★ 5 / 10
**_Sondra Currie as a cheroot-smoking Woman With No
Wuchak
**_Sondra Currie as a cheroot-smoking Woman With No Name_** In the Old West, a Morman couple traveling south from Salt Lake City are waylaid by a small gang of…
**_Sondra Currie as a cheroot-smoking Woman With No Name_**
In the Old West, a Morman couple traveling south from Salt Lake City are waylaid by a small gang of dirtbags. The wife (Currie) later teams-up with an outlaw female, a wild prostitute and a squaw to set things a’right.
“Jessi’s Girls” (1975) was influenced by Raquel Welch’s "Hannie Caulder," "Macho Callahan," "The Animals" (aka “Five Savage Men”) and “Cry Blood, Apache” from 4-5 years prior; and would influence the forthcoming “I Spit on Your Grave” and "Bad Girls,” the latter debuting almost two decades later. It’s basically an exploitation thriller with a Western milieu.
With the Hays Code ending in 1968, filmmakers were exalting in their new sense of freedom, especially Indie filmmakers. As such, this includes a tasteful nude scene involving Sondra bathing near a waterfall right out of the gate, as well as a disturbing gang rape sequence, which took an entire day to shoot and is very convincing. Regina Carrol (Claire) and Ellyn Stern (Kana) also have brief nude or semi-nude sequences. Regina, by the way, happened to be the wife of the director.
As a Western, there’s a lot of good in this, such as Rod Cameron as the grizzled loner who assists Jessi. He was 64 during shooting and it’s too bad his part wasn’t bigger and their relationship developed. Meanwhile, the score and locations are pretty much top-of-the-line, not to mention some excellent touches like how Kana hates Apaches.
Despite all the good, the script needed a rewrite as it includes some weak, nonsensical parts, like a certain formerly devout person murdering a coach driver and seriously injuring a sheriff on a whim with no ostensible motivation. If someone argues that it was to save three captive women, they are total strangers and the protagonist has no idea if they’re innocent or guilty. If it’s because she hates men, her spouse was a good, loving man, and so was the compassionate geezer who saved her in the desert. Plus, why would she shoot a lawman when it was outlaws who did her wrong, the opposite of lawmen?
Bad writing like this takes the viewer right out of the movie.
The film runs 1 hour, 24 minutes, and was shot at Capitol Reef National Park in southern Utah and Dee Cooper Ranch.
GRADE: C
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★ 5 / 10
Once Upon a Time in the Female West
Oslo_Jargo
*** This review may contain spoilers *** *Plot and ending analyzed* If you have watched every Western by now, you will probably be coming up to lower end…
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
If you have watched every Western by now, you will probably be coming up to lower end bargain basement bin movies like this one.
It uses the established formula from Nevada Smith (1966) in which Steve McQueen seeks revenge for the murder of his parents. He is taught how to shoot by the reliable actor Brian Keith.
This time around they make it a female revenge Western, and toss the women's undergarments into the bonfire. The moment was ripe, since feminists were burning their own brassieres in the street, denouncing male overlords, and letting their body hair grow out everywhere.
So, a few female revenge Westerns came out at this time, and also later. Wild Women (1970), The Animals (1970), Hannie Caulder (1971), Apache Woman (1976), Desperate Women (1978), and White Apache (1987).
Were they any good? Nope, they all stunk like fresh cow manure, and were pretty average and below average. The main problem was that they are completely unbelievable. No one who has watched Westerns is going to be convinced that these women can actually handle a revolver, much less survive in the harsh climate of the old West. Another problem was that the movies were wholly preposterous and ridiculous. How many times can you watch a woman shoot a man in the (blank)? It gets weary really quick.
So, director Al Adamson gives us his own inept treatment of the subject. It is dumber than a pile of bricks, and very tedious at times, but surprisingly it is watchable. I said watchable, not enjoyable.
I like that 1950s Western film star Rod Cameron gets to play the old reliable who teaches the woman how to survive and handle a gun. He is barely recognizable because they pasted a dead roadkill skunk on his face that is supposed to pass off as a beard. He hardly gets any screen time either, which is a shame, and probably was only paid bus money for his appearance.
The location shooting is very beautiful, and the final showdown actually has some good stunt work.
There is also a nice Western theme. But after it is played constantly, you will get annoyed by it, and on the twentieth time that you hear it in the movie, you will want to either mute the sound, or toss the television out the window.
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80%
AUDIENCE
5.0/10
462
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Plot sounds very much like Hannie Caulder