Hannie Caulder

Run of the mill western with loads of big name stars. Dead now I suppose. Bit like the Stone female gun slinger in the recent movie. I found a lot of it silly. Supposed to be 186 minutes, my copy was only 86 min. What happened to the rest?

Could have been a classic... Raquel Welch, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam and Strother Martin all on good form here, also featuring Christopher Lee and Robert Culp.The film itself however lacks clarity. Arguably could have done with a higher certificate which would have probably made it more of a cult film (as in Last Hard Men/Straw Dogs for example).

For a start it's the French print and I suspect it's also the TV version. The film is listed as 18, but comes as a 15 certificate and is very much the version I remember watching on TV many years ago, so don't expect any graphical violence as quite often we get cut-away shots.

It's mixed up: the bad guys doing slapstick and the good guys so straight it's almost surreal- think Clint meets the Three Stooges. I think the director didn't know what he wanted from this film and it shows as the characters as so 2D.

Ms Welch (and I'm a big fan of hers) puts in a very patchy performance. Mr Lee is just passing the time delivering the lines on queue and Mr Culp, playing it straight, is just too philosophical to be a bounty hunter (win or loose, you always loose).

It should have been a pro feminist movie, demonstrating that women can be effective killers too - Ms Stone ably demonstrates this in the 'Quick and the Dead' - but here we get very conflicting messages about all the characters, especially the lead- she wants to kill, she doesn't want to kill. It needed grit, not True Grit, just some grit to stop it all coming over as a bit silly.

A classic 'cowboy' and a thoroughly enjoyable watch. My wife was pleased that the heroine succeeded in avenging her treatment and her husbands death and I reminded her it was the intervention of a man that enabled her to succeed in her quest..

I saw Hannie Caulder many many years ago at the cinema. Althought the theme is serious I found it very entertaining and humerous. Borgnine, Elam and Struthers make the film. They remind me of the trio the three stooges. All in all Hannie Caulder is an excellent film and I would recommend it to anyone.