Review of Wild Women

Wild Women (1970 TV Movie)
5/10
So-so Western with good actors but poor direction and low budget
9 March 2022
Average western stars Killian (Hugh O'Brian) who's assigned by Col. Donahue (Robert F. Simon) to a perilous mission . But he cannot do this alone and needs help , so he goes to a local women's jail and gets the warden to parole a motley bunch of misfit women . As a scout leader Killian defends a heroic expedition plenty of spunky women against a lot of dangers and Indian attackers . As five feisty women convicts , a rag-tag band of all-female (Anne Francis, Marilyn Maxwell, Marie Windsor , Sherry Jackson , Cynthia Hull) have been recruited to secretly transport weapons into Mexican-held Texas in 1840s and along the way threatened by an impending Indian attack . All of them head to Texas , and getting a chilly reception throughout the risked paths , and without water , anxiously desiring to drink , suffering starvation , thirsty , assaults , while being surrounded by Mexican military and rebel Indians . As the tribes on the warpath and the Mexican army is controlling the colonists and invaders on the Texas region.

This fresh but average picture gets Western action , shootouts , agreeable outdoors , a lot of attractive , exuberantly frisky female roles showing a lively aggressiveness and turning to be entertaining enough , but slow-moving . It's a medium budget film with good actors , technicians, production values and mediocre results . A passable TV Western by the professional and craftsman filmmaker Don Taylor who brought ¨The final of countdown¨and ¨Damien : Omen 2¨ , dealing with an undercover group who's trying to smuggle guns into Texas during the time of the Texas Revolution of 1835-1836. Excitement and entertainment but uneventful , relying heavily on the relationship between the touchy women with full of nervous energy and the male heroes , while defending the arms wagon . The main and enjoyable plot line results to be functional about the risked expedition to defend themselves against Indian tribes on the warpath and to repel the Mexican attacks that will eventually come . Exploring the anguish of women , the hard relationship among them and including jarring bursts of action and emotion . This is a thrilling tale of a valiant and a hard-bitten group , assembling a detail of misfit women to hold-off rampaging Indians and avengeful Mexicans . Exploring the distresses and desperation of some fainthearted women . This Western is predictable and conventional but entertaining enough . It is an uneven Western with a plot that several times reminds ¨Westward the Women¨(1951) by William A Wellman and ¨The Guns of Fort Petticoat¨ (1957) by George Marshall . In Wild Women(1970) stands out the beautiful women , some of then veteran actresses , such as : Anne Francis as the appealing Jean Marshek , Marilyn Maxwell as the stubborn Maude Webber, Marie Windsor as the quarrelsome Lottie Clampett, Sherry Jackson as the spoiled , fidgety Nancy Belacourt, and Cynthia Hull as brave Indian Mit-O-Ne.

The motion picture was regularly directed by Don Taylor . He was an actor and director as TV as cinema , he played one of the leads in the Army-Air Force production of Hart's play, "Winged Victory¨ . Returning to civilian life, Taylor resumed his work in pictures with a top role in the trend-setting crime drama ¨The naked city (1948)¨ and played successful films as ¨Destination Gobi , Battleground and Stalag 17¨. In later years Taylor became a film and TV director, being nominated for an Emmy for his direction of an episode of "Night Gallery" (1969). Don met his wife Hazel Court when he directed her in a 1958 episode of "Alfred Hitchcock presents" (1955). Taylor was an expert filmmaker on adventures genre as ¨Adventures of Tom Sawyer¨ , Terror as ¨Damien : Omen 2¨ and science fiction as ¨Island of Dr. Moreau¨, ¨Escape from Planet of Apes¨, and ¨The final of countdown¨. Rating : Average , 4.5/10 . Acceptable and passable , but mediocre. Only for hardcore Western fans.
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