The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Blistering performances.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

A spaghetti western that is definitely outside the box. Sorry I keep using that expression. Hannie Caulder (Raquel Welch) survives a brutal rape by three brothers who take lowlife scoundrels to a new level After her husband is murdered and she is raped, she goes after them and knows little about gun fighting until she meets a bounty hunter played by Robert Culp who shows her the ropes. An aside issue is the the three lowlife brothers are well played by Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, and Strother Martin who do a good job of channeling The Three Stooges and steal every scene they are in. I remember the critics hated it but what do they know since they usually have their mind made up before watching movies like this. It is too bad that Messrs. Borgnine, Elam, and Martin did not try to do a couple of comedy westerns without being low life scumbags because as these characters they were funny and had great chemistry.

One of the top ten Westerns of all time. Otherworldly acting by Raquel Welch. Is Racquel Welch Hannie Caulder? Or is Hannie Caulder Raquel Welch? Great supporting cast: Robert Culp, Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin, Jack Elam, Stephen Boyd, and Christopher Lee. One of those rare movies like Casablanca or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance that you can watch once a year, and every time it is like watching it the first time.

I just saw this for the first time on You Tube, 03.14.2016. The script is not great but Strother Martin, Jack Elam and Ernest Borgnine are downright delicious. Just by their presence on the screen, they build practically the whole movie. You remember the same Jack Elam, three years earlier, in Once Upon a Time in the West? Just picture what might have done Sergio Leone with the same story, even from one quarter of the same story... or Clint Eastwood... And if he only had Ennio Morricone's music... Burt Kennedy is not bad either, he's a good professional, he did what he could better with a trivial story. Even Raquel Welch, who was just a sex symbol, was better in 100 Rifles, another western directed two years earlier by Tom Gries. Robert Culp and Christopher Lee, two exceptional actors, are both overshadowed by their non-consistent roles. 7 out of 10, with indulgence, only thanks to Martin, Elam and Borgnine.

In the third of what might be considered Raquel Welch's Western trilogy (1968's "Bandolero!," 1969's "100 Rifles" and the picture in question here, 1971's "Hannie Caulder"), we find the late-'60s' foremost sex goddess in very fine form indeed, despite the absence of bikinis, fur lined or otherwise. "Hannie Caulder" is a British picture that was filmed in Spain, though set in the American Southwest and Mexico; does its best to emulate an Italian spaghetti Western; and has as its star a woman of mixed Bolivian/Irish descent. (I will give your mind a moment to absorb this international stew while I fondly reminisce on the jolting impact that Raquel Welch had on the puberties of millions of us baby boomer boys, by dint of her appearances in such mid-'60s films as "One Million Years B.C." and "Fathom.") In the '71 picture, Raquel (as the end credits inform us) IS Hannie Caulder, the wife of a rancher, whose life takes an abrupt turn for the worse when the bumbling Clemens Brothers--Emmett, Frank and Rufus (played, respectively, by Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam and Strother Martin)--fleeing from a botched holdup, kill her man, gang rape her, burn down her home and leave her for dead. Fortunately for the widow Caulder, she soon makes the acquaintance of Thomas Luther Price, a renowned bounty hunter (supremely well played by Robert Culp), who reluctantly teaches her the arts of shooting and the quick draw. Thus, before long, Hannie is suitably prepared to ride down the ol' vengeance trail....Though "Hannie Caulder" tells what is in essence a simple story, it is at least a compact one, with little flab. The picture is quite gorgeous to look at (and no, I'm not referring to Raquel here), with stunning scenery and color; a handsome production, to be sure, largely due, I suppose, to producer Patrick Curtis (Welch's husband at the time). The film sports a wonderful Western theme, thanks to Ken Thorne, and director Burt Kennedy (who had previously helmed such popular oaters as "The War Wagon," "Support Your Local Sheriff" and its follow-up, "Support Your Local Gunfighter," and the Frank Sinatra Western "Dirty Dingus Magee") adds some imaginative touches (I love that POV shot down a rifle's double barrel!). As for Hannie's nemeses, although the "Maltin Movie Guide" refers to the Clemens Brothers' antics as "Three Stooges"-like, I prefer the description of them to be found in the wonderful film book "DVD Delirium 3": "a malodorous triple-scoop of pond scum"! Still, without their shenanigans, this film would be virtually devoid of humor, although Moe, Larry and Curly were never as seriously nasty and violent as this trio. (The film, by the way, DOES get fairly violent at times, with lots of spurting red stuff; Peckinpah might have been pleased with it.) It must be added that although Racky's acting is just fine here, she really doesn't get to stretch her thesping abilities all that much, and her sexuality is de-emphasized behind an Eastwoodesque poncho (although her shrunk-to-fit leather breeches do look pretty hot on her). Still, the lady looks great; she'd look good in burlap sacking, of course, and still, remarkably, looks fantastic today, a full 40 years later. By default, it is Robert Culp--here three years after his three-year stint on TV's "I Spy"--as the bearded, bespectacled but supercool bounty hunter who easily walks away with the film's acting honors; he is simply terrific. Besides his always welcome presence, "Hannie Caulder" gives us a nice supporting role by Christopher Lee as an extremely talented gunsmith, as well as '50s sex goddess Diana Dors doing a cameo as a bloated bordello madame. In all, a pretty darn good Western, with a satisfying resolution. If "Bandolero!" taught us that it is not a good idea to force your "sexual favors" on a Mexican woman who is anywhere near a six-shooter, "Hannie Caulder" drives home a similar message threefold...with a vengeance!