Hannie Caulder (1971)

          After achieving stardom in roles that accentuated her figure—she did a lot of bikini scenes—Raquel Welch began striving for credibility with parts that required acting as well as posing. To that end, Welch and her husband at the time, Patrick Curtis, used their production company to develop vehicles for the actress, though Curtwel Productions only issued three Welch projects: the 1970 television special Raquel, the lurid melodrama Sin (aka The Beloved and Restless), and Hannie Caulder. A nasty little Western shot in Spain as a collaboration with Tigon British Film Productions, Hannie Caulder puts a feminine spin on the familiar archetype of the frontier vigilante. While the movie has an inherently sleazy aspect, a raft of interesting supporting actors and solid production values compensate somewhat for the weak script and (despite her best efforts) Welch’s lackluster performance.
          After a trio of slovenly brothers (played by the character-actor dream team of Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, and Strother Martin) botch a bank robbery and escape into a desert, they stumble onto a small ranch owned by the title character and her husband. The brothers kill the husband, gang-rape Hannie, and leave her for dead. (This setup aligns Hannie Caulder with other 1971 revenge pictures featuring sexual-assault themes, from Billy Jack to Straw Dogs.) In one of the movie’s many overly convenient plot contrivances, conscientious bounty hunter Thomas Price (Robert Culp) happens upon the ranch soon after the siege, then agrees to teach Hannie about guns so she can track down and murder her assailants. Predictably, they fall in love while she trains, and just as predictably, circumstances ensure that Hannie must confront the brothers without Thomas by her side. Excepting an interlude during which Hannie and Thomas hang out with a philosophical gunsmith played by Christopher Lee, of all people, that’s more or less the extent of the story.
          Thanks to the considerable skills of director/co-writer Burt Kennedy, the picture moves along at a good clip, frequently exploding with bursts of brutality, and Hannie Caulder looks terrific. Yet the story is trite and even periodically nonsensical; virtually no explanation is provided for a shootout at the gunsmith’s home or for the presence of a mysterious gunfighter played, silently, by Stephen Boyd. This narrative opacity makes the movie seem more and more haphazard as it speeds toward an insipid climax. Yet the picture’s biggest shortcoming is also its biggest attraction, and that’s Welch—unable to believably simulate emotions, she’s never more than a beautiful physical presence. That said, Borgnine, Elam, and Martin are enjoyably repulsive as they bicker and whine their way across the frontier, and Culp is terrific as the bounty hunter. Calm, prickly, and wise, his characterization commands the screen, so Hannie Caulder rises when he’s present and wanes when he’s not.

Hannie Caulder: FUNKY