She Came to the Valley

Skip the movie. It's a really poor adaptation of a darn good book. Read it.

I first saw this thing several years ago on cable at 3 in the morning. One viewing of this dud will show you why it was on at 3 in the morning. Director Albert Band specialized in cheap Italian westerns in the '60s, and this has the look, feel and sound of one. Only the fact that it was shot in English in Texas, instead of in Italian in Spain, distinguishes it from the stinkers that Band put out back then. His filmmaking skill haven't improved, either. What this film actually looks like is a home movie on a slightly bigger-than-average budget (for a home movie, that is). For some reason Band was able to attract a pretty decent cast, but he doesn't do anything with them. Scott Glenn looks embarrassed, as well he should be, you get the feeling from his "performance" that he wishes he were somewhere else. Freddy Fender, while a good singer, overacts outrageously as Pancho Villa. Ronee Blakeley, another country singer, is a bit better as a pioneer woman caught up in the swirling atmosphere of the Texas/Mexico border during the Mexican Revolution early in this century. It's a good premise, but Band isn't good enough of a director, and the budget is much too low, to do anything interesting with it. A couple of haphazard gun fights and a few flimsy huts set on fire, are just about it for the "action" in the picture. There's a lot of talk, most of which has been said in countless westerns before it and a lot of which makes no sense at all, the photography is poor, the sound is awful, and it apparently was edited with hedge clippers. If you're a fan of Blakeley, Fender or Glenn, don't waste your time on this dud. If you're a western fan, don't waste your time on this dud. If you have seen every movie ever made in the history of mankind except this one, don't waste your time on this dud. Poor in all departments. Avoid it like the plague.

A very poorly-made film....not even up to straight-to-video standards. In spite of that, the actors do their darndest to put the story across. Sometimes they try too hard, I'm afraid, and I wince at the overacting. Scott Glenn, however, stays above the fray. He really does a fine job with his character. And the story drew me in as the film progressed, and I began to overlook the obvious flaws. By the time the film was finished, I realized it was just an old-fashioned western...and there isn't anything wrong with that, is there? Still, hard to believe this film was made in 1977. It has a very 1957 feel to it. It should only be sold or rented for 1957 prices, too.

Well I am biased, my father is Klaus Eggers, one of the German bad guys. I thought the movie could be improved upon, but my dad was funny. While it is true that everyone in the valley was excited about the movie, it was obvious that the producers, director, and editors did not care quite enough.

Go dad!

I just watched this movie on one of those $1 DVDs you get near the checkout at WalMart. I guess it was worth a dollar, mainly because it was packaged with another movie that was much more enjoyable. Still, I'm not sorry I watched it, even though it was hard to sit through. It was an experience. I agree with most of the reviewers here that the cast was a good one, and they tried really hard to make the seemingly pointless material come alive. On a more positive note: the movie is an unusual Western that deals with some real, late nineteenth century-early twentieth century history that most Westerns don't portray. And I'll say this for it... the script is so artless it actually makes the story more believable in a quirky sort of way. It has a kind of Reality TV feel to it. A lot of Dean Stockwell and Ronee Blakeley's family life was hard to watch though, because you just knew something was bound to go wrong to mess up their happiness. And besides that, Stockwell's character gets a crippling load dropped on him, and later gets run over by a car. Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.