Hannie Caulder (1971)

I spit on your Oats! Ah sue me! I think it's great. Raquel Welch plays Hannie Caulder, a gorgeous cowgirl who is raped and left widowed by three scuzzy brothers played by Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin and Jack Elam. Hell bent on revenge, Hannie hooks up with smooth bounty hunter Thomas Luther Price (Robert Culp excellent), learns how to fire weapons and pursues her quarry to the day of reckoning. That is it, it is what it is, Welch is stunningly beautiful and sexy and director Burt Kennedy wastes no opportunities to capitalise on this fact. If we are honest she's miscast, but it really doesn't matter, nor does finding Christopher Lee in the picture as a wily old gunsmith! The mix of humour with a rape revenge storyline is a little uncomfortable at times, but not insultingly so, while Kennedy has a good eye for action. Edward Scaife photographs (Panavision) pleasingly out of Almería in Spain, and Ken Thorne's musical score trundles along without intrusion. It's off-beat, even unique, and while it misses the chance to be a feminist Western of some standing, there's a real good time to be had here for those willing to buy into the daftness of it all. 7/10