Standard issue outlaws-on-the-run Western gets a fatal twist when two girl stowaways attach themselves to the all-male bank gang. Handily brought to life by underrated helmer Lamont Johnson, with a rich look at a time when autumnal browns & desaturated tints were the æsthetically tasteful rage in Westerns. And if there’s a bit much whooping it up from the boys, and acres of toe-tapping bluegrass on the soundtrack, a fine mix of young bandits (Scott Glenn & John Savage included) behind Burt Lancaster’s legendary, if aging mentor, gives the film plenty to work with. All for nought as the film focuses on those girls: quiet, forgettable Jenny, played by teenager Diane Ladd in her third pic, and 23-yr-old Amanda Plummer, feral as an alley-cat, in a rapturously received debut now all but unwatchable.* Daughter of Christopher Plummer & stage musical comedy star Tammy Grimes, she favors mom in looks & croaky voice. (You’d never guess Grimes could put over a theatrical song from what’s heard here.) With Plummer, each moment given last gasp emphasis . . . all the time. It’s exhausting. Hard not rooting for implacable lawman Rod Steiger, cleverly giving the quietest perf of his career, to shoot her down and take us out of our collective misery.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/DB: *Similar bright career hopes dashed for another off-beat actress next year when Jodi Thelen's breakout debut in FOUR FRIENDS/’81 crashed & burned on arrival. The Reagan years tough on nonconformist females.
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