I saw this again after more than 30 years, and was prepared for a campy, laughable Western-parody, as so many from the Spaghetti Western Era are…especially anything at all starring camp queen Raquel Welch. I was rather pleasantly surprised. Yes, there are campy moments, but overall this is an interesting movie, especially for the early 70s when the western genre was going into a long hibernation.
The worst or campiest elements are the “feminist/sexploitation” aspects…on one hand “Hannie Caulder” wants us to take this story about a woman in the Old West seriously (Hannie is raped, and takes revenge into her own hands) and on the other, it wants to show us Raquel Welch, very sexy and Playboy foldout-ish in a short poncho and nothing else. Raquel was (and is) a tremendously beautiful woman, but in an extremely period way — and that period was naturally the early 70s! Her artfully highlighted main of long straight hair and heavy eye makeup (false eyelashes!) don’t look like anything remotely believable from the 1880s. I mention the poncho because it forms a very iconic image of Ms. Welch — almost as famous as her animal skin bikini from “1 Million BC” — and it’s so obviously meant to be titillating, since we are intended to think she is totally naked underneath this skimpy garment (and while riding a horse…OUCH). Later on, Hannie acquires a pair of very very tight deerskin trousers, also absurd for a woman of that era. (Let’s just make this clear — in the 19th century, women absolutely never ever wore pants or men’s clothing. Period.)
Putting that aside though, the storyline is intriguing. Hannie’s husband is killed and she is raped by a gang of sleazy thugs (Strother Martin, Ernest Borgnine etc.) who burn down her cabin and all her possessions. She is rescued by Thomas Price, a bounty hunter played by Robert Culp. This is an unexpected turn by Culp (I, Spy), and a very nice one — he’s extremely appealing and makes for a different sort of romantic hero, especially with his glasses. After some initial coldness, he warms up to Hannie and helps her on her mission of revenge (while warning her of it’s ultimate futility). Culp & Welch are not a romantic pair you’d expect and maybe because of that, it really works. From the standpoint of the 21st century, I don’t feel the overall plot gives enough weight to the rape as a catalyst for Hannie’s actions. It’s a horrific rape and presented as such, but then Hannie is encouraged to forget about it and find happiness with Thomas Price. Anyone who has ever lived through a rape or studied the aftereffects of such an experience, recognizes this as a naive and simplistic solution. Also, Hannie seems overly dependent on Price to teach her and do everything for her, and only comes into her own in the last 20 minutes of the film.
Still and all, how often do you see a Western with a strong, interesting female protagonist? NOT VERY. Even good modern Westerns, such as “Unforgiven” or “Open Range” feature very passive females in traditional roles such as prostitute or schoolmarm. “Hannie Caulder” is actually ABOUT a female character and her experiences and as such, it’s a rare bird.
It would be very interesting to see this remade today with a little less cheesecake (Raquel in her poncho) and a little more psychological awareness of a rape victim’s emotional state. At any rate, it kept me interested throughout and compared to other westerns of it’s period, I think “Hannie Caulder” is above average. Look for Christopher Lee in a rare, non-horror cameo as a gun maker.
