Will Penny (1967) User Reviews

Stylish Late Classic Western.

[jpdoherty · 7/10 · 10 January 2012]

An interesting, entertaining yet somewhat underrated little western WILL PENNY was one of the last worthwhile western efforts to emanate from Hollywood in the sixties. Produced by Fred Engel and Walter Seltzer for Paramount Pictures in 1968 it was beautifully written and directed by Tom Gries. This would be Gries finest movie and the picture for which he is best remembered. He died in 1977 of a heart attack while playing tennis at 55 years of age. It is a great shame really since with this one movie he revealed a remarkable flair for film. Stunningly photographed in widescreen and colour by the great Lucian Ballard the picture was also buoyed by a haunting score from veteran composer David Raksin ("Laura").

Aging and illiterate cowboy Will Penny (Charlton Heston) has just finished up helping to bring in the last herd of cattle before winter sets in. He signs an X to draw his pay and must now look for another job to see him through the winter months ahead. Luckily he gets a line camp job with a large and remote cattle spread watching out for any strangers or drifters who might interfere with the straying cattle. But he finds the isolated cabin he is allotted in the area to be occupied by a woman (Joan Hackett) and her young son (Jon Gries). Unable to turn them out to the mercy of the elements he allows them to stay little knowing that later a growing attachment will develop between all three. Later after a confrontation with the murderous and loony "Preacher" Quint (Donald Pleseance) and his equally murderous sons Will finds now that he must defend the woman and the boy against them. The picture ends in an exciting shootout and the welcome dispatch of the devious "preacher" and his cohorts.

Performances are excellent from all concerned. Heston gives one of his very best performances as the aging cowpuncher who just cannot commit himself to the woman and the boy. His Will Penny is an absorbing and compelling portrayal of a man who cannot accept the involvement of anyone else coming into his life. A life in which he had never experienced family ties or domesticity of any kind and now resigns himself to the fact that it's too late for him to try for it. The ill-fated Joan Hackett (she died in 1983 of ovarian cancer at 49 years of age) couldn't be better as the lonely woman desperately wanting that commitment and there's a nice performance too from the director's nine year old Jon Gries as the boy. Also notable are those in smaller roles like British actor Donald Pleseance as the formidable baddie and there are welcome appearances from Slim Pickins, Ben Johnson, Anthony Zerbe and Lee Majors in his first film. The music by David Raksin is memorable as well. There is a lovely and haunting main theme heard throughout the picture and is transformed into an arresting ballad sung by Don Cherry over the end titles and a tender love theme is heard during the film's softer moments.

WILL PENNY is by no means an explosive shoot-em -up western for it is essentially a love story. But besides having moments of real charm there is a modicum of exciting action here and there. Overall WILL PENNY is beautifully written and directed, beautiful to look at and beautifully played out by a wonderful cast.

A True Western

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 16 June 2017]

Aging cowboy Will Penny gets a line camp job on a large cattle spread and finds his isolated cabin is already occupied by a husbandless woman and her young son.

The picture was based upon an episode of the 1960 Sam Peckinpah television series "The Westerner" called "Line Camp," which was also written and directed by Tom Gries. Charlton Heston mentioned that this was his favorite film in which he appeared. Some, including Bruce Dern, say it is his best role. And yet, it is not one he is widely known for.

Roger Ebert wrote, "The admirable thing about the movie is its devotion to real life. These are the kind of people, we feel, who must really have inhabited the West: common, direct, painfully shy in social situations and very honest." This is true. This is not an action film, or a heist film, or anything that turns the West into mythology. It is everyday life.

Authentic and intelligent

[howard.schumann · 8/10 · 15 August 2005]

Charlton Heston is an aging cowboy in Will Gries' 1968 gritty Western Will Penny. This is not the West of larger than life heroes, men of rugged independence and strength, just ordinary men without glamor who have to struggle for a living in a tough, bitter, and lonely environment. Will is a loner, not a "tough" guy with a romanticized image, but he is a survivor. After one job comes to an end, Penny takes off to look for work along with two companions, Blue (Lee Majors), a young cow hand, and Dutchy (Anthony Zerbe), a more experienced worker. Along the way, after a dispute over an elk, Will and his friends are attacked by Quint (Donald Pleasance), the most demented preacher this side of Harry Powell (Night of the Hunter). When one of Quint's sons is killed, the preacher vows revenge and we know we haven't seen the last of him.

When Will inquires at a roadside inn about the nearest doctor for Dutchy who accidentally shoots himself, he meets Catherine Allen (Joan Hackett) and her young son Horace known as Button (Jon Gries), on their way to Oregon to find her husband. After leaving Dutchy in the care of a doctor, Will finds a job for the winter at the Flatiron Ranch as a line rider keeping squatters off the property. When he arrives at the line rider's cabin, however, he finds Catherine and her son living there after they were abandoned by their guide. When Will is suddenly attacked by the Quints and left to die in the cold, Catherine nurses him back to health and he soon develops a close attachment to Catherine and Button.

When Will realizes that he cannot force Catherine and HG to leave, he agrees to let them stay during the winter and they spend Christmas together and the story becomes both a tale of conflict with the Quints and his growing love for a married woman. Although we root for Will to overcome his reluctance to take risks, we know that Will has known nothing but handling cattle, cannot read or write, and has little self-confidence or belief that he can ever change. There are many familiar faces in Will Penny: Slim Pickens, Donald Pleasance, Lee Majors, Anthony Zerbe, and Bruce Dern. This outstanding ensemble cast produces a Western that is authentic and intelligent and is probably Heston's best performance of his career.

Interestingly, the film opened in the New York's R.K.O. Coliseum at Broadway and 181st Street, a neighborhood theater in which I spent many boyhood afternoons and even worked as an usher. The Coliseum was one of the most attractive movie theaters in New York and as described at the time, had "a lovely oval opening, surrounded with a wooden railing, from which it was possible to look down from the balcony onto the first floor". Like many movie palaces of my youth, it is gone now, but the memories remain.

One of the best westerns I've ever seen. 'Will Penny' is a movie crying out to be rediscovered!

[Infofreak · 21 June 2004]

Peckinpah's flamboyant 'The Wild Bunch' and Leone's innovative spaghetti westerns of the 1960s are among my all time favourites, but the stir they created overshadowed some gems that are now unfairly overlooked - Brando's 'One-Eyed Jacks', and Monte Hellman's 'Ride In The Whirlwind' and 'The Shooting' immediately spring to mind. Those three movies all have strong cult followings (just ask Quentin Tarantino!), but for some reason the same can't be said for 'Will Penny'. I don't know why, as it's one of the best westerns I've ever seen. Charlton Heston is of course, a MOVIE STAR and also a controversial figure because of his politics, but sometimes people seem to forget that he could be a damn fine actor when he tried. I think 'Will Penny' is his best performance. Heston plays a low key character, an aging cowboy who is tired of his life but believes it is all he can do. Maybe this is the main reason why 'Will Penny' has been forgotten. He's basically a decent guy, not a larger than life John Wayne hero, or a Clint Eastwood anti-hero. Heston regards Tom Gries' script as one of the finest he's ever read, and I must agree with him. Gries was a TV veteran but this was his big break as a motion picture director. Despite the talent he showed he never became a name director, though he worked steadily until his death in the mid-70s, and was responsible for a few well known films including the Manson movie 'Helter Skelter'. Heston is surrounded by an impeccable supporting cast. His two buddies are played by a young Lee Majors and Anthony Zerbe ('Cool Hand Luke', 'The Omega Man'). Joan Hackett is very good as the woman squatter Penny befriends (her on screen son is played by Tom Gries real life son, who is also excellent). Donald Pleasence is fantastic fun as a crazed preacher, and he and his eldest son (played by Bruce Dern, one of my all time favourite actors) make terrific villains (Dern is always a terrific villain!). Western legends Ben Johnson and Slim Pickens play a ranch foreman and a cook respectively, and then there's character actors galore - G.D. Spradlin, Clifton James, William Schallert, Luke Askew, Matt Clark, Roy Jenson. Off the top of my head, it's difficult to think of a 1960s western with a more impressive cast. 'Will Penny' is a movie crying out to be rediscovered! I highly recommend it to western fans.

The Cowboy as Everyman

[JamesHitchcock · 7/10 · 16 July 2004]

Possible Spoilers

Although Charlton Heston has made a number of Westerns, he has never been regarded as one of the great Western actors like John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, probably because he has played such a great variety of other roles. 'The Big Country' is probably the best of his films in this genre, although he only played a supporting role. 'Will Penny' is probably his best Western in which he had the main starring role.

The film is more downbeat and realistic than many Westerns, which try to give a heroic or glamourised image of the West. The central figure, Will Penny himself, is not the cowboy-as-hero but the cowboy-as-average-working-man- tired, disillusioned, middle-aged, badly paid and having difficulty finding work. (Is it significant that his surname is the name of a low-value coin?) He eventually finds employment as a 'line rider' on a ranch, a demanding and lonely job which involves him riding long distances to guard his employer's property. On one of his trips, he discovers that a young woman named Catherine Allen and her son Horace, abandoned by their guide while traveling overland to California to join her husband, have taken refuge in a hut in the mountains. Although he is under strict instructions not to allow trespassers to remain on the property, Penny takes pity on them and allows them to stay.

Penny has earlier fallen foul of an outlaw family, having killed one of them in self-defence during a quarrel over a dead elk. The patriarch of the family and his surviving sons swear vengeance, track Penny down, beat him and leave him for dead. Penny's earlier kindness is rewarded when Catherine finds him, takes him in and nurses him back to health throughout the long winter. The two find themselves becoming drawn to one another, but danger threatens when the outlaws reappear.

The two leading roles are both well played. Charlton Heston states in his autobiography that a number of well-known actresses turned down the role of Catherine, possibly because she script described her as 'plain'. Joan Hackett, then little-known, was far from plain, but was excellent in the part. Hackett made relatively few feature films before her career was tragically cut short by her early death, but her performance as the practical but tender Catherine shows that she had real talent. Heston himself is equally good, bringing out both Will Penny's resigned world-weariness and his fundamental decency. (There are also moments of humour between them, especially when Catherine tries to persuade the reluctant Penny to take a bath).

There were other things about the film which were perhaps less good. The first half seemed very slow-moving, although there was more action in the second. I was not really convinced by Donald Pleasence as the leader of the outlaws. (Despite his name, Pleasence seemed to specialize in playing unpleasant characters; I wonder if he ever considered changing it to Unpleasence). His character here (known as 'Preacher Quint', although he does not seem to be an ordained minister of any church) is, for my taste, too exaggerated and cartoonish to seem really threatening. He is the sort of character who would be more at home in a tongue-in-cheek Western than he would in a serious one. (There have been other Westerns where the temptation to overplay the villains has detracted from an otherwise serious film- 'Hannie Caulder' is another example).

Despite my reservations, this is still one of the better Westerns of the late sixties. An added bonus is the visual beauty of the scenery against which it is shot. Most of the action takes place in winter, and we are treated to some marvelous scenes of the snow-covered mountains. This forbidding, wintry landscape is perhaps symbolic of Penny's disillusionment and the toughness of his life. This is a very watchable film, both for its acting and its cinematography. 7/10

Very good western by Tom Gries with a fabulous Charlton Heston as middling-age cowboy

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 14 June 2011]

A mature range-wandering loner named Will Penny (Charlton Heston) gets a job as cattle drive cowboy when he encounters his isolated cabin in high mountains is already occupied by a love-hungry mother (Joan Hackett) and her young son , they have appropriated when their guide to Oregon has deserted them. Too ashamed to kick the frontier husbandless and child out just as the cold winter of the mountains sets in, he lets to share the booth until the spring slowly thaws. Both of them developing a warm and touching relationship . But when Penny offends a family of outlaws (Donald Pleasence , Bruce Dern) they seek vengeance , come after him and menace his happiness along with the mother and her son.

Wonderful performance by Charlton Heston as aging cowboy , he considers this movie his personal best giving a realistic portrayal . Joan Hackett is memorably over-the-top as as the woman who forms a strong axis to Heston. Marvelous relationship between the lonely man and the mother who soon forget their mutual hostility and start developing a deep love for one another. Magnificent plethora of secondaries as Bruce Dern ,Ben Johnson , Slim Pickens , Anthony Zerbe , William Shallert , Luke Askew and special mention to Donald Pleasence as psychotic preacher , and introducing Lee Majors. Superbly photographed by Lucien Ballard on spectacular outdoors from Bishop and Inyo County California . Evocative musical score by David Raksin with emotive song at the beginning and the ending titled ¨the lone rider¨ .This elegiac motion picture is stunningly directed by Tom Gries though flopped in theatres . Tom was an expert director of Western as¨Breakheart pass¨ , ¨100 Rifles¨ ,and ¨Will Penny¨ that is the best work ever made ; Gries also directed other successes as ¨Breakout¨, ¨The glass house¨ and TV series as ¨QBVII¨ . Rating : Above average . Worthwhie watching .

Can't Roast Chuck Here

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 17 December 2002]

Spoilers. Well, this is one western they got pretty much right: writing and direction, casting, performances, score are all well above the expectable and easy.

Tom Gries, whose name I recently discovered is pronounced "Gryes" and not "Greaze", both wrote and directed this film and, overall, did a fine job of it. The script has the ring of authenticity. "See the elephant" was a current expression. I don't know about "Big Auger" and "Stud Duck" but they sound right. His direction is unusually good too.

The movie begins just before dawn so we feel these working cowboys still have sleep in their eyes and need hot coffee. A conflict between Chuck and a younger hand who harrasses him about his age is handled deftly, with Chuck only responding when necessary, finally bonking the younger man on the head with a skillet. Chuck is no fastest gun in the west, just an exhausted cowhand trying to get the job done and maintain some modicum of dignity. The solidarity found within isolated male groups is handled deftly. When the herd is delivered after a long and arduous trek, the hands split up. There are a few muted compliments exchanged but no new-age hugs or tears, despite the intensity of the friendships. Chuck's partners, Lee Majors and Anthony Zerbe, always an interesting actor who does a neat German accent here, hook up with him and the trio find themselves in a shootout with a group of rawhiders over a dead elk.

Here the film weakens a bit. The rawhiders are a thoroughly villainous group, totally lacking in humanity. Their patriarch, Donald Pleasance as Paw, is a religious hypocrite, and his sons are no better. Bruce Dern's first line in the movie is one he utters to his father during negotiations over the carcass -- "Kill 'em, Paw." They're all one-dimensional characters and seem to be in the movie mainly to provide an opportunity for violent conflict. Anyway, if the cowboys are having such a hard time finding work in the winter, how in tarnation are the "rawhiders" making a living? What IS a rawhider?

In the next act, probably the best, Chuck is confined, wounded, to the line rider's hut up in the snowy mountains. His accidental companions are Joan Hackett and her young son, two stranded California-bound travelers with no real future in the Golden State. They nurse him back to health and civilize him a bit, teaching him Christmas songs and so forth. Chuck is at his most interesting in these scenes. He rarely projects self-conscious awkwardness in his performances, but he manages it here. His defensive explanation of why he only takes seven or eight baths a year is hilarious. "In the Spring, why, you give yourself a REAL GOOD ONE." His performance here makes his Marc Antony look wooden.

Joan Hackett looks the part. Her hair is piled on top of her head unglamorously and she tends to keep her gaze lowered, as if afraid to look directly at the sort of reality that Chuck represents. Her voice, though, sound straight out of Smith or someplace. (Alas, she died at an early age.) I realize they had to have a kid in this movie. But did Horace have to be so cute, with one buck tooth sticking out of his freckled face? Did he have to be called "H. W." and be referred to as "the button"? (Ugh.) Did he have to wave at the departing Chuck at the end, when the retreating horseman was too distant to hear him, out of "Shane"? I surely do wish that kid had been ugly.

Still, the last conversation between Chuck and Hackett is touching. She, out of ignorance, argues delicately that they can begin a ranch or a farm and live on love. He, on the other hand, brought up in a more rigorous, practical way, explains why it's too late for him to begin over. "I'm damn near fifty years old."

Ben Johnson is here too, and looks just like what my idea of a ranch foreman ought to look like. Unsmiling, unsentimental, and fair. The rest of the supporting cast is equally good.

The musical theme by David Raksin ("Laura") consists of a main theme of a melancholic but not tragic hue, and fits the story. It bounces along rythmically but not symmetrically, like a horse plodding over uneven ground.

The incidents are sometimes overscored. Over the closing credits there is a horrifying set of lyrics imposed on the main theme -- "A man is only a man. . . does the best he can" -- defacing what has come before it.

It's a naturalistic Western, for the most part. Lucien Ballard's photography is impeccable. This isn't Monumental Value. It's the windswept Great Plains. Unglamorous as hell. If you have a chance to catch this one, do so. It's a decent film. And it's Heston's best film effort, as far as I'm aware.

Pretentious... Uncommon... Extraordinary adult Western!

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 9/10 · 27 May 2000]

The tough, lonely life of the cattle drover (as it really was) is briefly related in the ideal opening scene of Tom Gries' "Will Penny" with an aching Charlton Heston compelled, at the end of an exhausting cattle drive, to take a humble winter job in the cold bleak hillside... His turbulent, crude, oppressive - virtually celibate existence - is marvelously exposed by Gries...

Heston portrays with honesty and sensitivity, a middle-aged cowhand "free and easy" who ignores everything about farming... He is a lonely rider who takes his bath eight or nine times a year, and mends his own clothes... He is a "good steady hand" concerned for Mrs. Allen and her son but "bad scared before, and bad sorry after." He is also a helpless man with uncertain future, a sincere cowboy extremely sensitive...

"Will Penny" is an extraordinary film... Not only does it feature Heston's most sincere and sensitive performance, it has a fine supporting cast and is one of the most adult Western scripts ever written...

Joan Hackett portrays Mrs. Allen with strength and dignity, never collapsing beneath the strain of her tribulations...

Donald Pleasance is the most dastardly villain to grace the screen in many long years... He is mean, unkind, and slightly insane... Bruce Dern is equally effective as one of his sons, the psychotic who "handles a knife just fine."

Realistically spared, "Will Penny" is a straightforward and honest film, a sincere attempt to recreate the Old West, and, more important, the "mighty good men" who lived therein...

A good western that went unnoticed

[NewEnglandPat · 7/10 · 6 July 2009]

This film was one of Charlton Heston's personal favorites, a change-of-pace drama dwelling on character development and self-preservation instead of the usual shoot 'em ups in western movies. The story is a spare tale, often found in pulp fiction westerns, of a stranger who happens along and sees a woman and her young son through a rough winter. Heston's character is a drifting cowpuncher and the movie has shadows of "Shane" and "Hondo" casting about here and there. There are villains, of course, with Donald Pleasence and his hard case sons on hand to supply the required outlawry. The movie was beautifully filmed in high country with a great cast and a nice music score. Heston had a great chemistry with Joan Hackett and their relationship rings true throughout the movie. For some reason, the picture was not a major box office success although it seems to be a more popular film today than when it was released.

Superb film.

[eaglejet98 · 10/10 · 16 November 2003]

Will Penny is an absolutely superb film. I find no flaws in it. A story about rough men and hard times, its plot and characters stand on their own merits, not the cowboy setting. The scenery is perfect; the great west during a harsh winter after a long cattle drive. We feel like we are there.

The initial pace of the screenplay is slow and plodding. But this is intentional. It gives us a feel for the dreariness of a common cowboy's bleak life in the late 19th Century. Later the pace picks up.

Charlton Heston is convincing as a tired, aging, wrangler who really doesn't have much to show for his life. Joan Hackett is just plain enough looking to be real but attractive enough to become the love interest. A great actress, she passed away prematurely.

Donald Pleasence and Bruce Dern are frighteningly convincing as a homicidal religious zealot and his psychopathic son. They personify the cults of violent people that occupy the back recesses of society and only come out to work evil on the rest of us. These two are very scary.

Heston and Hackett's love is believable and so is the gun play. Yet there is no gratuitous sex or violence.

Will Penny is well produced and thoroughly entertaining.

WILL PENNY (Tom Gries, 1968) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 9 June 2006]

Excellent Western which is uncharacteristic in its distinctly unglamorous viewpoint but elegiac in tone. Gries' own character-driven script is first-rate, and the entire cast - stalwarts in the genre and novices alike - responds with beautifully-judged performances; particularly effective is Donald Pleasence as the bible-thumping villain, with his no-good family in tow (perhaps inspired by the equally disreputable Clanton Gang from John Ford's MY DARLING CLEMENTINE [1946]). In addition, Lucien Ballard's cinematography and David Raksin's score complement the film nicely.

Charlton Heston was at perhaps the most satisfying phase of his acting career: other films of the period include THE WAR LORD (1965), KHARTOUM (1966), COUNTERPOINT (1967) and PLANET OF THE APES (1968); he made a number of Westerns, but three in particular stand out from the lot - William Wyler's THE BIG COUNTRY (1958), Sam Peckinpah's MAJOR DUNDEE (1965) and this one. Incidentally, the relationship depicted here between a cowboy and a lonely woman living with her young son (who comes to idolize him) was also at the centre of two other fine Westerns I've just watched - HONDO (1953) and THE TIN STAR (1957)!

Unfortunately, Gries died at a relatively young age; this was his most substantial feature film, though he later collaborated twice more with Heston on NUMBER ONE (1969) and THE HAWAIIANS (1970).

Touching and faithful adult western

[RedRoadster · 8/10 · 24 August 2010]

If any western that I have seen feels authentic to the old west it is "Will Penny". The Inyo County, California locations are wonderful and the cowboys at work scenes are refreshingly honest.

The basic storyline serves as a template to work more on character development and the cast (full of western stalwarts) do not disappoint.

Charlton Heston as Will Penny is on great form as the vulnerable, middle aged man of the plains. He is a little backward but unfailingly truthful and decent. He and his friends "Blue" and "Dutchy" represent the best principles of old west comradeship and his approach to Mrs Allen and her son "H.G" shows with tenderness what he has craved to have all his life but knows it is too late to embrace.

I found Donald Pleasence a bit over the top as the evil "Preacher Quint", but his portrayal is entertaining if nothing else. Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens and Lee majors all do a good job in support and Joan Hackett is completely convincing as the lone mother in search of a better life.

Very much a film for those viewers who like to experience, feel and be touched by a well written story and its characters.

Rugged western deserves more attention...

[Doylenf · 7/10 · 6 January 2007]

CHARLTON HESTON steps away from his "Moses" and "Ben Hur" characterizations to give a solid performance as a Montana cowhand who gives shelter to a woman and her boy in his log cabin during a snowy Montana winter. Visually, the film is a standout with gorgeous vistas of snowy landscapes and the chill of winter felt inside the cabin as the man and woman gradually fall in love.

JOAN HACKETT is fine as the strong-hearted woman with the boy clinging to her, left behind by her husband and glad for some company when Heston lets them stay with him. But, of course, we have to have the villains and there are several--BRUCE DERN and MATT CLARK are the bad boy sons of "Preacher Quint" (DONALD PLEASENCE), who plays his role with maniacal glee and an evil squint in his eyes. The plot pits Heston, the woman and the boy against these intruders intent on holding them hostage while his sons have their way with Hackett.

CHARLTON HESTON and JOAN HACKETT both give strong, believable performances under Tom Gries' direction--and I understand Heston considers it one of his favorite roles. LEE MAJORS, BEN JOHNSON and SLIM PICKENS round out the supporting cast.

The climactic scenes have the sort of resolution that reminds one of SHANE, another great western about a loner who decides he has to be true to his own nature, leaving the story without the usual conventional Hollywood ending.

Well worth watching.

Slightly married with boy, and aging illiterate cowpoke weigh their chances as a family

[weezeralfalfa · 5/10 · 12 June 2013]

If you were a mid-19th century Ohio farmer with a wife and half-grown boy and you were moving to Oregon to homestead, would you go ahead alone to 'get things started' and arrange for your wife and boy to come later via the 6 month long Oregon Trail, with an unfamiliar male guide/companion, not part of a wagon train, starting late in the warm season, so that a winter stay over in some unknown place was essential for survival? I didn't think so! That was the story cowpoke Will Penny(Charlton Heston) got as he recovered from a bad beating and wound, in his ranch line rider's cabin, illegally occupied by Catherine Allen(Joan Hackett) and her boy H.G.(Buttons).(How did they happen upon this remote cabin, anyway?). They hoped to spend the winter there, having been abandoned by their guide, who had unwisely been prepaid for his duty and didn't fancy spending the winter in some unknown primitive place of refuge. If I were Will, I would assume either that her husband was a complete idiot, was purely fictional, or didn't care a hoot if he ever saw his wife and son again. Unlike cowpokes and miners, homesteaders needed their wife and any children to help shoulder the chores. Thus, the story about him going ahead to 'get things started' makes no practical sense! One time, she said she was heading for CA, but other times it was Oregon!?

As his boss(Ben Johnson as Alex) later pointed out, rather than deciding to spend the winter in this cabin with this married woman, shirking his duty as a line rider, Will should have brought her to the ranch house and discussed her predicament with the boss. Will wasn't too bright in deciding about such situations. Catherine came across as a shy depressive woman who did what her husband said, whether or not it seemed to make any sense...By the way, after they began to warm up to each other, Catherine lets it slip that she's not really married! Then, a few minutes later she says "My husband....". Make up your mind, woman! Sounds like she's only a common law wife or maybe a widow. Thus, it might be easy for her and Will to form a more permanent pair, forgetting about her 'husband'. Unfortunately, Will argued that, as an aging illiterate who only knew how to be a cowpoke and had no family to help, he would make an inadequate breadwinner for her and her boy. I say he should have tried to make a go of it regardless, and if it didn't work out, they could split. How was Will expecting to survive alone when his body could no longer take being a cowpoke? I say he also made a mistake in turning down his understanding boss's offer to continue his winter job as a line rider, despite his miserable previous performance.

Very unclear to me where this story supposedly takes place. Will says they drove the cattle herd 'up' from Texas to this lonely rail head. Such were mostly in Kansas. They discuss whether they want to horse ride or take the train to Kansas City, which is on the eastern border of Kansas. Clearly, they are at some point near the Oregin Trail, which went through KS NE, and southern WY. Yet, we often see rather high snow-capped mountains(presumably , the on-location Sierra Nevada or Inyo mountains) in the background! This can't be Kansas or Nebraska! In any case, the cinematography was very good throughout.

The Quint family adversaries much remind me of the Cleggs father plus 3 sons desperados who harassed the wagon train in John Ford's previous "Wagon Master". No clue what was the Quint's purpose in riding around in this wilderness. Maybe rustlers or looking for strays like Penny and Catherine to rob. Ironic that the fracas over who shoot the elk resulted in one man shot dead and another nearly died, yet the elk carcass was left unused by either party! This very unlikely incident set the tone for the rest of the film. Blue and Dutch, Penny's riding partners during this incident. again show up to help Penny during his 3rd and last encounter with the Quints: another very unlikely coincidence. Why did the Quints show up at the line rider's cabin a few months after they left Penny for good-as-dead nearby? Their earlier stabbing of Penny's bad wound with a hot stick, meant to increase his pain, likely cauterized the bleeding, helping to save his life! Yes, cold weather, as suggested, does tend to render serious wounds less lethal. This fact is emphasized in the book "Miracle in the Andes"

What was that bag of sulfur dust Penny used to flush out the Quints doing at the line rider's cabin? Maybe treat cattle wounds? Anyway, it was a cute trick. ..Despite Catherine being a farm woman, Will finds it impossible to explain what buffalo and cow chips are!

For a film with a more believable plot and details and a more optimistic ending, try "The Mountain Men", where Heston plays a basically very similar character who hooks up with a squaw in trouble, they riding off together in the end despite no clear means of future support. For even more sinister characters than the Quints, try "Mother Lode", where Heston plays the psychopathic twin McGee hermit miners. Heston's son was the screen writer for both those films.

a forgotten classic

[MichaelM24 · 19 June 2002]

Not many people think of WILL PENNY when they think of the great westerns, but it certainly deserves to be remembered. A simple tale of an aging cowboy (Charlton Heston) being nursed back to health by a woman (Joan Hackett), and then having to protect her and her young son (Jon Gries, son of the director) from the slimy characters who left him to die, the film is headlined by a wonderful, understated performance from screen veteran Heston, undoubtedly one of his finest. Joan Hackett also gives a great, if somehow delicate, performance. Donald Pleasence is a delight as always as the sadistic Preacher Quint, and there's good support from Lee Majors (in his major film role), Anthony Zerbe and Ben Johnson (both of whom, sadly, never really get to do much), character actor Slim Pickens in a small role, and Bruce Dern in one of his countless villain parts. And Gries is good as the boy.

The cinematography is beautiful, especially once the story moves to the snow-covered terrain where much of the film plays out. A little slow at first, but the pacing soon picks up and moves nicely. My only complaint is that the film's score is at times overbearing and distracting, but not enough to ruin the enjoyment of the film. All together, a fine little gem of a movie that should be remembered if AFI ever does a 100 Greatest Westerns special.

Intelligent Western.

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 7 September 2013]

Charlton Heston plays the title character, an aging cowboy who finds himself broke, so accepts a job as a lineman on a cattle ranch. On a routine run, he discovers a young mother and her son, who have(unknowingly) taken shelter in his cabin. Rather than throw them out, he lets them stay, and finds himself slowly falling in love with her, though this romance is threatened by the arrival of a homicidal preacher and his lecherous sons, who had previously attacked Will and left him for dead. Will resolves to get rid of these lunatics, once and for all...

Heston is excellent as Penny, a man who let a traditional family life slip him by and knows it, but feels too old to change. Donald Pleasance is quite menacing as the crazy preacher, though that subplot does throw some of the carefully established dramatic flow off balance on their return. Still, Tom Gries does an admirable job with character and atmosphere in this solid western.

Thoughtful and well-made western

[LouE15 · 7/10 · 16 June 2007]

Anyone whose overriding impression of Charlton "From My Cold Dead Hands" Heston is of a rather sadly outdated, bullish conservative, might find much to admire and wonder at in this quiet, surprisingly good western. I'd never even heard of it when it popped up on British TV here recently, but I was riveted.

I like thoughtful westerns that give time to explore what being a man is, what being manly is: instead of it being a given, at the start of the film, the exploration IS the film. The best westerns always explore this in a sensitive and complicated way, and "Will Penny" is certainly one of them.

Heston's Will Penny is illiterate, a working man without much to hope or fear. But he knows what he is and is not, and his self-knowledge gives him a certain quiet nobility, aided beautifully by Heston's marvellous profile. But his only future is the next job, if he's lucky, and that isn't much. Heston shows great skill in making this believable.

On his way to another job, Penny crosses a truly horrible family, and later, runs into a vulnerable woman, Catherine Allen (Joan Hackett) on her way west with her son. He gets work on a ranch as a line rider, only to run into both the family and the woman again, with results that will test him in ways he's never really been tested before. The time the film takes to explore both his journey and his development is nicely played out and well spent, the story neither overly knowing nor embarrassingly innocent. The characters are serious and thought-through (possibly excepting the crazy scary man and his vile sons, classic dyed-in-the-wool baddies, inserted for dramatic tension). By the time the leisurely story has got both Will and Catherine embroiled, you really care about both of them.

It's a testament to the luminous Joan Hackett's acting skill that she does so much with relatively little screen time. The way her character is painted reminds me of Janice Rule in "Invitation to a Gunfighter", and I agree with the reviewer from Perth who talked about Brando's "One Eyed Jacks" – another great overlooked oddball 'western' with a similarly radiant and largely unknown female star. (You might also want to check out "Eagle's Wing" for the 70s revisionist take.)

"Will Penny" seems now to be very much ahead of its time, both in its thoughtful script and its realism. And as for Mr Heston, redemption indeed, bravo.

The Lonely Rider

[wes-connors · 6/10 · 8 June 2010]

Middle-aged Montana cowboy Charlton Heston (as Will Penny) and his two young partners, Lee Majors (as Blue) and Anthony Zerbe (as Dutchy), are attacked by maniacal preacher Donald Pleasence (as Quint) while hunting elk. A gunfight wounds Mr. Zerbe; but, when Mr. Heston kills one of Mr. Pleasence's brood, Pleasance and wacky son Bruce Dern (as Rafe) plan a terrifying revenge. Heston cools his heels with headstrong Joan Hackett (as Catherine Allen) and her preteen son Jon Francis (as Horace).

Gap-toothed young Francis is Jon Gries, the son of (then mostly) TV series writer/director Tom Gries, who does a fine job with Heston, outdoor photographer Lucien Ballard, and his cast. The film seems to be going somewhere special when focusing on the relationship between Ms. Hackett and Heston. When the villains arrive, the tone becomes more ordinary, though never completely a letdown. An conceptually interesting ending leaves too much unsaid, and "The Lonely Rider" song lyrics don't help.

****** Will Penny (2/16/68) Tom Gries ~ Charlton Heston, Joan Hackett, Donald Pleasence, Jon Gries

Very good film

[boardwalk_angel · 8/10 · 4 May 2005]

This is a good, good movie..underrated & under appreciated....and somewhat largely unseen. Never a Heston fan....I was very pleasantly surprised & taken by his "Will"....he gives a fine, understated performance as the aging loner just looking for his next job..to get through the winter till he can hook up with a cattle drive in the spring. Heston is excellent, free of the melodramatics & overacting found in some of his other work. Will is an aging cowboy, a loner, an illiterate, faced with the prospects of a dim future. He is someone who realizes that he can't do anything else but what he has been doing all his life..he punches cattle because it's the only thing he's ever done, and the only thing he knows how to do......even as railroad tracks laid on the prairie indicate that time may be running out for the cowboy way of life. Nearing fifty, he has never learned to read or write, and existed moving from one job to the next...

Along the way..there's a chance encounter w/ Quint ....the psycho preacher and his degenerate sons, Rafe , Rufus , & Romulus..featuring Donald Pleasance in a maniacal..over the top performance.., & Bruce Dern as one of his loony sons. These guys could give the Hammond Brothers ("Ride the High Country") a run for their money.

There's also Joan Hackett, in a lovely, subtle, yet solid performance as Catherine Allen , a woman travelling across country w/ her young son, in search of her husband, who had gone on ahead ...through whom Will sees a life he never had..& never thought possible. The film is notable in that it presents not at all a romantic image of the West..Cowpunching not being a glamorous profession....not a lot of 'Yeehas' here... it's a life of solitude and hard work.. The work is brutal..., hired one day and out of work the next....... Yes..there is action..fistfights..gunplay & violence...but the first fistfight..shows us the kind of territory we're in...get it on..get it over with.. Here we see the kind of people who must really have inhabited the West..cowpunchers,.families looking for a better life... (sure, there were bounty hunters, bank robbers, marshalls...shootouts at High Noon..the OK Corral etc.) .....but this is more of a character study of people very much like us. In one of the gunfights...a cowboy sustains a bullet wound in a way that's atypical of western movies..but probably pretty typical of the real West.

Another nice touch is the "town" Will, Blue, & Dutchy ride into...many "towns" really did consist of nothing more than a couple of buildings ..a few shacks and a tent. The direction was superb; Lucien Ballard's cinematography added to the splendor of the story. ..filmed in the glorious Inyo Mountains of California.

The music in the movie is mostly uninspired , although by no means terrible or distracting..

Some fine, familiar character actors are here.. the can't be anything but great Ben Johnson appears as the top hand at the ranch where Will takes a job riding line... William Schallert, Clifton James, and Anthony Zerbe all deliver good performances. Lee Majors is passable.

In short.."Will Penny" is a film that deserves to be seen & enjoyed.. & savored.

Realistic Western about an Aging Cowboy's Last Chance at Love & Family

[Wuchakk · 7/10 · 14 March 2014]

Charlton Heston stars as loner Will Penny, an aging cowboy who takes a winter job riding line on a vast ranch. He runs afoul of a family of psychotic rawhiders while discovering love and a sense of family for the first time in his nigh fifty years of life.

"Will Penny" (1967) gives the viewer a good peek at what it must have been like to be a cowboy out West in the late 1800s. Needless to say, the lifestyle is anything but glamorous.

Most everything works great here: locations, cast, story, writing, etc. With three exceptions: The score is boring & dated. In the 60s there were numerous great Western scores that stood the test of time ("Duel at Diablo," "Bandolero!," "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," "MacKenna's Gold" and "The Magnificent Seven," to name a few), but the score to "Penny" is a badly-aged dud. Yet it DOES fit the film's theme.

Also, the villains are somewhat contrived. Donald Pleasence is impressive as the over-the-top psycho patriarch of the rawhiding family and Bruce Dern is always reliable as a villain, but -- I don't know -- this whole side plot just seems tacked on to supply action and menace to a story that might have been better without it.

The heart of the story is Penny's discovery of love & family. It's implied in the story that he was an orphan as a child and simply fell into the loner cowboy lifestyle to survive. He has never known true love or had a real sense of family. Before meeting Joan Hackett's character, his experiences with women were limited to shallow hook-ups with prostitutes.

Penny learns he has a knack for fatherhood and likes it. The boy clearly looks up to him and loves him.

It's almost as if God sees Penny's noble character through all the grime and gruff cowboy exterior and throws him a pot of gold in the form of the love of Catherine and her boy. Will he take advantage of this opportunity of happiness and fulfillment, despite the risks? Will he even recognize it as an opportunity? Unfortunately, the ending leaves a sour taste.

So I detract points for the pizazz-less score, the forced villain subplot and the ending. Otherwise this is a worthwhile Western, similar to "Monte Walsh" with Lee Marvin and Jack Palance that debuted a few years later.

The film runs 1 Hour, 50 minutes, and was shot in Bishop & Inyo County, California.

GRADE: B.

Existential epic...

[poe426 · 10/10 · 12 August 2002]

Charlton Heston's saddle-sore cowpuncher is one of the most understated-and underrated- performances in an outstanding career: he's a man nearing the end of the proverbial ride, and he's all too aware of it. He questions his choices, he makes mistakes... but he plugs stubbornly on. Makes more mistakes. Moves on. There are only a handful of unglamorous but wistful westerns that ring true due to character: WILL PENNY is one of the best of them. It's amazing that this low-key classic was done around the time of PLANET OF THE APES (which boasts a tour de force performance by Heston): the difference in the characters (both of whom are rendered believably, with the craft of a consummate professional) only points up the amazing range of this superstar. ALWAYS interesting, even in bit parts, Charlton Heston never failed to rise to the occasion... or to come back down to earth when the situation warranted it.

Sensitively Told Adult Western

[romanorum1 · 7/10 · 15 July 2015]

It is the late fall of an unspecified year, but the 1880s seems about the right decade. Cowpuncher Will Penny (Charlton Heston), nearing fifty years of age, has just finished bringing in a herd of cattle. A loner, he is set in his ways but is also decent. As he is illiterate he makes his X-mark on a voucher while drawing out his last pay for the company. Just before winter sets in, Penny's experience has earned him a job of riding line for the Flat Iron Ranch, a large cattle outfit. His new work entails picking up stray cattle and keeping alert for potential range rustlers. To his dismay he finds his allotted line cabin is occupied by a woman (Catherine Allen = Joan Hackett) and her young son Horace ("Button" = Jon Gries). Penny had met them earlier at a rest stop; they have since been abandoned by a shifty man who was previously paid to guide them to California. Unable to turn them out to the mercy of the elements, the sensitive Penny allows them to stay a little longer.

Because of an earlier confrontation, Penny is ambushed, thoroughly beaten, and left to die by murderous, insane, Bible-quoting preacher Quint (Donald Pleasence) and his sons Rafe (Bruce Dern) and Rufus (Gene Rutherford). Nevertheless, the strong-willed Penny is able to stagger to his cabin in cold weather. There the cowboy is nursed back to health by the "somewhat married" Catherine. Over time a growing (unhurried) attachment develops among Catherine, Will, and Horace. At Christmas time the three even have a modest tree and sing some holiday songs. But as the looming Quints are still sniffing around, an action finale is forecast.

Charlton Heston and Joan Hackett compliment each other superbly, while the California cinematography (especially the bleakness of the snow-covered terrain) and screenplay are all very well done. There is nice backup by supporting roles, like those of Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Anthony Zerbe, and Lee Majors. Although Joan Hackett looks a bit too clean, this film might have been representative of the real West of the nineteenth century: rugged, dusty, and harsh.

Understated, undervalued and possibly under seen?

[hitchcockthelegend · 8/10 · 9 March 2010]

Charlton Heston stars as Will Penny, an ageing cowpuncher down on his luck and practically broke. After finding a spot of work down on the Flat Iron, Penny falls foul of some outlaws led by maniacal preacher Quint {Donald Pleasence}. They rob him and leave him for dead but he manages to find his way to a lineman's cabin where he is cared for by Catherine {Joan Hackett}, who is heading west with her young son to be reunited with her husband. Here Penny comes to learn things about himself, as does Catherine, but their relationship is not the only thing of concern to them. For Quint and his brood are coming back to finish what they started.

As widely reported these days, this was one of Heston's favourite roles. Which is not hard to believe since it is one of his finest and most earnest performances from what was a long and successful career. Directed and written by Tom Gries {who refused to sell the rights to his story unless he could direct}, Will Penny is an understated Western {Re;cowboy movie for those that need to distinguish the two} that shines because it relies on strength of story over histrionics and a pandering to the norm. This is no ode to the wild west, a time of gunslingers fighting it out and riding off into the sunset with the dame. This is the nitty gritty west, where cowboys are actually that, cowboys, working with beef so that they can afford to eat and perhaps enjoy a jar of throat stripper by way of a reward for their graft.

It's also refreshing to find a romance within the genre that is believable and not thrust upon us like some form of necessity. The relationship, and in fact the three family dynamic at the core of the film, is expertly written, not rushed or underdeveloped, and, crucially, not hurt by the bold and correct ending that Gries delivers. Hackett gives a lovely subtle turn opposite Heston, in a role that was turned down by a host of prominent female actresses at the time. Fine support comes from Pleasence {rightly overacting the role}, Ben Johnson, Lee Majors, Bruce Dern, Anthony Zerbe and Slim Pickens. While Lucien Ballard's cinematography is lucid and adds splendour to the moving story. I can't say that David Raksin's score totally works, since it at times feels like it belongs in some Universal Pictures creature feature! But it's a minor issue in what is an elegant Western that deserves, no, demands, to be sought out by more people. 8/10

Good in spots, rough in spots

[ThomasColquith · 4/10 · 29 January 2023]

"Will Penny" is a famous western film that I recently revisited. I remembered the best parts from seeing it years ago, however there are many parts of this film that are not very good. It leaves one with very mixed feelings about the film overall. The second half is decidedly better than the first. The film is at its finest when focused on the interactions between Charlton Heston and the woman (Joan Hackett) and the boy. There is a lot to like there, but unfortunately a lot of the remainder of the runtime is not so good and tough to watch and care about. Though the musical score and scenery are good. So, all in all it is a difficult film to rate, I fast forwarded some of the slow meandering parts, especially in the first half; I didn't like the other secondary characters; but the ending was good I thought. I'll rate it a 4/10 I guess.