zardoz-13 Burt Kennedy is one of my favorite Western directors. Mind you, he isn't in the same league with the likes of John Ford, Anthony Mann, John Sturges, Delmar Daves, or Budd Boetticher, he has a solid body of work with some memorable horse operas, such as "The War Wagon," "The Train Robbers," and "Return of the Seven." "Hannie Caulder" rates as one of his lesser westerns. This tale about a woman wronged at the hands of a trio of cruel rapists suffers from problems galore. Lovely Raquel Welch is the wife of a stagecoach swing station owner, and the verminous Clemens Brothers: Emmett (Ernest Borgnine), Frank (Jack Elam), Rufus (Strother Martin) gun down her stationmaster husband early in the action. When they barge into the station, they discover Hannie (Raquel Welch of "Fantastic Voyage") cooking a meal. Predictably, this horrible threesome gang rape her, burn her house down, and leave her with nothing but a poncho to cover her nakedness. Eventually, a compassionate bounty hunter, Thomas Luther Price (a bearded Robert Culp of "PT-109") rides up, asking about water for his horses. Hannie persuades him to teach her how to handle a six-gun. After Price turns in the corpse on his other horse, he gives Hannie some loot to buy herself a modest wardrobe. Together, they ride down to Mexico. Price takes her to his old friend, Bailey (Christopher Lee of "The Horror of Frankenstein"), who makes guns. While Hannie develops strength in her wrists, Bailey forges her revolver. Not only does Price teach her how to shoot, but he also teaches her some basic ground rules of gunslinging. She should shoot an adversary more than once, and she should always be aware of her surroundings. Bailey creates a special revolver with two triggers: one to cock the firearm and the other to discharge it. Did I mention that Bailey has a passel of kids and lives on the beach with his wife? Predictably, a gang of Mexican bandits descends upon them, and Hannie draws first blood during the attack. At this point, a major gun battle like the one around Bailey's house does wonders to relieve the boredom that has set in. Nothing that Price taught her can turn Hannie into the cold-bloodied killer that Price is. Inevitably, Price bites the dust when he gets the drop on Frank Clemens. Unfortunately, he doesn't realize that Emmett isn't far away with a knife in his hand. Hannie drives the town sheriff mad with her behavior; she guns down Frank. Later, she schedules a showdown with Emmett at an abandoned prison. In an effort to foreshadow the future, Kennedy and scribes Ian Quicke, Bob Richards, Peter Cooper show a man-in-black gunslinger (Stephen Boyd of "Ben-Hur") appear at Bailey's house on the beach and later at the abandoned prison. The three villains wind up behaving like buffoons. When they rob a bank, they use too much dynamite, and they end up blowing the safe door, but they also blast the notes to smithereens. The villains are constantly shown arguing with each other. Despite their onerous act at the outset, the Clemens wind up being comic relief. Hannie kills Frank first, Rufus second, and Emmett third. An anonymous character rides into the movie during the shoot-out on the beach, and we learn little or nothing about this tough-looking guy (Stephen Boyd of "Ben-Hur"), except that he is on Hannie's side. He turns out to be an essential character during Hannie's final shoot-out. Kennedy keeps things moving fast enough. The film takes advantage of Spain and substitutes its mountains for those on the American Southwest.

hackraytex A spaghetti western that is definitely outside the box. Sorry I keep using that expression. Hannie Caulder (Raquel Welch) survives a brutal rape by three brothers who take lowlife scoundrels to a new level After her husband is murdered and she is raped, she goes after them and knows little about gun fighting until she meets a bounty hunter played by Robert Culp who shows her the ropes. An aside issue is the the three lowlife brothers are well played by Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, and Strother Martin who do a good job of channeling The Three Stooges and steal every scene they are in. I remember the critics hated it but what do they know since they usually have their mind made up before watching movies like this. It is too bad that Messrs. Borgnine, Elam, and Martin did not try to do a couple of comedy westerns without being low life scumbags because as these characters they were funny and had great chemistry.

SnoopyStyle Brothers Emmett (Ernest Borgnine), Frank (Jack Elam) and Rufus Clemens (Strother Martin) are ruthless murdering bank robbers. They escape the troops and find station manager Jim Caulder. They kill him and steal the horses. They rape his wife Hannie (Raquel Welch). They leave burning down her home. Bounty hunter Thomas Price (Robert Culp) comes looking for water for his horse. After hitting him on the head, Hannie hounds him to train her so that she can seek revenge.This is a simple revenge western with a super hot Raquel Welch. She's really hot. I mean super duper hot wearing that blanket without pants. The rape scene isn't too disturbing with most of it suggested rather than actually performed. I like the training scenes. The brothers could be ignored more. Their bumbling argumentative ways are not that funny. They're really not that important other than being ruthless villains. Robert Culp is a nice bounty hunter. It would probably be better if the brothers split up so that Hannie can hunt them down one at a time.

Wizard-8 The British have had an iffy record when it comes to making westerns, with even their better efforts (like "The Hunting Party") often having some major problems. "Hannie Caulder" has some glaring problems. We don't really get to know the heroine before the events that put her on the path to vengeance, so we don't see how the trauma affected her. Most of the movie consists of her heroine training for vengeance, so that when she is ready for revenge, less than a quarter of the movie is left to run. And there are uneasy changes in tone, with the goofy and comic portrayal of the three bad guys right next to people graphically killed.Still, I have to admit that I did find the movie entertaining overall. It's certainly not boring, for one thing. Underrated actor Robert Culp gives a good performance as the bounty hunter who helps the heroine. It's also fun seeing Christopher Lee in a western. Those who like their westerns gritty and graphic will get their fill here. So though the movie has some big flaws, it is all the same very watchable.