Hannie Caulder

Hannie Caulder

Original poster
Directed by Burt Kennedy
Produced by Patrick Curtis
executive
Tony Tenser
Written by Z.X. Jones
Burt Kennedy (uncredited)
Based on characters created by Ian Quicke and Bob Richards
story by Peter Cooper
Starring Raquel Welch
Robert Culp
Ernest Borgnine
Strother Martin
Production
company
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
  • November 8, 1971
Running time
 85 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

Hannie Caulder is a 1971 British Western film directed by Burt Kennedy and starring Raquel Welch, Robert Culp and Ernest Borgnine.[1] The screenplay was rewritten by Kennedy, who wasn't credited.[2]

Plot

Hannie Caulder (Welch) is a frontier wife whose husband is murdered by the Clemens brothers, a trio of rather inept outlaw brothers (played by Borgnine, Strother Martin, and Jack Elam).

After a disastrous bank raid, the Clemens men gang-rape Caulder, murder her husband, burn down her house, and leave her for dead. They go on a crime spree, while Caulder recruits professional bounty hunter Thomas Price (Culp) to help her seek revenge by training her to use a gun.

Cast

Production

Patrick Curtis, then married to Raquel Welch, met with Tony Tenser of Tigon British Films with a view to get funding for a movie starring Welch. He proposed a horror movie and a Western; Tenser, who had always wanted to make a Western, picked the latter. Tigon put up 100% of the budget, Curtwel (Curtis and Welch's production company)put up their services. Neither Curtis or Welch took a salary, instead taking profit participation. Before Hannie Caulder, , they co-produced, The Sorcerer, starring Boris Karloff, as a Curtwel/ Tigon Co- production. So, Tenser got both his western and horror film from Curtwel.[3]

Despite being entirely set in the American West and Mexico the film was a British production and was filmed, as was common at the time, in Spain mostly around Almeria. Filming began on 18 January 1971.[4]

Christopher Lee portrays the gunsmith who builds Welch a specialized revolver for her journey ahead. Diana Dors takes on the role of a prostitute in this feature, while Stephen Boyd has a brief appearance (in an uncredited role) as a gunfighter known simply as "The Preacher". Aldo Sambrell, a Spanish actor, has a cameo as a Mexican soldier.

Flamenco guitar virtuoso Paco de Lucía makes a cameo appearance as a Mexican musician.

Roderic "Rodd" Redwing, a fast draw artist, was technical adviser and worked with Robert Culp in this film. Rodd Redwing suffered a heart attack on the plane returning from the filming in Spain and died shortly after landing in Los Angeles.

Reception

The film performed well at the UK box office and was reasonably successful in the United States,released by Paramount. It also did very well in the many parts of the world market where Raquel was very well know.

Influence

Quentin Tarantino later said the film was one of his inspirations for Kill Bill. "Why I love Hannie Caulder so much is Robert Culp," he said. "He is so magnificent in that movie. I actually think there's a bit of similarity between Sonny Chiba and Uma [in Kill Bill] and Raquel Welch and Robert Culp in Hannie Caulder."[5]

References

  1. ↑ Greenspun, Roger (1971). "Hannie Caulder". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ p. 147 Joyner, C. Courtney Burt Kennedy Interview in The Westerners: Interviews with Actors, Directors, Writers and Producers McFarland
  3. ↑ John Hamilton, Beasts in the Cellar: The Exploitation Film Career of Tony Tenser, Fab Press 2005 p 194-198, 218-221
  4. ↑ Jonathan Rigby, Christopher Lee: The Authorised Screen History, Reynolds & Hearn 2001 p 143
  5. ↑ Gerald Peary, Quentin Tarantino: Interviews, Revised and Updated Univ. Press of Mississippi, 17 Oct 2013 p 119

External links