When softcore sex films first started to catch on back in the '50s, filmmakers began injecting nudity and sex into every type of plot they could think of. One of the most novel exploitation subgenres that resulted is the nudie western, a type of film that vividly illustrates just how wild the west really was. THE RAMRODDER is a relatively late but noteworthy entry in the realm of naughty westerns.
While returning home to his bride Lucy (Julia Blackburn) after finishing a cattle drive, rancher Rick (Jim Gentry) spies a group of gorgeous Indian maidens frolicking nude in a river. After a saddle-tramp bandit attacks him and leaves him for dead, one of the gals, the luscious Princess Tuwana (Kathy Williams), comes to his aid and befriends him. The two make love in a lake and fall for one another, even though Rick is engaged to Lucy and Tuwana is promised by tribal law to the chief's short-tempered son. When the same scoundrel who assaulted Rick rapes an Indian virgin, Rick gets blamed for the crime and a trio of rebellious young braves vow revenge on the entire white race. It all leads to more violence and an unexpectedly downbeat ending.
Fortunately, the plot never gets in the way of the frequent and mostly gratuitous exploitation scenes, during which Tuwana performs an erotic tribal `Dance of the Virgin' (before her fateful interlude with Rick, of course!), competes against her rival Lucy in a topless catfight, and gets strung up naked by her wrists and whipped. Director Ed Forsyth makes the most of all the nudity, too. During Tuwana's dance, he uses a low angle camera shot that stares straight up into her crotch, and when she wrestles with Lucy, he includes several close ups of the actresses bouncing their big breasts against one another.
Thanks to this fetishistic approach and the presence of Ms. Williams, who doesn't look at all Native American but is drop-dead gorgeous regardless, the movie is a minor exploitation classic. Adding to the film's notoriety, the bandit is played by Bobby Beausoliel, who was arrested in connection with the Manson murders shortly after appearing in this film.
`Ramrodder,' in case you're curious, is a now obscure term for a person who leads a cattle drive. Somehow, though, I have a sneaking suspicion Forsyth might have had more carnal connotations in mind when he chose the title.
