IMDb > Sam Whiskey (1969)

Sam Whiskey (1969) More at IMDbPro »


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Overview

User Rating:
5.7/10   315 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 18% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writer:
William W. Norton (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for Sam Whiskey on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
1 April 1969 (USA) more
Genre:
Tagline:
Don't mix with "Sam Whiskey" - It's risky!
Plot:
Sam Whiskey is an all-round talent, but when the attractive widow Laura offers him a job, he hesitates: he shall salvage gold bars... more | add synopsis
User Comments:
More entertaining than it had any right to be more (6 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Burt Reynolds ... Sam Whiskey
Clint Walker ... O. W. Bandy

Ossie Davis ... Jed Hooker
William Schallert ... Mr. Perkins (mint superintendent)

Woodrow Parfrey ... Thorston Bromley (Treasury inspector)
Rick Davis ... The Fat Man
Anthony James ... Cousin Leroy
Del Reeves ... The Fisherman
John Damler ... Hank (night guard at Mint)
Robert Adler ... Pete (night guard at Mint) (as Bob Adler)
Chubby Johnson ... Blacksmith
Ayllene Gibbons ... Big Annie
Sidney Clute
Wallace Earl ... Mrs. Perkins (as Amanda Harley)
William Boyett
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Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated PG-13 for sexual content and some violence. (2005 re-rating)
Runtime:
96 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
Filming Locations:

Fun Stuff

Quotes:
Narrator: General Sherman said, "War is hell." "Worse than that," Sam said, "The pay's bad." more
Soundtrack:
Mary McCarty more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful.
More entertaining than it had any right to be, 9 November 2008
7/10
Author: Webslinger48 from Los Angeles

So I was sick all weekend, bedridden with the flu and flipping through cable when I stumbled upon the Encore Western Channel, which I watched for hour after hour. For some reason, they were playing a triple-shot of Burt Reynolds westerns: Navajo Joe, The Man who Loved Cat Dancing and Sam Whiskey.

Now I grew up in the Eighties so I missed most of Reynolds movies; last year I hunted down and watched many for which he is best known: Smokey and the Bandit (rip-roaring hilarity), Stroker Ace (yuck), Cannonball Run (meh) and Hooper (my all-time favorite, ridiculously entertaining). I thought I had seen all there was to see from ol' Burt, but Sam Whiskey pleasantly surprised me.

This isn't really a western, it's more like a heist movie set on the frontier. I think the reason some of the other reviewers were disappointed by this one was that they were looking for stagecoach robberies, breakneck horseback riding and wide frontier vistas. While there is some of that, for the most part this film revolves around a "reverse-heist;" In this case, Burt and his team played by Ossie Davis(very funny and amiable as a blacksmith) and Clint Walker (imposing hulk of a man who's gentle on the inside) are trying to return some gold to the US mint. They work out a suitably ingenious and ludicrous scheme (the cornerstone for every caper flick) and work it out.

While the proceedings are executed largely for laughs there are surprising amounts of edge-of-your-seat suspense as various curveballs are thrown our heroes' way. I have to admit I laughed out loud probably five times, which was incredible considering how miserable I felt and how much my sore throat hurt WHEN I LAUGHED. But I forgive the movie for this! I like the overall good-natured and almost lackadaisic nature of the pacing. The film keeps moving and is engaging, but by no means is it in any hurry.

So I would recommend this one to all Burt Reynolds fans, all caper movie fans and generally anyone who is willing to give a 40-year-old easygoing movie a chance.

And as an interesting side-note: As if I didn't already realize that I'd watched westerns all weekend -- I thought that actor Clint Walker looked vaguely familiar but couldn't quite place him. They I looked him up on IMDb...he played the icy bad guy in a Charles Bronson western I'd watched earlier in the weekend, "The White Buffalo." I hadn't placed him because it was such a polar opposite role for him. So in his career he's pulled a heist on the Denver Mint with Burt Reynolds and got into a gunfight with Charles Bronson on the frontier. Not too shabby.

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