Billy Two Hats (1974)

Sorry, this movie sucks

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I am a fan of the Cowboy/Western genre. I've watched a lot of Western movies, from the 50's B movies to the John Ford masterpieces and Clint Eastwood's honest portrayal. This is a very good Western, it has some great powerful performances from Peck and Arnaz Jr who was truly very watchable and conveyed a lot of underlying emotions. The movie concerns the relationship between diverse characters, Peck's humorous kind portrayal of a man who has turned to crime to ensure a living, to Arnaz's contained portrayal of a man caught between two worlds, perhaps his two hats nomenclature is a euphemism for the two worlds he straddles. The supporting characters are no less interesting with Jack Warden as the relentless sheriff who doesn't understand the relationship between the two and David Huddlestones Store owner who was a buffalo hunter sharpshooter in the recent past and who can see the new future promised by the railroad and the advent of civilization to come. The move itself is quite metaphorical and symbolic but doesn't lose sight of the main thread, that of the growth of Billy Two Hats in the company of his wise mentor. I really enjoyed it, and I hope you will too. The only downside was Gregory Peck's dreadful Scottish accent which appears and disappears randomly throughout.

Billy Two Hats is directed by Ted Kotcheff and written by Alan Sharp. It stars Gregory Peck, Desi Arnaz Junior, Jack Warden, David Huddleston and Sian Barbara. Music is by John Scott and cinematography by Brian West.Interesting. Peck plays a grizzled Scottish outlaw and Arnaz Jr. the half-breed Indian of film's title. They rob banks and have a sort of father and son relationship as they try to escape from vengeful racist Sheriff Gifford (Warden). So in essence it's a buddy Western, albeit one that's a bit off-beat and has grand ideas to be a religio parable of sorts.Unfortunately away from the unusual casting decisions which happen to entertain, it's immeasurably dull on narrative terms and blandly photographed (in Israel) into the bargain. It's not hard to see why it flopped upon release to theatres.The sporadic action passages are adequately performed, and the intentional humour hits the required mark, but by the time the boorish inter-racial relationship comes to the fore, you may find it hard to stay awake. 5/10

I think this movie is underrated as a western. Or maybe it's just under-seen, which is really a pity. With nice color photography, it's got some really great western visuals, a meaty storyline, a collection of disparate characters whose fates you really start to care about, and some memorable, quotable dialogue here and there. Jack Warden is excellent as a gruff frontier sheriff "just doing his job," as it were. He's a toned-down and more accessible version of Gene Hackman's over-the-top bastardly sheriff in "Unforgiven." Gregory Peck, playing a words-of-wisdom-spouting Scottish outlaw with a big heart, is really quite good with his Scottish accent (no, it's not perfect, but passable), and has some memorable lines. Desi Arnaz Jr. is quite the sympathetic character as a half-breed Kiowa Indian outlaw being brought to justice by the sheriff. The supporting cast is quite good, and oh.. that nasty little band of outlaw Apaches they run into is truly a scary lot. You can't help but wonder how many white settlers they raped, murdered and pillaged.All in all, the movie is packed with memorable western images and meaningful lines of dialogue . See it if you get a chance. I'd love for this movie to get more air time.

I evoke the name `Slim Pickens,' because it is both slang for what best describes `Billy Two Hats' and is the name of the actor who could have done the most to improve the movie. As fine an actor as Jack Warden is, substituting Slim Pickens for Warden as the racist Marshal obsessed with capturing Billy (Desi Arnaz, Jr.) and Arch (Gregory Peck) would have provided a more proper sense of menace. Pickens would also have made the dialogue which bogs down the first third of the film, a lot more palatable.However, as presented, nothing would have made `Billy Two Hats' any more than a routine western. Omitting the bank robbery, which motivates the story's action, was a major miscalculation. Having Peck and Arnaz spend so much time apart, without providing better motivation for their friendship, was another. The bland Israeli desert is a poor substitute for the American West and the music is inappropriate and forgettable.Fine performances by Gregory Peck, Jack Warden, David Huddleston and Sian Barbara Allen don't entirely compensate for Arnaz, who seems out of his depth. I felt neither conviction nor consistency in his performance.WARNING: SPOILERSTWO BEST SCENES: 1) Peck and Arnaz hearing the discharge of the buffalo rifle at least a second or two before Peck's horse is knocked out from under him. I don't know if there is that much delay between the sound and the arrival of such a high caliber, low velocity round; but, hey, all those unrealistic ricochets in the Italian westerns were neat, too.2) Peck near death hearing the muffled, distant sounding conversations around him. BOTH of these major accomplishments belong to the sound department of `Billy Two Hats'. I just wish the rest of the movie rose to the same standards.