Waterhole #3

Waterhole #3 (1967)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: William A. Graham

Starring: James Coburn, Carroll O'Connor, Margaret Blye, Claude Akins, Timothy Carey

From: Paramount

This is definitely a random film. I only heard about it like a week ago, then saw it was on cable last night. I explain it all in the Letterboxd review below. I'll return tomorrow night.

I'll be honest here, I randomly stumbled upon this film recently while looking through Amazon Instant Video. Its cast (the leads are James Coburn and Carroll O'Connor and it features Claude Akins, James Whitmore, Bruce Dern and Joan Blondell) and it being a western got my attention. When I saw that an Encore channel was playing it late last night I had to check it out, as doing so for free was the thing for me.

The plot isn't complex-Coburn finds a treasure map and he, the town sheriff, the sheriff's daughter and some bandits all are on the lookout for him and the gold-but the main point is humor as this is a comedy-western, produced by Blake Edwards' production company. There's even a balladeer who you often hear; he was Roger Miller, best known either as the singer of King of the Road or the singer of that hilarious country/Giorgio Moroder song from Superman III. A lot of the humor was, well, humorous, while you got some cliché moments you expect and sometimes those stereotypes are flipped. The movie isn't great but at least I was entertained. It does have a fun ending so that was good.

I do have to address the elephant in the room, though. The sheriff's adult daughter factors into the plot. When she and Coburn's character first meet, he “forces himself” on her and they have a rather uneasy relationship. She even claims “rape” but what you see of it you aren't quite sure. In any case, she says it happened and no matter if she's telling the truth or lying, it's a pretty gross plot point, albeit not as bad as it could have been. I had to mention it here as it certainly caught me off guard; I tried to accept it as a sign of the times and not flip my lid about it, but I still wish it wouldn't have been done. Your mileage my vary, of course.

Even with that, I'll still rate it 3 stars and move on.