutes would be more entertaining than watching this pathetic movie.