Hannie’s Revenge

Posted by Kimberly Lindbergs on April 1, 2010

I love a good revenge film. I’m a firm believer in turning the other cheek and experience has taught me that it’s better to walk away from a fight than take part in one but I don’t often go to the movies for a dose of reality. Most of us know someone who we’d like to get even with for some past deed. Movies offer viewers the opportunity for catharsis and a good revenge film will allow its audience to be immersed in the heroes plight, take part in their journey and right an assumed wrong. But when all is said and done, no one should be left unscarred by the experience. Revenge is never easy or pretty and my favorite revenge films usually end in an empty victory for the hero. The winner might take all but often gains nothing.

Revenge is a typical theme in many great westerns such as The Man from Laramie (1955), The Searchers 1956), The Bravados (1958), Nevada Smith (1966), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Hang ‘Em High (1968). Something about the untamed west lends itself to tales of vengeance. In a lawless land filled with gun-toting cowboys and ruthless outlaws, revenge often seems to be the only option for the righteous. It could also be a remnant of white settlers’ guilt. Maybe we’re all collectively trying to make sense of America’s complicated history when we watch a man like Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) take vengeance on the native Indians who killed his family and kidnapped his niece?

One of my favorite revenge westerns is Hannie Caulder (1971) starring the beautiful Raquel Welch and the recently deceased Robert Culp. In the film Raquel Welch plays a woman named Hannie who is left to fend for herself after three vicious criminals (Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam and Strother Martin) murder her husband, sexually assault her and burn down the home they shared together. In most westerns a woman like Hannie wouldn’t have survived and her husband would have sought revenge. She also might have found comfort in another man’s arms and spent the rest of the film trying to cope with her feelings of guilt and shame. But Hannie Caulder is anything but typical and after she buries her dead husband Hannie decides to seek revenge for his murder and her own rape.

Luckily for Hannie she bumps into Thomas Luther Price (Robert Culp) at the start of her journey. Thomas is a smart and skilled bounty hunter who’s always eager to find work. After a rough start the two form an uneasy friendship and Thomas teaches Hannie how to use a gun. Hannie’s transformation from wronged woman to a pistol packing angel of vengeance is not smooth. Thomas constantly reminds Hannie that killing isn’t easy and throughout the film Hannie struggles with her need for revenge and the guilt associated with taking another man’s life. Raquel Welch isn’t necessarily known for her acting abilities and her performance in the film didn’t win her any awards, but she manages to bring a sincerity and warmth to the role of Hannie Caulder that I really admire. Hannie is a reluctant hero who gets the shakes after she kills her first man and she never really comes to terms with the violence she experiences. She also never relents in her quest for justice and her clear-eyed sense of right and wrong is admirable.

One of the film’s greatest assets is Robert Culp who is terrific as Thomas Luther Price. Thomas is an aging sharpshooter who is loosing his eye-sight and he knows that his time is almost up. And although it becomes clear over the course of the film that he has feelings for Hannie, the two never consummate their relationship. In a genre that is occasionally unfriendly to its female characters and accused of misogynistic tendencies, Robert Culp’s performance as Thomas truly stands out as a beacon of justice and male integrity. We never learn a lot about him or most of the characters in the film. But Culp understood the mystique of the western hero and we come to appreciate who he is through small gestures, a knowing look and his commitment to helping Hannie.

Hannie Caulder was the only western produced by the British studio Tigon in association with Paramount. Tigon is mostly known for the terrific horror films it made in the late ’60s and early ’70s such as Witchfinder General (1968) and Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971), but this film suggests that the studio could have benefited from producing more westerns. The movie isn’t without its problems but I think it mainly suffers from Burt Kennedy’s direction and writing.

Before making Hannie Caulder, Burt Kennedy worked on television shows such as The Virginian and Lawman. He also directed many western comedies including The Rounders (1965), Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969), The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969) and Dirty Dingus Magee (1970). By any measure, Hannie Caulder should have been a serious film shot in a style reminiscent of classic revenge westerns but instead Burt Kennedy seemed determined to inject laughs into the movie whenever he could. A better director would never have attempted to turn Hannie’s quest for revenge into a comedy and thankfully most of the film’s stars seem to want to play it straight.

Besides Raquel Welch and Robert Culp, horror veteran Christopher Lee gives a noteworthy performance as a respectable gunsmith living on the coast with his family. Lee brings his usual sense of gravitas to the proceedings but he also seems to be enjoying himself in his role and he’s surprisingly good with a gun. I also like Stephen Boyd’s wordless performance as the mysterious man in black. Stephen Boyd could be seen as a stereotypical gunman or a sublime angel of death who seems to be following Robert Culp’s character and watching over Hannie Caulder. We’re never really sure of his nature or motivation but I appreciate the way Boyd portrayed the character.

Unfortunately the three outlaws played by Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam and Strother Martin suffer the most from Burt Kennedy’s bad writing and poor direction choices. They’re all great actors who are more than capable of playing the ruthless characters that the script should have called for. Instead they’re made out to be The Three Stooges of the American west. One minute we’re supposed to be chuckling at their expense and in the next we’re supposed to be rooting for their demise. This erratic take on the material lessons the emotional impact of Hannie Caulder and turns what could have been a truly great film into a bit of a muddled mess.

Like many European westerns, Hannie Caulder was shot in Spain and it’s a great looking movie. Even though Burt Kennedy’s writing and directing decisions in the film are questionable, there’s no getting around the fact that this is a gorgeous movie full of breathtaking long shots that show off the majestic beauty of the Spanish countryside. Burt Kennedy should also be commended for the way he decided to shoot Raquel Welch. Welch is a beautiful woman but Hannie Caulder isn’t the most glamorous role of her career and throughout most of film she’s dressed in an ill-fitting poncho that makes her look like a female version of Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name.” But due to Burt Kennedy’s direction and Edward Scaife’s cinematography Raquel Welch’s has rarely looked as good as she does in Hannie Caulder.

Over the years I have forgiven the film’s faults and I appreciate what the movie gets right much more than what it gets wrong. Hannie Caulder is not a perfect film but it is one of Raquel Welch’s best movies and it offered Robert Culp the opportunity to create one of the most complex and compelling characters of his career.

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24 Responses Hannie’s Revenge

Posted By Richard Harland Smith : April 2, 2010 12:31 pm

I always liked this movie but haven’t seen it in ages – in fact, I’d forgotten that Stephen Boyd was even in this. One thing that always stuck with me is Price’s instruction to Hannie to change position after firing her first shot. That always struck me as an important life lesson, even taken out of the context of gunfighting.

Posted By Kimberly Lindbergs : April 2, 2010 1:54 pm

I had forgotten that Boyd was in it as well until I watched again recently. There’s a lot of unusual religious overtones to the film (when Hannie first sees Boyd she assumes he’s a priest). Hannie could be an “Angel of Vengeance” and Boyd could be “An Angel of Death.” In other words, at times the film has an almost ethereal quality found in westerns like HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER. Culp gets all the best lines in the movie when he’s teaching Hannie to shoot. I love the part when he describes a scene involving too potential gunmen who could kill her. He describes one as looking right at her, with his hand on his gun. The other man doesn’t seem to be looking at her at all and is wearing his hat low to shade his eyes from the sun. Then Culp asks her to kill the one who is the real threat and naturally it’s the guy who most people would never expect. Lots of good life lessons in Hannie Caulder.

Posted By John Plunkett : April 2, 2010 1:57 pm

Thanks for this great write-up, especially the focus on Culp’s fine performance. He really did something interesting with every role. Awesome stills too.

Posted By Kimberly Lindbergs : April 2, 2010 4:12 pm

Thanks, John! Culp was terrific in this film.

Posted By Lee Pfeiffer : April 9, 2010 10:56 am

Great article, as usual, Kimberly. This is the kind of film that was dismissed as routine in its day but now looks terrific because we simply don’t have casts like this in contemporary cinema. Now if only it was available on DVD. I’m suffering with my old laser disc version.

Posted By Kimberly Lindbergs : April 9, 2010 7:24 pm

I’m glad you liked it, Lee! The cast is really good but there’s some great cinematography in the film as well that really adds to the viewing experience. These days critics would probably be falling all over themselves to praise the look of the movie but in ’71 it was just competent filmmaking.

As for the DVD, I don’t know when or if that will ever happen. You can watch the movie at Amazon using their “Video on Demand” option but the quality is questionable and probably can’t compare to your LD.

Posted By scott : April 12, 2010 4:58 am

Another really enjoyable article. I especially enjoyed the appreciation of Robert Culp – a very underrated actor .
If you have suitable equipment you can get HANNIE CAULDER on DVD
in Australia. Its is on region 4 and in PAL format.

Posted By kevin : April 19, 2010 6:38 pm

Just wanted to mention the great score by Ken Thorne. I love the rousing main theme although it is quite short.
I agree with the comments on comedic aspects with the three stooges. Diana Dors is in it too!!

Posted By MATT : April 19, 2010 7:09 pm

just bought the score on cd – bought is used – it’s been long out of print. I saw this film on first release and really enjoyed it. I have an autographed still of robert culp from this film. I remember complimenting him on his death scene – and he mentioned that he threw in under his breath “well I’ll be a sonofabitch” just before he dies. the director wasn’t happy – but I’m glad it made the final cut!

Posted By Graham Rye : April 20, 2010 5:24 am

Hannie Caulder IS available on DVD.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hannie-Caulder-Widescreen-Raquel-Welch/dp/B001Q58KW8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1271754577&sr=1-1

Posted By R. Emmet Sweeney : April 20, 2010 1:57 pm

Olive Films will be releasing HANNIE CAULDER on DVD, along with a bunch of other Paramount titles, later this year…

Posted By Stuart O’Quin : April 22, 2010 2:32 am

Sounds like a lot of fun. I have always been a fan of Westerns and this seems to be an unusual one. I just recently viewed Raquel Welch’s first film “One Million Years B.C.” That one was a real hoot.

Posted By Kimberly Lindbergs : April 22, 2010 1:42 pm

Culp is under appreciated but hopefully more people will get the chance to see his work in Hannie Caulder when the film comes to DVD. Looks like it’s alreday availble in the UK and as I mentioned above, you can watch the film at Amazon right now using their “Video on Demand” service. Thanks for the DVD info, Graham & R. Emmet!

The score for Hannie Caulder is great. I’m glad that Matt & Kevin mentioned it because it’s one of the films stand-out features. And yes, Dors in it very briefly in the movie as the madame. She’s funny in it even though I don’t think the comedic elements of the movie work very well.

I hope you get a chance to see the movie soon, Stuart!

Posted By Greg Espinoza : April 27, 2010 2:39 pm

Nicely done review, Kimberly. I just wanted to add that the score to Hannie Caulder is by the excellent Ken Thorne (Help, Inspector Clouseau, Superman II) . It is only available on a composer promo, The Film Music Of Ken Thorne, Volume 1. Fifteen tracks for Hannie Caulder, paired with Thorne’s score for the 1982 TV version of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. If you find it in a CD store bargain bin, grab it.

I got the chance to meet Robert Culp in 2008. Regretfully, Hannie Caulder was one of the things I forgot to ask him about.

Posted By Wild Bill Harding : July 16, 2010 8:57 am

This is a fine piece of writing about an underrated film. No-one mentioned the series of superb westerns Burt Kennedy wrote for director Budd Boetticher in the late ’50s and early ’60s. Despite his wonderful Support Your Local Sheriff (1969) and Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) he didn’t quite have the success as a director that he had as a screenwriter. Thanks for reminding me of this film. I’ll watch it again.

Posted By Graham Rye : July 16, 2010 4:49 pm

In life I often find that what goes around comes around, but when it doesn’t sometimes it’s necessary to ‘educate’ the offending party with a short sharp shock!

But enough about reality, fantasy is far more fun, and ‘Hannie Caulder’ is another one of those 70s westerns that never gets remembered as much as it should be. While it may be somewhat below the par of something like ‘High Noon’ or ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’, it still has a lot to offer and makes for an entertaining 90 minutes plus, not so much because of the story, a revenge re-tread, but because of the performances of all the cast, a wish list in the 2000s that would remain just that.

Posted By TCM's Classic Movie Blog : July 27, 2010 2:02 pm

[...] Harland Smith wrote about it here), and Hannie Caulder (1971, which Kimberly Lindbergs dealt with here). A wholesale distributor and retailer of independent and art-house releases, Olive is now [...]

Posted By SWDB Digest – Episode 4 | Planet Spaghetti Western : October 18, 2010 11:51 am

[...] Hannie Caulder blog post on the TCM page (blog) [...]

Posted By suzidoll : February 7, 2011 5:14 pm

Kim
We are showing HANNIE CAULDER in the next midnight movie series at Facets, which we call Night School. One of the staff is presenting it. Her name is Michelle. I am sending a link to this post to her, and I am quoting you in the marketing on our website. Hope that’s okay.

Posted By Kimberly Lindbergs : February 7, 2011 6:29 pm

It’s more than okay, Suzi! I’m honored and happy you can make good use of this. I hope the screening goes well! It sounds really exciting.

Posted By Chris A : March 3, 2011 9:19 pm

Just got this film on DVD in the US. Sadly, Olive Films botched the ending: the closing music is out of sync with Bobby Hanna’s singing; I watched the European version online, and that wasn’t the case. It’s a defect with the region 1 DVD in the original source material. Too bad Olive Films didn’t catch this mistake.

I agree about the general assessment of the film. It has many great parts, and great potential, but it is flawed. My favorite scene has the master flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia in an unbilled cameo, playing the acoustic guitar, while Hannie (Raquel Welch) and Thomas (Robert Culp) walk along the seaside as the sun sets. Hannie suddenly takes Thomas’s hand into her own, a gesture with much meaning, considering her husband had been murdered, and she had been raped by the three men who killed him. It is beautifully understated, and shows that she is beginning to rise above her pain and truly appreciates Thomas for being a gentleman and teaching her how to shoot a pistol. Ken Thorne’s soaring violin strings orchestration behind de Lucia’s guitar work in that scene is nothing short of majestic, and coupled with the touching visuals (and gorgeous Spanish coast doubling for the Gulf of Mexico) it lingers in the memory long afterwards. Christopher Lee was also superb in his atypically sympathetic role. A four star moment in a two-and-a-half to three-star movie.

Posted By Chris A : March 7, 2011 4:35 pm

One last thought: “Hannie Caulder” seems to be an unlikely hybrid of three different types of westerns which were popular at the time, as it has the arch tone of a ‘spaghetti western’ (like Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy), the warmth of a classic western (like “True Grit” which won John Wayne a best actor Oscar in 1969), and the blood-letting of a Peckinpah western (“The Wild Bunch”). That’s an uneasy amalgam, to say the least, but that same diversity is what yields so much interest in “Hannie Caulder.”

Posted By Kimberly Lindbergs : March 7, 2011 5:00 pm

Good points, Chris. HANNIE CAULDER does seem like it was trying to appeal to a wide audience and got tripped up in the process. I think the film would have been much better if it nixed all attempts at humor. You can’t make creepy rapists funny. Thankfully Welch & Culp seemed determined to keep it serious and it’s their performances as well as Christopher Lee’s that I like to remember. And the direction at times is just stunning. It’s a beautiful looking movie but it’s too bad that the sound on the Olive Films DVD is flawed.

Posted By Fairportfan : March 15, 2011 2:15 am

It seemed to me at the time – i saw it when it first came out, and not since – that perhaps the studio was hoping for a sequel or two…

(Can’t recall why i thought that, exactly – the unresolved issue of Boyd’s character, maybe – but i recall that i did think so.)

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