University of Virginia Library

CINEMA

Spaghetti Western With A Twist

By STEVE GRIMWOOD

And here they are, Raquel
Welch, bazooming her way into
your hearts as a lady gunfighter
with vengeance on her mind.

Sit back and imagine Clint
Eastwood with a big chest and
long brown hair. This will give
you some idea of the ridiculous
premise of Hunnie Caulder, a
spaghetti western with a
supposed "twist."

Raquel plays a frontier wife
who is widowed and raped by a
band of inept brothers played
ineptly by Ernest Borgnine,
Strother Martin and Jack Elam.
Homeless, husbandless, and of
course practically clothesless,
she meets Robert Culp, he
stumbling through the part of a
sharp-eyed but big-hearted
bounty hunter.

He teaches her how to shoot,
and they march across Mexico
killing a lot of people and
vaguely falling in love. So goes
the plot. Telling you what she
does to the brothers with her
gun in the thrilling climax
might spoil the show.

Some may ask: Is this just
another Raquel Welch movie?
Many will answer:
unfortunately, yes. Miss Welch
may be remembered as the
nearly naked cave girl in "One
Million B.C.," or as the nearly
naked scientists in Fantastic
Voyage, among her many
movie credits.

In Hannie Caulder she is a
nearly naked gunslinger, an
"offheal" shoot-em-up which
might be more aptly titled
"Breasts Against the West."

She spends the first half of
the film in a poncho made out
of a blanket and nothing else,
and the remainder of the film
in the same poncho and a pair
of rawhide pants soaked on to
her fleshy frame for an
appropriate fit.

And she kills people. What
else could any red-blooded
American moviegoer ask for?
Acting ability? A competent
director? Meaning? Posh, why
split hairs. The American
public wants "Entertainment."

Welch:

"She kills people."