Raquel Welch did not have quite the movie career as Marilyn Monroe (although Welch had a kinder private life than Monroe). Welch's film success was up and down with good films like Lester's THE THREE MUSKETEERS and THE FOUR MUSKETEERS (1974) as well as Herbert Ross's star studded whodunit THE LAST OF SHEILA (also 1973). The not so good films for Welch include Michael Sarne's MYRA BRECKINRIDGE (1970) or Peter Yates' MOTHER, JUGS, AND SPEED (1976). One genre I think Raquel Welch was a groundbreaker for women and one of the first female action stars was the western. Welch's first western was Andrew V. McLaglen's BANDOLERO (1968) with James Stewart and Dean Martin but it's Tom Gries 100 RIFLES (1969) that Welch showed she was not only beautiful and sexy but one of the boys.
Yes one could argue that Joan Crawford in JOHNNY GUITAR (1954) or Barbara Stanwyck in FORTY GUNS (1957) were strong western female role models and they were. But Welch is more than a pretty face in 100 RIFLES. Welch is a female action hero, riding fast on horses, shooting rifles, getting dirty and dusty tussling with the Mexican Army, and still finds time for one of cinema's first interracial love scenes with ex-football player Jim Brown. Welch came on the western scene just as actor Clint Eastwood and director Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns like A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964) were rewriting the western genre. 100 RIFLES owes much of its style and plot to the Leone/Eastwood films (including filming in the same Spain locations as Leone's films) as well as Richard Brooks THE PROFESSIONALS (1966) and Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH (1969). Besides exploring 100 RIFLES and its eclectic cast with Welch, Brown, and a young Burt Reynolds, CRAZYFILMGUY is going to review a more recent film that owes its roots to Welch's westerns with not one but four female western protagonists in Jonathan Kaplan's BAD GIRLS (1994).
But first Raquel Welch. With a screenplay by Clair Huffaker and Tom Gries based on the novel The Californio by Robert McLeod and directed by Tom Gries (BREAKHEART PASS), 100 RILES takes place in Sonora, Mexico in 1912. A beautiful Indian revolutionary Sarita (Raquel Welch) is forced to witness a group of Mexican soldiers hang her father. Sarita's brought into a nearby town where Mexican General Verdugo (Fernando Llamas) and German observer Lieutenant Franz Von Klemme (Eric Braeden credited as Hans Gudegast) are executing the local Yaqui Indian population so the railroad represented by American Steven Grimes (Dan O'Herlihy) can lay railroad tracks through the Yaqui lands. Watching from a hotel balcony is bank robber and Sarita's partner "Yaqui Joe" Herrera (Burt Reynolds). Joe is wanted for having stolen $6,000 from a Phoenix bank. Riding into town is black American Sheriff Lyedecker (Jim Brown) seeking to capture Joe for a $200 reward.
When Joe stiffs a local prostitute (Soledad Miranda), she makes a scene outside the hotel and Joe is grabbed by Verdugo but not before Joe encourages the Yaqui Indians to run. A skirmish ensues allowing Sarita to escape. Verdugo arrests Joe and Lyedecker and takes them onto his train. Joe reveals to Lyedecker he stole the $6,000 to buy one hundred rifles to arm the Yaqui Indians in their fight with the Mexican Army and the railroad. Joe's half Yaqui and half American. Lyedecker and Joe escape from the sitting train, steal some horses, and race into the hills, splitting up so the pursuing Verdugo can't catch them. They reunite at an abandoned Spanish church. Verdugo finds them. He orders one of his soldiers to kill Sarita. Sarita kills the soldier as he attempts to rape her.
Verdugo brings Lyedecker and Joe back to his private compound/hacienda where he chains them together. Verdugo's soldiers have found the stolen rifles. Grimes brings the two men water. Grimes does not support Verdugo's slaughter of the Indians in the name of railroad. Lyedecker and Joe are about to be executed when Sarita and the Yaqui Indians engineer a sneak attack on the hacienda, rescuing Lyedecker and Joe and stealing back the rifles. They flee to the river and separate, agreeing to meet later. Sarita takes Lyedecker back to her Yaqui village where he meets her people and their children. Sarita tries to enlist Lyedecker in their cause. Lyedecker's not interested. Joe returns. Verdugo's men are close again. The three flee into the hills. Verdugo's soldiers burn the village and kidnap the children. Sarita and the Yaquis return the favor and lay siege on Verdugo's hacienda, killing the soldiers and reclaiming the children. Hiding in the hacienda, Grimes accidentally shoots Lyedecker in the arm, wounding him. Sarita dresses Lyedecker's injury which leads to Lyedecker and Sarita making love.
The Yaquis celebrate their brief victory by getting drunk and burning down Verdugo's compound. Grimes flees by horse during the commotion. Sarita, Lyedecker, and Joe ride into a white adobe town to meet up with the Yaqui leader General Romero only to learn Romero's been killed (in a sequence cut from the film). The rebels elect Lyedecker as their new leader. Lyedecker's first plan is to attack Verdugo's train bringing more Mexican soldiers to the fight. As the train heads toward a water tower, the soldiers see Sarita taking a shower. Distracted by the lovely Sarita, Lyedecker, Joe, and the Yaquis ambush the train, killing the soldiers. Grimes arrives into town and warns Verdugo and Von Klemme the Yaquis are coming for them. Hiding behind the dead soldiers, the rebels ride into town on the confiscated train. Verdugo fires at the train with a cannon, causing the train to derail into the town's buildings. A final battle ensues with Lyedecker leading the cavalry and Joe and Sarita fighting alongside the Yaquis to defeat Verdugo and the Mexican Army with rifles and dynamite but not without a tragic loss to the group.
Welch is not just a pretty face in 100 RIFLES. Yes, Welch has one of cinema's first interracial love scenes with Jim Brown. She uses her curvaceous body in a shower scene at a water tower to distract the Mexican Army on a train before they're ambushed. But Welch's Sarita is a revolutionary leader and a Madonna figure for her people, the Yaqui Indians. Sarita leads them into battle against Verdugo, Von Flemme, and the Mexican Army. She rescues Lyedecker and Joe from execution. It's Sarita that Joe teams up with to distribute the rifles to the Yaquis. Welch rides horses over rocks and down steep cliffs, shoots rifles, kills a would be rapist with a knife, and tussles in the dirt and mud just like the men do. Sarita becomes fond of Lyedecker but I argue she uses her sexuality to seduce the black sheriff to join their cause. Sarita recognizes the born leader in Lyedecker. In 100 RIFLES most shocking moment (no, not the interracial love scene), it's not Lyedecker or Joe who dies fighting for freedom and justice It's (SPOILER ALERT) Sarita, her limp body carried by Humara (Michael Forest), her Yaqui compatriot to Lyedecker and Joe after Verdugo and his army are defeated. It's a bold decision to kill the sexiest, most beautiful rebel of the trio.
Some cinephiles may argue that actress Claudia Cardinale was the first western action hero not Raquel Welch. As much as I am also in love (cinematically speaking) with Cardinale, she never raced around on horses or engaged in shootouts like Welch does in 100 RIFLES. Cardinale was another early Western sex symbol in films like THE PROFESSIONALS and ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. Cardinale played either Mexican mistresses or reformed whores (Cardinale was born in Tunisia but raised in Italy). I have no doubt Cardinale would have been right at home playing one of the boys and shooting guns and riding bareback. It just wasn't meant to be in the roles she was cast in. Besides BANDOLERO and 100 RIFLES, Raquel Welch had one other western role that provided her with another strong female character. Welch starred in Burt Kennedy's HANNIE CAULDER (1971) as the revenge minded title character pursuing three outlaw brothers (Ernes Borgnine, Strother Martin, and Jack Elam) who raped her and murdered her husband.
There's no question 100 RILES is influenced by a few of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns including filming in the same Almeria, Spain locations that Leone made famous in his films. Like Leone's THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (1966), 100 RIFLES has a trio of disparate characters that are ultimately drawn together for a common goal. Call Welch, Brown, and Reynolds the Beautiful, the Black, and the Brave. In THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, Lee Van Cleef's Angel Eyes bounty hunter pursues Eli Wallach's Tuco only to become entangled with Tuco and Clint Eastwood's Blondie's quest to find stolen gold. Greed is a motivating factor for them. In 100 RIFLES, it's Brown as American sheriff Lyedecker who's pursuing bank robber Burt Reynold's Yaqui Joe. Brown will ultimately join Sarita and Joe's cause to arm their people (the Yaqui Indians) with guns to fight the Mexican Army and the expanding railroad.
Railroad expansion is a catalyst to the plot for 100 RIFLES and Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1969). Gunslinger Henry Fonda is hired by a railroad baron to kill an Irish immigrant family standing in the way of the railroad's progress in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. In 100 RIFLES, it's the Mexican Army exterminating the Yaqui Indians and burning their villages to make way for railway expansion. Both villains in each film use a train car as their office and to move back and forth in the landscape as they try to accomplish their nefarious goals. Director Gries in 100 RIFLES stages two good set pieces with a train: a sneak attack on a train carrying Verdugo's soldiers by Sarita and the Yaquis and later a runaway train that derails in the nearby town.
What makes 100 RIFLES stand out for CrazyFilmGuy is the eclectic cast. Besides rising sex symbol Raquel Welch, 100 RIFLES gives us former NFL running back turned actor Jim Brown and soon to be major movie star Burt Reynolds. For Brown, 100 RIFLES was an opportunity for an African American actor to have a major role in a Hollywood film, a rarity at the time afforded only to the likes of Sidney Poitier (IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT). Brown's Sheriff Lyedecker is the classic laconic hero. His actions speak louder than his words. Lyedecker arrives in Mexico carrying some baggage left behind in the U.S. (perhaps racism towards towards his authority role as a black man). In pursuit of bank robber Yaqui Joe, Lyedecker has traveled a long way for a $200 reward. Lyedecker tries to remain an outsider in the war between Verdugo and the Mexican Army and the Yaquis. He will be drawn in by the lovely Sarita and his own awakening that he's a born leader. By the film's climax, Lyedecker will return to the U.S. without Yaqui Joe but with a purpose to right some wrongs back home.
Brown discovered he liked acting after appearing in Robert Aldrich's WWII adventure film THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967) and retired from the Cleveland Browns shortly after to pursue his dream. Ironically, two of Brown's greatest fears, riding a horse and heights, happen in 100 RIFLES. Brown is constantly on a horse (this is a western after all) and he and Reynolds have a fight scene on an actual cliff with Brown dangling Reynolds over the edge while handcuffed THE DEFIANT ONES style. Brown's film career included more westerns like John Guillermin's EL CONDOR (1970) to blaxploitation films such as the title character in Jack Starrett's SLAUGHTER (1972) to comedies that introduced him to a new generation in Keenan Ivory Wayans I'M GONNA GIT U SUCKA (1988) to big budget films like Tim Burton's MARS ATTACKS! (1996).
Burt Reynolds was just breaking into film from television at the time of 100 RIFLES. On face value, Reynolds' Yaqui Joe is the prototype up and coming actor role in the vein of Jeffrey Hunter in John Ford's THE SEARCHERS (1956) or Ricky Nelson in Howard Hawks RIO BRAVO (1959) or James Caan in Hawks EL DORADO (1966) although Reynolds looks a tad older. Reynolds had been knocking around in mediocre movies like Arnold Laven's SAM WHISKEY (also 1969) and Gordon Douglas's SKULLDUGGERY (1970). Reynolds shows some range in 100 RIFLES as half breed Yaqui Joe transforming from a reluctant rebel to a man who finds his purpose and calling as the leader of his people. We see glimpses of Reynolds sense of humor in 100 RIFLES that he would carry throughout his career. Just three years later, Reynolds would be part of an ensemble cast including Jon Voight and Ned Beatty in John Boorman's harrowing DELIVERANCE (1972) and become a major movie star. Hit films like Robert Aldrich's THE LONGEST YARD (1974) and Hal Needham's SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (1977) followed and Reynolds never looked back.
Special mention to two supporting cast members who add flavor to 100 RIFLES. Fernando Lamas plays the role of the villainous General Verdugo with sadistic flair and relish. The only despicable thing Verdugo fails to do is twirl his moustache. Lamas's Verdugo puts our three heroes in 100 RIFLES through hell. He will receive a welcome comeuppance from the Yaquis in 100 RIFLE'S finale. Born in Argentina, Lamas began his career playing Latin romantic leading men in films like Curtis Bernhardt's THE MERRY WIDOW (1952) co-starring Lana Turner and John Brahm's THE DIAMOND QUEEN (1953). Lamas did not have a huge film career but found much success in front and behind the camera in television. Look for Lamas's young son Lorenzo Lamas (TV's FALCON CREST) in a brief role as one of the Yaqui Indian children.
Dan O'Herlihy as the railroad representative Stephen Grimes is 100 RIFLES most complex character. Grimes plays both sides as he tries to stay above the killing and fighting between the Mexican Army and the Yaqui Indians. His only objective is to keep his train running. Grimes doesn't like Verdugo's murderous tactics. When Lyedecker and Joe are shackled in the heat, he brings them water. Later, Grimes accidentally shoots Lyedecker in the arm as the Yaquis besiege the hacienda he's hiding out in. In the end, Grimes warns Verdugo the Yaquis are coming on his stolen train to attack the army. He plays no favorites. After Verdugo falls, Grimes tells the new leaders Lyedecker and Joe he can repair the blown up train. Grimes is always working the angles. O'Herlihy's career was diverse with appearances in Orson Welles MACBETH (1948), Sidney Lumet's FAIL SAFE (1964), and as the Old Man in Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi thriller ROBOCOP (1987).
Welch as a female action star did not ignite a series of copycat westerns with sexy female protagonists. In part, the death of the western as a genre in the early 70s can be attributed to that. Since 100 RIFLES (and Welch's HANNIE CAULDER), there have been a few instances of female western action roles. Sam Raimi's THE QUICK AND THE DEAD (1995) cast Sharon Stone as a female gunslinger pitted against Gene Hackman in a loving homage to Leone's style and films. I had high hopes for Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg's BANDIDAS (2006) with red hot Latin actresses Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek as bank robbers in turn of the century Mexico. The film was dusty but not very sexy. It was Christopher Cain's YOUNG GUNS (1987), an all male Brat Pack western starring Kiefer Sutherland, Emilio Estavez, Charlie Sheen, and Lou Diamond Phillips that provided the inspiration for a female western ensemble six years later with not one but four female action heroes in BAD GIRLS (1994).
BAD GIRLS seems to have been a film written by committee. Based on a story by Albert S. Ruddy, Charles Finch, and Gray Fredrickson with final screenplay credit to Ken Friedman and Yolande Finch (now Turner) and directed by Jonathan Kaplan (HEART LIKE A WHEEL), BAD GIRLS introduces us to four women, forced to turn to prostitution for different reasons, working at a saloon/brothel in Echo City, Colorado. We meet former outlaw Cody Zamora (Madeleine Stowe), recently widowed Anita Crown (Mary Stuart Masterson), southern belle (or is she) Eileen Spenser (Andie MacDowell), and spunky blonde Lilly Laronette (Drew Barrymore). When Cody saves Anita by shooting and killing Colonel Clayborne (Will MacMillan) who's abusing her, a lynch mob catches and prepares to hang Cody. The three other women disrupt the hanging with horses and a wagon and break Cody free, fleeing into the countryside. During a rest stop, Anita reveals she owns a deed to land in the Oregon Territory. She convinces the girls to join her dream to build a sawmill. Cody offers to fund the enterprise with $12,000 she has saved in a bank in Aqua Dulce, Texas.
The Colonel's widow Mrs. Clayborne (Zoaunne LeRoy) hires two Pinkerton Detectives, Graves (Jim Beaver) and O'Brady (Nick Chinlund) to track and capture the killer whore. The girls encounter prospector Josh McCoy (Dermot Mulroney) who warns them the Pinkertons are on their trail. At the bank in Aqua Dulce, Cody's withdrawal of her money is interrupted by a bank robbery led by Cody's former lover and crime partner Kid Jarrett (James Russo). Jarrett and his gang rob the bank and take Cody's money, taunting Cody to come retrieve it. Cody pursues after Kid Jarrett and his gang. Eileen is caught by the sheriff and put in jail where she's watched by a recently deputized rancher William Tucker (James LeGros) who takes a liking to her. Cody rides into the Kid Jarrett's hideout where she reconnects with the Kid's equally unpleasant father Frank Jarrett (Robert Loggia). Kid Jarrett toys with Cody, giving her money back then bullwhipping her for leaving him. McCoy finds Cody unconscious on her horse and brings her back to Aqua Dulce to recuperate with the aid of a Chinese healer.
McCoy tells Cody he has a score to settle with Frank Jarrett who stole his father's claim. Lilly shows up to break Eileen out of jail only to have Tucker just let her walk free. Lilly and Eileen ride to Tucker's ranch followed by Cody, Anita, and McCoy. Kid Jarrett and his gang hijack an army wagon train and take the army's prized new Gatling machine gun. Cody, the girls, and McCoy spy nearby. They ambush Kid Jarrett and his men. Anita rides off with the wagon full of weapons. Tucker is wounded in the firefight. Lilly's snared by Kid Jarrett's whip and taken back to his hideout. McCoy wounds Frank and they grab him as a bargaining chip for Lilly
Anita regrets getting involved in Cody's revenge plan. Frank tries to get into Anita and McCoy's head. McCoy shoots and kills Frank, angering Cody. Kid Jarrett and his posse toy with Lilly, tormenting her mentally before forcing her to change into a fancy red dress. Anita rides into Aqua Dulce and discovers her claim is no good without her dead husband per the law. McCoy rides to Kid Jarrett's hideout and breaks Lilly out by using some of Tucker's dynamite. Lilly escapes by horse but McCoy is captured by Kid Jarrett. The Bad Girls ride to Kid Jarrett's hideout to make a swap. The Gatling machine gun and guns for McCoy. True to his nature, Kid Jarrett reneges on the deal and shoots McCoy in the back. The Bad Girls and Kid Jarrett and his posse shoot it out with the Bad Girls coming out victorious in the end. Eileen decides to stay and marry Tucker. Cody, Anita, and Lilly head west to pursue their dreams, riding unnoticed past the still pursuing Pinkerton detectives.
It should come as no surprise that the four female protagonists in BAD GIRLS are prostitutes. Westerns have been fascinated with the world's oldest profession from Claire Trevor in John Ford's STAGECOACH (1939) to Claudia Cardinale in Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. I presume they're cinematically more eye catching than four frontier schoolteachers. BAD GIRLS does not sugar coat their profession or how they are viewed. BAD GIRLS reminds us that prostitution is not a choice these four women made. They had previous lives that fell apart due to circumstances, death, or desperation. Most of the men in BAD GIRLS are depicted as misogynists, calling them "whores" and "sluts" without regard that they're human beings or to their situation. The catalyst for BAD GIRLS is Cody having to shoot and kill Colonel Clayborne, a married john who's abusing Anita.
These BAD GIRLS are no wallflowers. They shoot pistols, rifles, and even a Gatling machine gun; ride horses over land and water, and drive horse drawn wagons at a fast clip. Welch's Sarita in 100 RIFLES would be proud of these strong women. They use their feminine charms to get what they need but they're not looking for love (except Eileen who finds it by accident). BAD GIRLS steers away from any sexiness except for a scene where McCoy stumbles across Cody bathing naked in a stream or Kid Jarrett forcing Lillie to strip down to her underwear to wear a red dress he wants to see her in.
Originally, BAD GIRLS was to be directed by a woman, director Tamra Davis (GUNCRAZY) and included a gang rape scene and some violent retribution by the prostitutes toward their clients. The studio 20th Century Fox got cold feet with that storyline and replaced Davis with Jonathan Kaplan to make a more traditional western with a feminine slant. Although a male director, Kaplan was highly regarded for his work with actresses and powerful female storylines including HEART LIKE A WHEEL (1983) about female drag racer Shirley Muldowney (Bonnie Bedelia) and THE ACCUSED (1988) starring Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis. Kaplan's BAD GIRLS is an all-girl THE WILD BUNCH as the four women march into an enemy compound (like William Holden and company in THE WILD BUNCH) to rescue their comrade McCoy from Kid Jarrett (there's even a Gatling machine gun involved). Besides inspiration from Peckinpah's classic, BAD GIRLS owes a nod to THE PROFESSIONALS which like THE WILD BUNCH had four main characters taking on a group of bad guys.
The four actresses in BAD GIRLS are engaging with one surprising me with her performance and one the least believable of the four. For the most part, the four women are plainly appealing (save one) which makes them a little more realistic than sex symbol Raquel Welch in 100 RIFLES. Madeleine Stowe is the perfect choice as the alpha female ex-bank robber Cody Zamora. Stowe proved she was adept at action alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in Michael Mann's THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1992). Mary Stuart Masterson as recently widowed Anita Crown played some tomboys early in her career like Howard Deutch's SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL (1987). Masterson shows toughness and vulnerability as a frontier woman trying to survive in the Wild West. Although I'm a huge fan of Andie MacDowell (FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL), her Eileen Spenser is the weakest role in BAD GIRLS. I never quite figured out what her character was about (a former Southern belle?). MacDowell was too good looking to be a prostitute. A saloon dancer or singer might have suited her better.
My preconceived notion was Drew Barrymore as Lilly Laronette would be the odd girl out, the weakest link. But if you get past the beach blonde hair, Barrymore's Lilly is sassy, funny, and has one of the sadder back stories of the four in BAD GIRLS. It's a grown up, mature role for an actress I grew up with when she was six years old as Gertie in Steven Spielberg's E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTIAL (1982). What love interests there are for the four women include Dermot Mulroney as Josh McCoy, a prospector seeking revenge on Frank Jarrett. McCoy and Cody have a few brief romantic moments but it's a doomed relationship. Mulroney has the distinction of appearing in both YOUNG GUNS as Dirty Steve Stephens and BAD GIRLS. James LeGros (DRUGSTORE COWBOY), a minor league looking version of Brad Pitt (in a good way) as kind rancher William Tucker will go from keeping an eye on Eileen in jail to winning her heart and marrying her as the film concludes.
Every western needs a good villain and BAD GIRLS provides two of them: the charismatic but sadistic Kid Jarrett and his equally despicable father Frank Jarrett played by James Russo (EXTREMITIES) and Robert Loggia (REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER). Russo's Kid Jarrett is a plus for BAD GIRLS. We first meet Kid Jarrett as he and his gang rob a bank where his ex-lover Cody Zamora happens to be withdrawing her life savings. Russo's Kid Jarrett comes across initially as a rogue and a charmer. He takes Cody's money making her pursue him back to his hideout. The Kid's just toying with Cody, hoping to steal not just her money but a kiss. When we think Kid Jarrett's going to return the money back to Cody, he bullwhips Cody almost to death for deserting him, leaving her for dead on the range. Having started his career playing villains and gangsters in films like Martin Brest's BEVERLY HILLS COP (1984) and Francis Coppola's THE COTTON CLUB (1984), Russo's experience playing bad guys after a decade shows as Kid Jarrett is a more layered baddie, a jilted boyfriend who happens to be a sociopath.
Kid Jarrett's upbringing makes sense when we're introduced to his equally heartless father Frank Jarrett played by the excellent supporting actor Robert Loggia. Loggia's appearance in BAD GIRLS is brief yet every scene Frank appears in he oozes venom and hate. Frank's like the modern obnoxious Little League baseball father, questioning Kid Jarrett's every decision. We learn Frank stole a mining claim from Josh McCoy's father leading to Josh's vendetta on Frank. Loggia's distinguished career included roles as gangsters, generals, and toy executives in films like Brian DePalma's SCARFACE (1983), Penny Marshall's BIG (1988), Roland Emmerich's INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996), and David Lynch's LOST HIGHWAY (1997). Loggia makes BAD GIRLS better even if it's not a great film.
With its switch from an all female directing and screenwriting team to multiple new screenwriters and a new male director, BAD GIRLS has a truncated, uneven feel to it. A few scenes feel unfinished or shortened. The Pinkerton detectives tracking the girls subplot disappears for the middle part of the film only for them to pop up as a token reminder at the very end. What BAD GIRLS makes up for its choppy narrative is a couple of good action set pieces: the Bad Girls heisting the guns from Kid Jarrett's men and the classic penultimate gun battle between the Bad Girls and the Bad Guys. BAD GIRLS carries on the tradition that Raquel Welch began in 100 RIFLES that women could be just as physical and action oriented as the John Wayne's, Clint Eastwood's, and Gary Cooper's in a western. Welch had Jim Brown and Burt Reynolds to fight alongside. BAD GIRLS gives us four women who fight for their independence and a chance at a better life than the prospect of prostitution for the rest of their lives. Connecting both 100 RIFLES and BAD GIRLS is composer Jerry Goldsmith who provided the music for both westerns. Thanks Jerry. Long live the female action western heroine!
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