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: SPOILERS
TWO 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.
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: SPOILERS
TWO 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.