Category: Movies

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Sky Riders

Originally released, 1976

**Contains spoilers**

Back when Culp material on YouTube was still pretty thin (2008/2009), I was pleasantly surprised to find this movie. Although the plot stretches things just a tad, it’s a good entertaining 90 minutes spent. Plus, I was knee deep in Maxwell Mania by the time I found this and I couldn’t help but see some brief flashes of Maxwell characteristics in Jonas Bracken. Very brief, mind you. The loose necktie and Culp’s particular vocalization in this thing are close to Maxwell (without the brassy language) and the fact that Bracken, for all his money and refined lifestyle, had no qualms about picking up a rifle and jumping into the fray with this thing. Maxwell woulda been proud.

Culp plays Jonas Bracken, an American multi-millionaire international businessman living in Greece, whose family is kidnapped by terrorists moments after he leaves the house for the day. Members of Bracken’s house staff are killed in the process and the kidnappers take off with his wife, Ellen (Susannah Yorke) and two children.

The police notify Bracken and immediately begin investigating, the lead cop being Inspector Nikolidis (Charles Aznavour). The kidnappers have left a two way radio at the house to communicate further instructions to Bracken. Bracken can only wait.

Meanwhile, Jim McAbe (James Coburn) is a black market smuggler of some sort who hears the news when he makes a delivery. Bracken’s son, turns out, is actually McAbe’s but McAbe hasn’t seen the child since he was a baby. He’s nonchalant about the news to the shady sea captain he’s dealing with but once he flies back to land, he goes to see Bracken.

Obviously, he’s quite concerned about what has happened. If there’s any animosity between these two men, given one’s the current husband and the other is the ex, it doesn’t show. Jonas asks McAbe to stick around.

The terrorists have Ellen record a message to Jonas, explaining who they are and what their demands are. She tells Jonas that she and the children are okay and then lays out their demand: Five million dollars in 48 hours, otherwise the family will be executed. Jonas immediately goes to work trying to liquidate every holding and asset he’s got to come up with the $5 million.

When the terrorists contact Jonas again, with another recorded message from Ellen, they know he hasn’t raised all the money yet, but they take what he has gotten so far as a sign of good faith. She tells him that they will be contacting him again at a specific time with the two-way radio. When they do, they have a long laundry list of what they want him to spend the money on. Hundreds of guns and weapons with millions of rounds of ammunition. (Culp’s facial reactions are priceless during this scene – shock, disgust, anger – he runs the gamut).

While the list is being rattled off, the police are trying to zero in on the radio signal. They do and trace it to a truck parked in what looks to be some kind of construction area on a hilltop. The police surround the truck and one of the officers, Dimitiri (the nephew of the Inspector Nikolidis) approaches the truck. He opens the doors and has just enough time to see the tape player equipment – and the bomb.

The explosion kills Dimitri and kills and wounds several other officers.

After this, Jonas gets a package in the mail. A note “to encourage you” and a roll of film negatives. He’s about to turn the note and the negatives over to the police when McAbe tells him not to. Instead they develop the film themselves and find a photo of Ellen and the children who appear okay. They also note what looks to be a painting of some kind behind them in the photo.

Jonas makes a couple of extra copies for McAbe who plans to get Ellen and the children back. McAbe shows the photo to an art historian/dealer that he knows. The dealer pinpoints what the painting is and knows where it is at: A long abandoned monastery that sits high on the mountains, with one road in and no other way to get there. McAbe checks it out and while doing his re-con of the place he figures there’s another way in. To fly.

Of course, he can’t get a plane in there, they’d hear him coming. But if he could get in quietly, like a bird, he’d have a chance. He enlists the help from some hang gliders to teach him how to fly one. Eventually he asks for their help in the whole caper.

Jonas, meanwhile, gets another radio call from the kidnappers who want to know how he is doing getting what they want. They remind him of the photos they sent him, which the police didn’t know about until now. Inspector Nikolidis, overhearing this transmission, asks to see the photos and then tells Jonas that he’s under arrest (for withholding evidence is my guess).

Meantime, the hang gliders decide to help McAbe.

At the police station, the police have traced the location of the terrorists hideout based on the photos. The Inspector plans to go after them the next day. Jonas would rather any police operation wait until he gets his family back by way of the exchange that they want (or by McAbe who, Jonas figures, is going to attempt to get them back). All the same though, Jonas fears if the terrorists get any idea of a rescue attempt to be made, his family will be killed.

The police have also been checking up on McAbe and learn that he has checked out of his hotel and met up with some other Americans. As a result of this news, the Inspector decides they will go after the family immediately.

Jonas again asks for the police to wait, but Inspector Nikolidis says no.

It’s a five hour drive to this monastery. McAbe and his troop of hang gliders are already there and they wait until nightfall to make their landing. The police, meantime, are on their way.

Under the cover of night, McAbe and his crew make it into the monastery and find Ellen and the children. They almost make it out clean but one of the terrorists spots them out a window (easily enough since it’s now morning). The monastery erupts into chaos and shooting with McAbe and everyone trying to get out and the police and Jonas, moving in.

And Jonas, by the way, is right smack in the middle of this thing. After spending the whole movie sitting and worrying, he was spoiling for action at this point. And may I say I’m GLAD they had Jonas smack in the middle of this thing and not sitting in a police car, with the occasional shot of him…sitting and worrying as he hears gunfire off in the distance. Man…

Meanwhile, the gilder pilots, Ellen and the children all get back to the gliders with McAbe staying behind to provide cover as everyone takes off. As they make their getaway, however, they end up in full view from the monastery. The terrorists fire shots, wounding a couple of the flyers but Ellen and the children are unscathed. Jonas and the police shoot at the terrorists to prevent them from shooting any more at the gliders.

The terrorists have one more card to play, a helicopter, and they use it to try to take down the gliders. They also try to take down McAbe but he merely grabs hold of one of the landing skids and hangs on for the ride. The gilder pilots suffer some wounds but manage to clear out with Ellen and the kids. McAbe shoots the rotor/transmission of the chopper forcing it to land.

The terrorists are defeated and Jonas is reunited with his family again.

After all Coburn’s character went through and the great stuff from Culp here during the shootout, I found the wrap up to all this is a huge and total let down. I’m not sure Ellen actually says “thank you” to McAbe in their short exchange before she goes running back to Jonas. McAbe is handed a bottle of booze by the Greek police and carried off on a stretcher to be patched up.

I didn’t notice the first time I saw this, but noticed it when I capped it that Culp puts a little Hoby Gilman in Jonas Bracken as he’s got a six shooter strapped to his hip and tied down. How many multi-millionaire international businessmen do you know own a six shooter, let alone look comfortable enough wearing it? He never pulls the weapon at any point during the shootout, instead using a rifle but he obviously came prepared for this fight.

Despite the fact that Culp does nothing more than look worried throughout this whole flick, he looks soooo good doing it.

But I’ll say again I was glad his character got right into the fray of the rescue.


At the time this movie was released, Sky Riders didn’t cause too much of a stir. It was filmed entirely on location in Greece, but most critics passed over it, one going so far as to call it “a long jump off a short mountain.” Another critic noted that “Culp and Susannah York’s talents were largely wasted here.” If the movie was noted for anything at the time it was for the hang gliding sequences, which are very well done. (Hang gliding was a fairly new sport in 1976, having only been around for a few short years).  Bill von Maurer of the Miami News called the film “perfectly mindless, perfectly harmless adventure movie,” and lamented that if “there had been more hang gliding sequences and less of the kidnapping, ‘Sky Riders’ could have been a lot better movie.”

Quite possibly that was the intent of the screen writer, Hall Sprague. Mr. Sprague, who passed away in May of 2010 at the age of 79 (just two months after Robert Culp passed), was a sociologist and noted musician, playwright and screenwriter in the San Diego area who wrote several screen plays. Sky Riders was the only one that made it to the screen but according to Hall’s son Hall wasn’t happy with the final result, not liking the James Bond-ish spin that it ended up with. Mr. Sprague is credited with the story for the movie (others are credited with the screenplay) and is also listed as an associate producer of the film.

The cast included, of course, star James Coburn (The Great Escape, Our Man Flint), and Susannah York (They Shoot Horses Don’t They? Superman). Additional cast notes include international singing star Charles Aznavour as Inspector Nikolidis, iconic French model (and one time girlfriend of the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones) Zouzou as the female terrorist that watches over Ellen and the children and John Beck as the lead glider pilot, Ben, who would later play Mark Graison on Dallas in the 1980s.

Also of note is Ernie F. Orsatti, as one of the glider pilots, Joe, (and as a stunt coordinator). Those familiar with The Greatest American Hero will recognize him as one of the hit men from the episode “The Hit Car.” Although Ernie has several acting credits to his name he is better known for his long career in Hollywood as a stuntman and stunt coordinator, having worked on such films as The Poseidon Adventure (he’s the one that does the fall into the glass ceiling as the ship is turning over), three of the Death Wish movies, Hoosiers, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and dozens of television shows including LA Law, The Practice, Charmed, The Closer and more recently, Big Love.

James Coburn’s chopper ride and a clip of a hang gilder landing in a herd of sheep were used in the opening title sequence to the 1980s tv series “The Fall Guy.”

Sky Riders was previously available from modcinema.com and was one of their top selling DVDs.  My caps are based on that copy of the film. The movie was given an official release through Shout Factory! in 2011 (paired with another Coburn film “The Last Hard Men”) and can be seen in it’s original wide screen format.

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Hannie Caulder Revisted: Tidbits

Mining the Google news archive for Hannie Caulder resulted in tidbits that were more of the one line Hollywood trashy gossip vague variety rather than anything of any substance. Some of it left me scratching my head, such as this titillating tidbit from entertainment writer/television critic Jack O’Brian in April of 1971: “The big explosion in Spain was Raquel Welch and Bob Culp battling for real on the set of “Hannie Caulder.”

And that’s all he wrote. What?! Are we implying here that Culp and Welch went toe to toe about something? Or did somebody confuse Culp with Patrick Curtis, Welch’s husband at the time? (The two were on the outs during the filming of this movie.) Of course, do you think I could find anything more about this supposed battle royal? Of course not.

A year later, in May of ‘72, Mr. O’Brian wrote: “Raquel Welch wears just a poncho and a gun in her “Hannie Caulder” Western. Her contract lets her okay every still used.”


I then found a few mentions by the blunt and often catty Hollywood columnist Joyce Haber, who wrote in May of 1971, “There’s a scandal brewing over ‘Hannie Caulder,’ the Raquel Welch starrer recently finished in Spain. Few, if any, collected their salaries beyond the first two weeks after shooting started. Certainly not Burt Kennedy, the director, or the cast which co-starred Ernest Borgnine and Robert Culp. ‘Hannie’ is a co-production of David Haft’s Tigon and Raquel “Pat Curtis” Curtwell. But Kennedy has spoken to his lawyer.”

She then followed up on June 2, 1971 with a correction: “David Haft cables from Twickenham Studios, London, that he had nothing to do with Raquel Welch’s latest film “Hannie Caulder.” That’s the one Burt Kennedy has consulted his lawyer about for default of salary. ‘The company is not David Haft’s Tigon nor am I in any way, shape or form responsible for its activities of financial obligations. Any difficulties between that company, Patrick Curtis (Miss Welch’s estranged mate), Burt Kennedy et al, are neither related to nor concern me. I would be most appreciative if you would make this a matter of record.’ Matter recorded, Mr. Haft.”

Incidentally, I found nothing more about the salary dispute and can only assume it was resolved and everyone was paid.

Earl Wilson chimed in as well, commenting on the situation between Raquel Welch and husband Patrick Curtis. Things were not well but on April 8, 1971, Wilson reported that things had been “resolved.” I’m guessing that resolved meant they split up, which was what was reported four days later by Norma Lee Browning of the Chicago Tribune. (Welch and Curtis were divorced by January of ’72).

If the trite breathless Hollywood “news” items weren’t bad enough, reviews for ‘Hannie Caulder’ were not particularly kind or enthusiastic. “A travesty of the western genre.” “Bland Mediocrity.” One reviewer points out that the film can’t seem to make up its mind if it’s a tragedy or a comedy (which I’ll concede is a legitimate point).

Culp, however, apparently took most critics by surprise. In fact, one review put it that “Culp is a surprise also, the pleasantest one.” Another review calls Culp “personable” and says he “plays it like he did in ‘I Spy’ on TV and charms Miss Welch and the audience. “

On the other end of the spectrum, Jamie Portman of the Calgary Herald wrote on August 9, 1972, “With his greying beard, dark jacket and granny glasses, Thomas Luther looks more circuit preacher than lethal gunslinger. Look closer and you make the improbable discovery that it’s really Robert Culp hiding behind all that foliage.

“Mr. Culp appears more embarrassed than smitten by Miss Welch’s charms. Objecting to their ample display, he loans her a pair of his trousers. The trousers, unhappily, are baggy, but Miss Welch solves that problem by visiting the territory’s haberdasher and decking herself out in a pair of suede pants which, after repeated immersion in a bath-barrel, give the impression that she’s been poured into them.”

Mr. Portman later added that “Mr. Culp is stalwart in a bizarre sort of way.” Not sure exactly what he means by that…


Norman Dresser of the Toledo Blade wasn’t thrilled much with the movie at all, commenting that “Miss Welch wears a sack-like poncho throughout the movie, which hides 90 percent of her screen personality.”

And of Culp? Mr. Dresser wrote, “Also on hand, in another off-beat bit of casting, is Robert Culp as a bounty hunter who teaches Miss Welch how to shoot so she can carry out her mission. He teaches her very well, indeed.”


Stefanie Pettit of the Spokesman Review (Spokane, WA) was blunt. “Bland at best, this film has simply nothing at all to recommend it” and “if by some chance, (Welch) should become flat-chested later in life, all her talent will be gone.”

Man. As I read these reviews all I could think of was how hard these critics had to work to try an outdo each other in the snark and smarm department back then. Then I realized that nothing’s changed since.

Despite all that, I did find one redeeming piece of Hollywood gossip. This, from an uncredited column from March 12, 1971: “Bob Culp – in Spain doing it with Raquel Welch in ‘Hannie Caulder’ flying on still another trip. Got his shirts back from a local cleaning chick with something new in laundry marks – the home phone number of the senorita who did the ironing.”

Call me. I’ll press your shirts anytime…

My non-snark, non-smarm overview and screen caps of “Hannie Caulder” can be found here.

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Inside Out Revisited: Tidbits

I didn’t start mining through the Google newspaper archive until I was doing research for the movie A Name for Evil and now I find myself getting lost looking back through old newspapers. (I’m a history buff anyway).  Subsequently, I’ve been digging through looking for whatever I can for whatever Robert Culp movie or TV show I’m writing about next but since I only just started doing this, movies such as Inside Out (and Hannie Caulder) missed out initially.

So, I did a little searching around and found a couple of interesting tidbits for Inside Out. The first being a note in one of Marilyn Beck’s columns from March 19, 1975, saying that Robert Culp took part in a tennis tournament in Berlin during filming of Inside Out. The tournament, held annually, was called “The Divided City Tennis Competition” and Culp’s partner was a US Consul and career CIA political officer, Merron L. Latta. Culp and Mr. Latta defeated their French opponents 9 – 6.

Another tidbit involved not Culp, but Telly Savalas, who endured tabloid garbage from the Daily Mail alleging that during filming he partied all night until 4am, didn’t remember his lines and kept his co-star (James Mason) waiting.  Savalas filed a libel suit against the Daily Mail and a year later won, to the tune of $56,700.

Mason, for his part, defended Savalas and paid him compliment in court, talking about how inexperienced people tend to put too much emphasis on learning just the lines, while actors like Savalas exercise a little more creativity with the words and dialogue.

Nowhere in any of the articles I found relating to this was there any comment or quote from Culp, who I imagine kept otherwise busy with the tennis tournament and stayed the hell out of  Savalas’s legal issue.

And, of course, I found a few reviews of the movie.  Michael Marzella, a staff writer for the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times panned the movie in February of 1976 calling it “dull” and “hollow trash.” He went further to say that after seeing the movie “any jury in the land would convict (the) actors of attempted suspense and recommend no mercy.”  For Culp specifically, he noted, “Culp smiles very nicely and usually remembers his lines.”

Ouch. Perhaps Mr. Marzella was just having a bad day?

Another reviewer, Jim Moorhead of The (St. Petersburg, FL ) Evening Independent wasn’t quite as harsh in February of ’76, but he lamented the films’ lack of a clever plot. Despite various faults he found with the movie (the lack of using actual German or Russian dialogue in the scenes involving Germans and/or Russians) he did say the film is “a diverting and amusing evening’s entertainment.”

And the last tidbit I found comes from the North Island Gazette of Port Hardy, British Columbia, where the film was screened in the 16mm format fairly early in the film’s release period (March/April, 1976) due to Warner Brothers apparently deciding not to release Inside Out in the 35mm market. This was apparently significant at the time and the Port Hardy screening was only the second such screening of the movie throughout all of British Columbia (after Vancouver). I’m not all that well versed on the technical aspects of the film world at that time, the difference between American and Canadian releases, nor do I fully understand what the difference is between the 16mm and 35mm market – other than the 16mm was usually screened much later after a film’s release, according to the article. But apparently this was a “minor coup” at the time for 16mm markets. If anyone can comment further on this, please do as I’ll admit I’m curious. The article can be read here.

And one final note, from the same Port Hardy article, while the two reviewers in Florida panned the film, Canadian film critic Michael Walsh described Inside Out as “a completely compentent caper film.” I certainly enjoyed the film and you can check out screen caps and my overview here.

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A Name for Evil


Originally released, 1973

**Contains spoilers – I think**

Oh man. Where do I start with this one?

Early in my exploration of All Things Culp, I kept finding interesting tidbits and discussions about this movie. The descriptors were pretty much the same across the board. The movie was weird, bizarre, strange, it didn’t make sense and, oh yeah, Culp shows all in one scene.

What? Culp shows….what? Well. Ahem…

I bought the movie late last year off Amazon, paying just 4 bucks for the thing. The DVD case carries a warning on it, saying this movie was “not for children or adults who scare easily.”

I paused. Horror flicks really aren’t my gig. I can’t do slasher films and the like. If something so hideous happens to Culp in this thing I’ll be scarred for life, I thought. I mean, there was a warning on the DVD case! Even one of the photos on the case was of Culp who looked like his soul had just been ripped away from him and he was about to lose his life!

Gah. I dunno if I can watch this.

But…none of the online discussions mention anything really horrible or hideous happening in this film. Besides, he’s buck naked in some scene…

Okay, okay. No problem. We can handle this. It can’t be that bad. And if it is, I can always stop the movie. Awright, deep breath. Put the disc in, hit play…

Culp plays Jonathan Blake, an architect, who decides he’s had enough of city living and corporate rat race and he and his wife Johanna (Samantha Eggar) are going to pack up and move to his great- grandfather’s decrepit estate up north. The goal is to rehab the large estate. In celebration of breaking free from the chains of daily city living, John takes his television set and throws it off the balcony.

He then turns to his wife and right away, we realize that John has an issue with separating reality from fantasy as he goes back and forth picturing exotic dancers and Johanna with her hair down and looking at him with longing. The reality however, is she’s not looking at him this way. She’s really not all too thrilled with this move but doesn’t make any argument. Instead she goes to lie down for a while.

He goes into the bedroom and sits down near her on the bed as she sleeps. “I wish I knew you as well as I love you. I promise you by all that I hold dear, which, above all is still you, I can tell the truth from fantasy. Let’s try and find out the truth, together. I love you, woman. Embrace the truth with me before we wreck each other. A five minute embrace. Each day…” When he steps out on to the patio and looks back in, it’s fantasy again. She’s standing at the door way, says she wants him to make love to her, and that she can’t wait until tomorrow when they can wander around the Grove, just the two of them. Then it all snaps back to the reality.

They fly up north and then drive to Fats Landing and stop to check in at a motel before going out to the house. John gets an earful from the motel owner/ local mechanic/preacher about “The Major.” The mechanic’s granddaddy didn’t care for the Major and near as can be told the mechanic ain’t too thrilled about John Blake either. Undeterred, John makes an offer to the mechanic to help with hiring local labor for a percentage. The mechanic doesn’t say no, only saying he’ll think about it. (Money talks, he ends up agreeing.)

At the house, John and Johanna explore the house and grounds. (Check out that ring Culp’s wearing on his pinky!) The place is a wreck and it’s going to take a lot of work to bring it back to any kind of glory. Here we start getting the creepy stuff going as John thinks he sees somebody on the porch. When he goes up to get a closer look we have the disembodied voice saying, “It’s mine. The Grove is mine! Go away…Go away!”

 

No, I wasn’t exactly scared by this point.

Johanna’s not really thrilled with the prospects of the house. After a talk with Jimmy – and no, I don’t know who Jimmy is supposed to be, he’s just…there – she’s even less enthused. They had a tenant who apparently had died some time ago, which they weren’t aware of. They had written him several letters which had not been returned to them for any reason. According to Jimmy, no one had lived in the “big house” since the death of the Major. His use of the term “big house” leads me to believe that there was a carriage house or some other building on the property, that maybe this tenant was living in.

John gets part of his fantasy, walking the grounds of the Grove with Johanna. But she’s not all lovey dovey and they’re bickering a bit. The house is wreck and she strongly suggests that they just sell it. He’s convinced he can make it work. She’s not.

Back at the motel, Johanna’s ready to pack up and go back to Connecticut. John wants to check the house and grounds more and he proceeds to change his clothes to do so. We’re just over 17 minutes into this movie and Culp’s got his shirt off!

In all seriousness though, a very revealing conversation takes place during this scene where Johanna points out that this whole thing is just an escape for him. An escape from himself. She points out the fact that John never finishes anything he starts. He doesn’t apply himself to anything, his job, his career. Their marriage. She’s pretty sure he won’t apply himself to this idea of renovating the house and when things go wrong he’ll blame everything and everyone. It will be yet another unfinished project of his in a long line of unfinished business. He tells her that this time, he’s going to follow through.

Obviously there are some serious problems in their marriage too, of which his fantasies might be contributing to.

He goes back to the house to poke around. And may I add that he goes poking around this dilapidated, falling down, dirty, moldy, crappy old house in WHITE jeans?! Yes, Culp looks great in white jeans, it was practically a trademark for him on I Spy but…Sheesh! Anyway, he talks to Jimmy a bit too, which – have I mentioned I dunno who the hell Jimmy is supposed to be? Is he a caretaker of the grounds? A local guy? He’s always there! Anyway, he tells a story of the Major and when John talks about how the house is his now, Jimmy says, “Always the Major’s, always will be.”

We have a dead animal in the house and some more spooks from the ghost. John spots a man ride off on a white horse. There’s a continuity error here in that Culp’s lost his beads somewhere.

I’m still not scared by much. Intrigued yes, by this ghost and all, but not scared of anything. This is a horror movie?

The renovations get underway and John has hired some of the locals to do the work. They grumble though about being paid – in cash.

Dinner with Johanna inside the house. They talk about inviting some friends down and some ideas about the house. For the first time, Johanna seems genuinely interested in the progress of the renovation which makes me wonder if this is a fantasy scene of John’s.

During renovations, workers uncover a room that had been sealed up for some 50 years. Then there’s a dissolve to a scene in the room again, only I think it’s partly some of John’s fantasy. He especially likes the way Johanna’s hands massage the leather of the chair. She then wanders off to another room and he hears her laughter. He sees her shadow then sees an extra shadow but when he goes to the room, she’s gone. The room’s empty.

The fantasy, if it was one, or the spookfest, if that’s what it was, ends and Jimmy is standing in the doorway (he’s always there!). When John says what their plans are for the room, Jimmy warns that the Major won’t like it.

Like the ghost of the Major earlier in the film, John says that the house “is mine.” He basically tells Jimmy that if he doesn’t like what’s being done, he can leave.

Then we have some more spooky weirdness, shadows on the walls, the neighing of a horse, MORE shadows on the wall and then John nearly falls down the stairs. The Major’s voice warns once again, “The Grove is mine! Go away!”

Then we find some weirdness in the basement. John hears Johanna’s laughter again and finds she’s in the basement as well, or is he fantasizing again? It’s hard to tell by this point. Either way, there’s a tunnel she’s found. After she leaves and goes back upstairs, John looks in the tunnel and a cold blast of air comes through along with the voice of the Major “Go! Go away!” John jumps out of the way of a cabinet or something and he drops the lantern nearly starting a fire (and nearly catching himself on fire, I think Culp’s pant leg gets a taste of it). The fire burns itself out and he takes off through an open basement doorway (NOT the tunnel!)….

… and ends up outside at a water fall.

I’m totally not scared of anything in this movie at this point. I’m just confused. Unfortunately, this is where the unfinished state of the film really starts to show it’s cracks because this makes ZERO sense. He looks like he just barely made it out of hell’s doorway but we saw him leave through a basement doorway that looks like it he should have just ended up outside the house somewhere. Instead he ends up God knows where, with a very beautiful waterfall, babbling to himself about the shadows on the wall and the basement tunnel.

The next scene is John and Johanna entertaining some guests. The woman thinks the old house is absolutely fantastic, groovy and such. Seriously. Her exact quote, “This old house absolutely sends me into a thousand and one fantastic absolutely marvelous ways of understanding what is really such a worthwhile way of developing and reaching out for something. I mean, this is way beyond any kind of description. I can’t believe all the absolutely fantastic – I mean where can you go when you’ve reached the really marvelous kind of aspirations which makes this all so incredible.”

As the women are talking to each other, John’s trying to keep his attention on the husband, Hugh, but he keeps looking toward Johanna and the other woman. Johanna’s complaining about no heat and no running water and all. Hugh is trying to tell John how he can sell the property for 10 times what it’s worth.

Dinner with Johanna again and a talk about their guests. Johanna notes that John always seems uncomfortable around Hugh. John’s reason? “He’s an ass.” Johanna tells John that Hugh is not an ass, he’s a man who knows what he wants in life and he’s gotten it. “That’s not being an ass.” On that pleasant note, they then return to the motor home to go to bed.

John has something else on his mind. And Johanna seems receptive to his amorous intentions until it stops suddenly. We hear the voice of the ghost saying “she’s mine!” before it all runs cold. When John asks her what’s wrong all she says is, “if you don’t know, I can’t tell you.” Man, something is so seriously wrong in this marriage.

Culp, by the way, bares quite a bit in this scene. Not all, as he’s strategically positioned, but quite a bit. Ahem.

Rejected, John dresses and leaves the motor home for a bit. Outside he spots a white horse, the same white horse he had seen and heard a time or two before but now it was right there in front of him. And Jimmy just happens to be out and about during the night too (imagine!) and is there for John to ask who the horse belongs too. Jim says it’s the Major’s. Wait a minute, hasn’t the Major been dead now for like 50 years?? The average age of a horse is anywhere from 25 to 30 years but…. John jumps on the horse and rides off.

Folks, this is where the electric kool aid acid test goes viral and the movie spins totally off into hippy dippyville. Totally groovy, free form funkified hippy heaven.

John rides the horse to Fats Landing, rides the horse straight into a bar and proceeds to spill off the animal and on to the floor. He’s hauled up off the floor, brushed off, offered a drink and invited to dig the scene.

And what a scene. We’ve got singing and dancing, and roasted chicken and some kind of arm wrastlin’ thang going on and spaghetti. Lots and lots of spaghetti. No sauce though. More dancing and singing. Beer and drinks flowing. The horse finally turns around and leaves.

Billy Joe Royal sings a song. Billy Joe Royal?! How he went from “Down in the Boondocks” to this thing, I’ll never know.

The mechanic/preacher dude from earlier in the movie, introduces John to a pretty young blonde (Sheila Sullivan). Really, strains of “Love the One You’re With” should’ve been playing at this point. Instead, Billy Joe Royal starts in with a song called “Mountain Woman.” (Actually not a bad song but it doesn’t appear he released it on any of his records.)

The pretty young blonde starts unbuttoning John’s shirt. (Culp’s shirt is off again!)

It isn’t long before everybody’s naked and dancing and then there’s a romp through the woods. I have completely forgotten by this point that this is supposed to be a horror movie. This is the point where Culp bares all and, folks, this about the only screen cap I can post without getting myself in trouble! (Culp, conveniently, censors himself!)

Needless to say he scores with the girl (crass way of putting it but…) and then he rambles on to her something about people who are never wrong, who never make a mistake “are beautiful people. And also very, very dangerous…”

In the morning light she asks if she’ll see him again. He doesn’t know. She tells him who she is, where she lives and that she’s there most all the time. She knows who he is because she knows where his big old spooky house is. All he can do is wonder what happened to his shirt and to the horse. He has pants and a jacket. And a hat. What I want to know is where his clothes came from because he was not carrying them when they first came out into the woods! Nor was he wearing that jacket and hat when he first rode into the bar.

He returns to the house and the trailer, to find the door open, the bed wrecked and an ash tray with a cigar in it. We then see the Major briefly up on the balcony (he dresses like Brett Maverick), smoking a cigar.

Inside the house Johanna is cleaning up from their dinner the night before. She talks about how they’ve been there six weeks and very little has been done. They have half the kitchen, a place to sleep and a room for John’s “study.”

We just saw John in the previous scene have relations with a woman who was not his wife. Now he’s all jealous thinking that somebody was in the trailer with Johanna that night and he asks her. The answer she gives him is that it was him, that he had gone out for about ten minutes and came back as something vile, saying he had tried to kill her.

Her description of the experience would have made a fine horror film scene. But instead we had John in hippy dippyville.

Anyway, he tells her that he wasn’t there last night, he was at Fats Landing and that he can prove it.

He then goes later that night to where Luanne lives, the girl he was with during our hippy dippy scene. To find out, he tells her, if she was for real. (Or was Johanna right and he was as vile as she described and he didn’t remember any of it.) So he and Luanne talk for a bit and then drive to a waterfall. And they do it again…

Afterward, he drops her off and drives back to the house. As he’s driving, Johanna’s words about him, how he doesn’t apply himself to anything, how he’s sick, insane… and how he tried to kill her echo in his mind. When he comes back to the house, he comes in through that tunnel in the basement. (The one we’re not sure where it leads out to, to begin with). He goes up to the bedroom, where Johanna is napping, removes his clothes and sits down on the bed beside her. His owns words echo in his mind, about knowing the difference between fantasy and truth. “Let’s find the truth, together….before we wreck each other.”

Which leaves the question about this entire scene. Is it truth or is it fantasy? Is he possessed? Because he becomes very aggressive with his advance on her, even smacking her across the face. Then she rises up on the bed and comes up with a knife in her hand ready to…GAH!! He deflects her and the next thing we know, just like with the television set at the beginning of the movie, he’s spinning Johanna around in the room and right out the window…

End of movie. The final scene is a funeral service near the observation deck/gazebo. We don’t see John at all.

Damn. Whoever put the DVD cover together sold snake oil in another life. “Nail biting, suspense filled horror movie?” The pilot episode for Supernatural scared the crap out of me. This movie did not. I tip my hat to the film editor, though, who was given the impossible task of putting what footage there was together into something of a storyline without the ending. What’s unfortunate is the potential for this movie to be more a pyscho-horror was there, the performers were all great and even the film score is fantastic. So what the hell happened?

It’s hard to tell. The film, originally titled “The Grove” when it went into production in Vancouver, B.C., Canada in July of 1970, was never finished and ended up in bankruptcy. Originally to be released by MGM, it languished on a shelf for three years, until it was edited together and released by Penthouse Productions in 1973. There was little to no promotion or fanfare for it (though it was noted in both Playboy and Penthouse magazines at the time) and if they managed to recoup a dollar, I would be amazed to know. The original budget for the film was reported to be $750,000.

The film was shot on location in Vancouver and the Major’s estate, or “The Grove,” was a place known (and still known as) the Wigwam Inn. It was built in 1909 and was once a “showpiece of British Columbia.” In 1962, the Wigwam was under different ownership and had fallen out of favor pretty much by this point. The owner attempted to establish it as a millionaire’s gambling casino but was raided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and subsequently convicted on bribery charges and sent to prison for six years. The Wigwam stood idle and empty for several years, stripped of some of its wood and materials by unknown persons, taken over by squatters on occasion and essentially neglected and forgotten. It found new life briefly during the filming of “A Name for Evil,” sat dormant for a few more years and then was bought in 1975 and completely renovated and restored. The Inn changed ownership once more and is now a part of the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club (and a “Members Only” stop over). It stands much more beautiful and inviting today than ever.

The observation deck/gazebo that Culp stands on in one scene (also where the motor home was parked near) was also renovated and still stands.

Vancouver was quite a buzz  in 1970 when the movie was being made, as it was one of three projects reported at the time of being filmed in and around Vancouver. “The Grove” was the first and there were a few mentions in the entertainment section of The (Vancouver) Sun newspaper, starting in June of 1970. Thanks to Google Archive, many of these articles can be viewed.

Such as this article from July 10, 1970 about the art director/set designer for “The Grove.” Interesting to note that not all the interior rooms seen in the movie are from the Wigwam Inn. Another home that was being remodeled at the time was utilized.

Celebrity columnist Jack Wasserman for The Sun mentioned Culp in a column on July 14, 1970…

“That really was Robert Culp riding in the Sea Festival parade Saturday but the girl beside him was a script assistant from the company that is producing The Grove. Samantha Eggar begged off with a sore back. Culp was dragged in at the last minute as a favor to Doug Emery, of Harbor Ferries, who is a paddle wheel in the festival. Incidentally, after the parade, the assorted dignitaries in charge of events were so busy congratulating themselves that they completely ignored Culp, who’d taken a water taxi down from the North Arm just to help out.”

They ignored Culp?! How rude!

A water taxi or any kind of boat, by the way, is the only way you can get to the Wigwam Inn. There are no roads.

One other press mention I found was from New York Post syndicated columnist Earl Wilson, who wrote a piece about Culp and Sheila Sullivan in November, 1970. The movie here is referred to as “In the Beginning” and there’s no mention of it not being completed. Culp lists this movie as one of three things he had done as an actor that he actually liked (up to that point, the other two things being I Spy and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice), a sentiment that apparently stayed true even years later.

“A Name for Evil” is available from Amazon.com, still for about $4.

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Hannie Caulder

Originally released, November 8 1971 (UK), June 30, 1972 (US)

**Contains spoilers**

I mentioned previously that the moustache Robert Culp sports in the Columbo episode, “The Most Crucial Game” threw me for a bit of loop. More or less because it wasn’t fake as there’s footage of him from a game show appearance and a documentary from the same time period. So what was my thought of the Grizzly Adams-ish beard for Hannie Caulder?

What? That’s Robert Culp? Honest, when I first saw a photo of Culp from this movie I did not recognize him. Let’s pause and compare a moment here, shall we?

A mere two years or so separate the two roles, Bob in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, 1969 and Thomas Luther Price in our subject of this post, from 1971.  Seriously, if you didn’t already know who you were looking at, would you have known that the man on the left was the same man on the right?

Robert Culp plays bounty hunter Thomas Luther Price who comes upon Raquel Welch’s Hannie Caulder after Hannie has suffered rape and the murder of her husband by three outlaws (played by Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam and Strother Martin). She wears nothing more than a blanket and carries a Winchester rifle which she points at Thomas when he inquires about wanting to get some water for himself and his horses. She says nothing to him and he figures either she doesn’t understand him or she’s just a wench. He’s about to wave her off, literally, and with the motion of his hand he grabs the rifle from her. He empties the chamber and hands the gun back to her – his first mistake. His second mistake is turning his back on her to walk away and she promptly whacks him on the back of the head with the butt of the Winchester.

Hannie goes over to his horse and notices the dead man being carried on the other horse. She realizes Thomas is a bounty hunter and that perhaps, he can help her. She remains by him, settling him against a saddle and covering him with a blanket and waits for him to regain consciousness.

Hannie has only one thing on her mind and that’s to find the three outlaws that killed her husband and raped her and kill them. Problem is, she doesn’t know how to shoot a gun. Curious of her own skill she sets up some old bottles on the fence and takes Thomas’s gun for some target practice.

She’s a terrible shot and she’s startled when the bottles and glasses start smashing off the fence suddenly. She turns to see it is Thomas. He asks for his gun back from her, which she gives him. He then back hand slaps her knocking her to the ground.

With the formalities now out of the way, more significant dialogue begins. Hannie wants to learn how to shoot a gun. Thomas figures her problem has something to do with her husband running off. It doesn’t, she tells him, but she doesn’t elaborate further. Thomas, not much interested in whatever problem Hannie has, declines helping her learn to shoot a gun. Even after she offers to “make it worth his while” and we’re not talking cash, he still says no. He finally gets the water he wanted for himself and his horses and he saddles up and rides off.

Hannie follows him on foot. At one point he pauses, offers her a hat and his canteen. The answer as to helping her shoot a gun, however, is still no.

Hannie’s persistent. When he stops to camp, she fixes and offers him a drink (I’m assuming it’s coffee). He still says no.

When she’s asleep, Thomas hears her cry out from her nightmare – reliving the awful rape. Knowing now what’s happened, he asks her simply how many there were. She tells him and also tells how they killed her husband as well. After hearing this, Thomas decides to help her. Before they ride off, he hands her a pair of pants to put on, since all she wears is a blanket.

They ride off, their destination Mexico. Before getting there, they stop in a town for Thomas to drop off his dead outlaw and collect his bounty money. He then gives Hannie some money to go buy some boots and pants for herself, as she’d need them with the long ride ahead of them while he went to the saloon for a while.

After getting herself some pants (which were too big and she had to take a bath with them on to shrink them up) and washing Thomas’s pants for him, Hannie heads over to the saloon. Thomas is playing poker with some guys and as soon as she speaks his name, one of the poker players tenses up. (No, there’s no formal introductions when ya sit down to a poker game in the Old West or so I learned from watching enough Maverick episodes).

Once the poker player figures out who Thomas is, there’s a tense moment at the table. Thomas still holds his playing cards in hand, the pants Hannie brought back are draped over his arm and he gently pushes Hannie back from the table. When the other poker player attempts to draw his gun, Thomas tips the table upward and shoots the other man down. The playing cards still in his hand, the pants still draped over his arm. The cards get thrown to the floor and the pants get tossed back to Hannie.

Having already dropped one dead man with a price on his head to the Sheriff earlier, Thomas carries the man he just killed over to the Sheriff to collect another bounty. Earlier, Hannie had talked to the Sheriff asking about the Clemmons brothers and the Sheriff had been a little fresh toward Hannie. Now seeing her with Thomas, who literally left the Sheriff shaking in his boots, the Sheriff’s attitude is all conciliatory.

Having done their part to clean up the town, Thomas and Hannie ride out to Mexico. On the way there, he tells her a little about the gunsmith they’re going to see.

In Mexico, Hannie meets Bailey who will craft a gun for her special. While Bailey is crafting the gun, Thomas has Hannie do some exercises to build up the strength in her hands and arms for handling the piece. There’s also a hesitant attraction budding between Thomas and Hannie which shows as Thomas watches Hannie playing with Bailey’s kids on the beach.

Finally, the gun is ready and Bailey presents it to Hannie. Immediately she learns rule number one: Don’t ever pull the trigger unless you’re aiming at something, even if the gun is empty.

And so begins the lessons to learn how to shoot. Thomas is a serious instructor, a reminder of the fact that what he’s teaching is Hannie is serious, life and death stuff. It is not to be taken lightly.

We have a break in the lessons for another tender moment, as the two walk along the beach. This is about as romantic as the movie allows, considering its subject matter. It’s also the only change of wardrobe for Hannie, other than what we see her in when she first appears on the screen. This is significant, as Hannie has suffered from a brutal act by a man (three men in her particular case) but appears willing to trust Thomas and still desires to feel like a woman. Earlier in the film, when Thomas and Bailey are talking about her, Thomas says that “she wants to be a man.” Bailey responds that she’ll never make it. Despite the revenge she seeks, she’s still a woman and taking Thomas by the hand, is the reminder of that.

The next scene is Hannie watching Thomas on the beach, goofing around with Bailey’s kids for a bit. The tranquil moment doesn’t last long, however, as a group of a Mexican bandits ride up to Bailey’s place. Thomas puts his gun belt on and tells the kids to scoot back to the house. He then makes his way carefully up the beach to the house and tells Hannie one word, “Winchester.”

While Bailey is talking to the leader of the pack, Hannie gets the Winchester rifle and Thomas takes up a position near one of the open doorways. Several bandits have spread out to surround the house. The situation doesn’t look good.

It’s not long before a shootout ensues. The Winchester ends up with Bailey and with Hannie and Thomas it helps even up the odds. But at one point when Hannie is face to face with one of the gun men she shoots to wound. When the gun man continues to approach her, likely to shoot, Thomas is yelling for her shoot again. But she can’t do it. Thomas shoots the man down and can only shake his head for Hannie.

After this, Hannie and Thomas take their leave and ride back into the US to track down the Clemmons brothers. They stop in a town and learn that the Clemmons were expected in town that day. At the hotel, Thomas tries to convince Hannie to give up the whole thing but she won’t. Or rather, she can’t, as she tells him. They have a falling out and Hannie hands Thomas his hat, telling him to leave, that she doesn’t need him anymore. Thomas tells her she’s a terrible liar and leaves the room. Hannie knows he’s right.

Outside of the hotel Thomas doesn’t get on his horse and just ride away. He hangs around, watching the town, drinking his liquor. He then sees the Clemmons brothers ride into town. Two of them head for the saloon while one, Frank, goes to the bathhouse.

With Frank’s wanted poster in hand, Thomas crosses the street and confronts Frank after he exits the bathhouse. Before he can walk Frank over to the Sheriff’s office, the other two brothers come out of the saloon up the street and see what’s going on. Frank turns to look which prompts Thomas to turn, gun in hand to fire at the two brothers at the saloon door. One of the brothers throws a knife at Thomas…and hits him directly in the abdomen.

Hannie witnesses the whole thing from the hotel window and rushes across the street to where Thomas has collapsed on the boardwalk. He’s still alive and asks Hannie to get him out of there. Some townsmen carry Thomas back to the hotel.

In the hotel room it’s only a matter of time. Thomas’s wound is fatal. She tells him that he was right, about her being a rotten liar. He says she’s rotten with a gun too. With his strength fading quickly, he warns her that they (the Clemmons) would kill her and asks her to promise him…something. He never finishes what he’s saying. The best guess is he was to ask her to promise not to get killed. Or he was going to ask her to promise not to go through the damn thing at all.

From this point, Hannie sets out to finish off the Clemmons brothers.  Up first is Frank, who Hannie finds over at the saloon, up stairs. He’s blown away out the window. Following him is Rufus, who catches her in a store in town and he in turn catches a couple of bullets from Hannie.

The final showdown between Hannie and Emmett happens at an old abandoned prison. She gets Emmett with a little help from the gunman who had crossed paths with Hannie a couple of times before in the film. The first is when he shows up at Bailey’s to have his gun repaired and then later, when Thomas and Hannie ride back from Mexico they pass the old prison, where the gunman apparently has been hiding out.

“Win or lose…you lose, Hannie Caulder.”

Culp’s Thomas Luther Price is an interesting character. A man with a distinct code of honor, one that doesn’t really advise on teaching a woman how to shoot a gun. And yet, knowing what happened to Hannie he can’t help but want to help her to find justice. He knows the path of revenge that she’s on she will never be the same afterwards. He tells her this, as a warning. But Hannie is too bent on the destruction of the Clemmons brothers to understand just exactly what Thomas means. Killing another human being involves a terrible change in psychology and thought process. A fine line that, once crossed, you don’t ever go back and act like it never happened. Hannie may find some satisfaction in taking the brothers down, but in the end, as Thomas tells her, she loses.

I think he tried to save her from this when he attempted to haul Frank in to the Sheriff’s office. He may have even figured to take all three men down himself but I’m not sure Hannie would have forgiven him for that. At least, not right away.

Culp’s attire in this film I also found interesting. The knee high moccasin leg wraps (I don’t know what else to call them as they’re not boots and they’re not chaps. They’re somewhere in between) added a unique look and the beard, of course, along with the glasses made him nearly unrecognizable.

Raquel Welch does a fine job as Hannie. I can’t help but find it amusing though that the promotional material for this movie show her much more scantily clad than we see in the film.

What I really wish I could find is a larger, clearer version of the photo below! I found this on a lark while searching for the above photos of Raquel. The only thing is, I think it’s a splice of two different photos of Culp and Welch, because she looks similar in stance as to the b&w photo of her above.

One final note here. Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam and Strother Martin as the Clemmons brothers are three of the most disgusting, foulest, meanest, nastiest outlaws I’ve ever seen in a western. They’re also the stupidest as they blow several robbery attempts through the course of this movie. Strother Martin gets extra points for being obnoxiously whiny.  The best thing that could have happened to them was for Hannie to shoot them all down and take them out of their collective misery.

“Hannie Caulder” is available on DVD and as a digital download through Amazon.com.

 

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