Sam Whiskey (1969)

Just perfect...

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Playing the title role Burt Reynolds settles into the cynical good old boy character he would really shine in for the 70s and 80s in Sam Whiskey. Burt's playing a man no better than he should be who often goes back and forth on both sides of the law who gets an interesting proposition from widow Angie Dickinson.It seems during the late war between the safe her late husband robbed the Denver Mint of a lot of its bullion. She wants to give it back, but not so anyone would know it was ever stolen because some fake bullion was left in its place and about to be discovered as the U.S. government is about to withdraw Greenbacks and resume specie type money. He gets $20,000.00 from Dickinson for he and his associates Ossie Davis and Clint Walker.They to devise quite the caper and that I won't go into. Reynolds took a lot of his style and persona from James Garner and his Sam Whiskey could have been Jim Rockford in the old west. Dickinson's the kind of woman you don't turn down, she knows how to keep a man's interest.Special mention goes to Woodrow Parfrey as the inspecting Treasury man from the east. Without knowing it Parfrey and his hapless checker playing self become an integral part of the caper.A caper western in the tradition of The War Wagon and a good one.

Put away your thinking cap for this one, sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Boy, talk about getting from Point A to Point B by the most roundabout way possible, I think Burt Reynolds and crew did it here. The kicker to this whole story had to be melting down the gold bars recovered from the Bonnie Blue, pouring it into a mold of George Washington's bust, and melting it back down into bars to replace the stolen loot at the Denver mint. As a caper movie this one really kept you guessing, and it could have all gone South at any point along the way.I guess if you're going to take this story at face value, you have to accept the idea that Sam Whiskey and his new buddies are going to put a quarter million dollars worth of gold back into the Denver mint from which it was stolen by Laura's now dead outlaw husband, and not be tempted to keep it for themselves. I can't imagine why no one bothered asking Miss Breckenridge where she was getting the twenty grand to pay for the job, but I guess with her figure it didn't really matter.I became a Burt Reynolds fan when I first saw him in "The Longest Yard". No, not the 2005 one with Adam Sandler, the original one where he played Paul 'Wrecking' Crewe. This flick came out a few years earlier and the lack of a mustache makes him look even younger. I'd have to say Sam's (Reynolds) first meeting with Laura Breckenridge (Angie Dickinson) was pretty racy even for 1969.Reynolds had a pretty effective team for the reverse heist if you will, Ossie Davis and Clint Walker had credible character introductions for the roles they would assume in the story. I got a kick out of the signpost in the road that offered the way to Gila Bend and North Fork. For a minute there, I thought Chuck Connors might be right around the corner to join the boys. Old time Western fans will get the reference, everyone else will have to look it up.

Sam Whiskey is directed by Arnold Laven and written by William W. Norton. It stars Burt Reynolds, Ossie Davis, Clint Walker and Angie Dickinson. Music is by Herschel Burke Gilbert and cinematography by Robert C. Moreno. Widow Laura Breckenridge (Dickinson) offers Sam Whiskey (Reynolds) a $20,000 reward for the return of some gold that her late husband had stolen from the Denver mint. However, she doesn't want the gold for herself, she wants Sam to put it back into the mint before it's found to be stolen and soils her family name! Maybe it's because I consider myself a Reynolds fan that I found this to be a whole bunch of fun? That I appear to be at odds with critical consensus about Sam Whiskey's worth as entertainment? Stolen money burns a hole in your pocket. Sam Whiskey knows exactly what it's doing, it mixes the caper movie with a Western setting and lets the principal players have fun with it. The quadruple lead players bounce off of each other with considerable charming results, the set-up is suitably daft, a reverse robbery if you like, and there's no shortage of suspense and action. In fact the various twists that arise as Reynolds, Davis and Walker go about their mission of goodwill for the sultry Dickinson, are well implemented into the plot. The De Luxe colour photography is most pleasing, though the absence of scenic panoramas is sorely felt, and the music score is complementary to the tone of the story. True, the direction is hardly inspiring, the quirky nature of the whole thing narrows down the number of film fans it might appeal to and the idea is indeed thin. Yet for Reynolds fans it should be sought out, to see him at the end of the 60s before "his" time would come in the 70s. Watch him perform with a comedic glint in his eye, see Dickinson smoulder and raise temperatures, Walker play at odds with his macho persona, and Davis having fun being the tough boy of the group. Enjoy the cheekiness (Re: ludicrousness) of the caper, the early diving technique on show or sample the verbal amusement that comes from the stars. I just know I had a big enough grin on my face come the end to make this a strong 7/10 rating. Non Reynolds fans should probably knock a point off that rating, though.

Reynolds' undeniable charm and appeal are stretched to their limit in this simple, eternally average western yarn. He plays the title character, a drifter who is talked into a nearly impossible heist job by the sexually persuasive Dickinson. The film opens with an enjoyable confrontation between Reynolds and Davis (who would later work together on "Evening Shade".) The pair later hooks up with gorgeous lunkhead inventor Walker and attempts the job at hand...putting $125,000 worth of gold BACK INTO the Denver mint. They are pursued by a mysterious man, with the thickest eyeglasses on the planet, who wants the gold for himself. The film has a light tone and has the elements to be amusing and entertaining, but somehow misses the mark. For one thing, if one removed the scenes of the covered wagon travelling cross country, the film would probably run about 40 minutes! Also, the plot, as written, is just a little thin to sustain a feature film. Reynolds is near the peak of his attractiveness and shows off his chest in a bathtime scene. Unfortunately, Walker (who possessed the chest to end them all!) is denied that chance. The closest he gets is a bondage scene in which his shirt is cut open slightly. (Was Reynolds afraid of a little beefcake competition?) Davis does well in his role and Walker has a few nice bits as well. The whole thing just has a sheen of mediocrity over it. Dickinson is her usual stiff, breathy-voiced self, but is attractive and manages to supply a touch of amusement. Oft-used character actor Schallert is given a nice role. One mystery that even J.B. Fletcher couldn't solve: How could anyone, after hearing Reynolds sing in this film, hire him for "At Long last Love"?? Fans of Reynolds and of quirky westerns should enjoy it more than others.