Charley-One-Eye

I've been looking for this film for years so last night I recorded it from the UK Retro Channel and when I watched it back it had been edited down to 45 minutes!

I don't remember Nigel Davenport appearing.

Hilarious but disappointing!

The production values of this film are spectacularly poor. Especially at the beginning. In spite of that it's a fairly gripping drama that leaves the viewer with plenty of food for thought. Well worth watching. Don't let the first 10 minutes put you off.

Obviously inspired by THE DEFIANT ONES, this western is totally in the good fashion of its period: late sixties and early seventies; civil rights, sex freedom, war in Vietnam, reject of the valors, pacifism, feminism. So, this was not that surprising, but it remains daring, bold, and worth watching. There are many ways to understand, read this film. Don Chaffey was also a very strange director: he made thrillers, fantasy movies involving Ray Harryhausen's special effects, and this offbeat western. Another UK director made the same: Jim O'Connoly. I know western waas not a genuine British genre, but that doesn't explain everything either. I would have never expected finding Roy Thinnes and Richard Rountree together in such a film. Shaft - for Roundtree (SHAFT series) - and David Vincent for Thinnes (THE INVADERS)- together....

Although if you can't handle the slow pace of the movie ... maybe you should opt out. So no pun intended - we have Shaft himself in the main role here. And the ... cultural discrepancies at display are not for everyone.

Apart from being slow, it later gets violent but also uncomfortable. There is discrimination and other things going on ... and the movie does not have the most ... let's say positive nature about it. Even if the friendship aspect that develops can be seen as something nice.

A real tough movie ... from the tough 70s. They were not doing happy go lucky movies back then .. well mostly.

The title is the name of a chicken encountered by army deserter Richard Roundtree and American Indian Roy Thinnes in this eccentric reprise of 'The Defiant Ones'.

Establishing right from the outset a suitably raw mood with a scene depicting two dogs snarling and bearing their teeth prior to the main bout between Roundtree & Thinnes shot in hot Spanish sunlight by Kenneth Talbot, and with a minimalist soundtrack of insects buzzing and the wind rustling with a score employing a civil war tin whistle, a blues piano and a harmonica.

While Nigel Davenport provides ripe villainy as a ruthless bounty hunter in a top hat with a taste for the lash.