Winchester et jupons courts

Good old-fashioned Western movie with a good shot of comedy. A great production and fine working cast (Diana Lane and Amanda Plummer are all too gorgeous as drifters) make this one a gem for everyone who like Western movies a la True Grit, Cat Ballou, Waterhole and so on.

An adorable Diane Lane ("Unfaithful") and a wonderfully spunky Amanda Plummer ("Pulp Fiction"), the latter making her film debut, play the title roles in this highly engaging Western. Cattle Annie (Plummer) and Jenny a.k.a. Little Britches (Lane) are two young orphan girls who hook up with the remnants of the Doolin (Burt Lancaster, "Gunfight at the O. K. Corral") / Dalton (Scott Glenn, "The Silence of the Lambs") gang. Bill Doolin decides that the old gang still has some life left in it, and the girls inspire them to pull a few more jobs.

Overall, the film is good enough to make you think that it in no way deserved its fate. (It was "thrown away" by Universal, who distributed it in 1980.). Only in more recent years did it get released to Blu-ray & DVD, so people can now take pleasure in a slightly adult (there is some profanity, and some male nudity, albeit shot from behind) but still largely harmless bit of entertainment. Just like the Cattle Annie of the title, it has a lot of spirit, and a charismatic Lancaster and a low-key Glenn are just two top players in a cast that also includes Rod Steiger ("In the Heat of the Night") as lawman Bill Tilghman, John Savage ("The Deer Hunter"), William Russ ('Boy Meets World'), Redmond Gleeson ("Dreamscape"), Buck Taylor ("Tombstone"), Michael Conrad ('Hill Street Blues'), John Quade ("Every Which Way But Loose"), and Perry Lang ("Alligator").

The story, based on a novel and screen story by Robert Ward, has a great theme about idolization of outlaw characters and the need to see the reality behind the legend. It's a solid, entertaining tale with some choice bits of dialogue, and a rousing finale guaranteed to have viewers cheering.

The fact that this got such a limited release 44 years ago is in no way indicative of quality (or lack thereof), so give this one a look whenever you can.

Seven out of 10.

Amanda Plummer and Diane Lane have the title roles as Cattle Annie And Little Britches in this really outstanding film that seems to have disappeared. As it was it was given limited release and held up for two years being shot in 1979. Usually that means bad news for a film. But not in this case.

According to a recent biography of Burt Lancaster the collapse of the elephantine budgeted Heaven's Gate made the studios gun shy about westerns. It was the main reason the film was held up. Probably Lancaster Oscar nominated performance in Atlantic City made the studio change its mind.

A pair of Hollywood legends Burt Lancaster and Rod Steiger make their only joint film appearance in Cattle Annie And Little Britches. Lancaster plays legendary outlaw Bill Doolin who operated in the Oklahoma Territory primarily and who the girls who've had their heads filled with dime novel fantasies become camp followers and are christened with those names by Lancaster. Steiger is legendary lawman Bill Tilghman who is on the trail of the Doolin gang. Worth seeing this film just to see them together in one scene.

According to the Lancaster biography Amanda Plummer regarding Lancaster as an acting mentor. She was impressed with his sheer physicality even in middle age. Burt certainly was no longer playing roles like The Crimson Pirate, but still he used his whole body and not just that clear speaking voice to get you to notice him. Steiger too has one memorable voice for the screen.

Cattle Annie And Little Britches is a sleeper western ready to be discovered by film fans. Make sure to see this if broadcast.

9-year-old me wanted to watch this movie in the theaters, but my parents wouldn't take me, though now that Kino-Lorber has release it on blu-ray, I finally get to watch it. Honestly, the main reason I bought this film is I've had a crush on Diane Lane since "Six Pack" and still really wanted to watch this movie. It tells the tale of two teenage girls in the old west falling in love with outlaws and being pursued by the law. That's about it, but what makes the film work is a surprisingly strong cast. Besides Diane Lane, in only her third film, you also have Amanda Plummer ("Fisher King" "Pulp Fiction") in her film debut as Cattle Annie. There's also Scott Glenn ("Silverado" "Silence of the Lambs"), John Savage ("Enter the Dragon" "Nightmare on Elm Street") Buck Taylor ("Tombstone" "Cowboys & Aliens"), and even Hollywood legends Rod Steiger ("On the Waterfront" "In the Heat of the Night") and Burt Lancaster ("From Here to Eternity" "Sweet Smell of Success"). Overall, the film is lightweight fluff, but it's utterly charming and goes down easy like comfort food.

I know shamefully little about Lamont Johnson, other than he worked mainly in the TV medium. An ageing Burt Lancaster plays the part of Bill Doolin, leader of the Dalton-Doolin gang, which robs trains and banks and is chased by Marshall Tilghman, well portrayed by Rod Steiger.

John Savage also shines as a half-breed, but Amanda Plummer as Annie and Diane Lane as Little Britches steal the show as Doolin's most loyal supporters, even when the gang appears to be defunct.

Burt Lancaster was a great actor and he is the life of the film despite putting on smug facial expressions, wide gestures reminiscent of his TV Moses reaching the promised land, and clearly enjoying the love of underaged Little Briches. Meanwhile, his character as Bill Doolin veers constantly between good sense and uprightness on one hand, and robbing all he can and leading a bunch of outlaws on the other. When he notices the disappearance of the latest robbery's proceeds (dollar notes put away in the trousers of a lawman), at the cost of some of his men, he laughs like Walter Huston upon realizing that it is fool's gold, not the real thing, in TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (US 1948). I did not like that sequence, or the ending, but I must admit that the film keeps an enticing pace throughout.

Scott Glenn seems sadly underused while John Savage begins substantially enough but somehow sinks into near invisibility after taking Cattle Annie swimming.

Strong cinematography by Larry Pizer, interesting soundtrack. 7/10.