Hannie Caulder

Producer Tony Tenser, the founder of London’s infamous private members cinema, The Compton Cinema, in Soho saw Hannie Caulder as his way into Hollywood. Having made his name distributing European “art” films such as Paris Playgirls and the films of Russ Meyer, he went into film production figuring it would be cheaper to make his own. Starting with smut like Naked as Nature Intended in 1961 he soon found himself working with the likes of Roman Polanski on Repulsion and Cul-de-Sac and the late Michael Reeves on The Sorcerers and Witchfinder General. The Sorcerers was one of the first films released by Tenser’s newly founded Tigon Films in 1967 and the studio became noted for its horror releases like Blood on Satan’s Claw. That’s why it was so strange that Hannie Caulder is a Western.

Bringing together a wonderful cast of character actors including Ernest Borgnine, Christopher Lee and Robert Culp was a typical Tenser masterstroke, as was the casting of Raquel Welch in the titular role. She looks stunning and she more than meets her more experienced co-stars head on during the film’s dramatic moments. Quite how she manages to look so glamorous in the old west is debatable and much has been said about her sex siren looks not fitting in with this rape revenge drama. At this time though she had just come from the box office failure of Myra Breckinridge so she was desperate for a hit and saw this gritty little western as the perfect anecdote to the camp cheesiness of the Gore Vidal satirical comedy.

The film certainly looks the part thanks to Burt Kennedy’s assured direction but somehow never manages to lose its British origins. Maybe it’s the cameo by Diana Dors as a brothel madame, maybe it’s the Hammer-style blood-letting during the numerous action set pieces or maybe its Ken Thorne’s sometimes inappropriate score that so indelibly marks it. Despite this Hannie Caulder is never less than entertaining. It shouldn’t be held up next to the films of Sergio Leone but it more than holds its own against the US westerns of the era. Unfortunately for Tenser the western, as a genre, was not doing well at the US box office so Hannie Caulder was not the success it deserved to be and marked his quick return to his roots with the saucy British comedy The Seven Magnificent Deadly Sins. A shame, as his brief foray into the Western genre showed great promise.

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