The Shadow of Chikara (1977)

Director:

Earl E. Smith

Writer:

Earl E. Smith (writer)

Genre:

Horror | Western

Plot:

Confederate veterans of the last battle of the Civil War set out to find a hidden treasure: diamonds hidden in a cave...

Plot Keywords:

Diamond | Civil War | Cave | Soldier | Treasure

Cast

Joe Don Baker	...	Wishbone Cutter
Sondra Locke	...	Drucilla Wilcox
Ted Neeley	...	Amos Richmond (Teach)
Joy N. Houck Jr.	...	Half Moon O'Brian (as Joy Houck Jr.)
Dennis Fimple	...	Posey
John Davis Chandler	...	Rafe (as John Chandler)
Grady Wyatt	...	Dancer
Linda Dano	...	Rosalie Cutter
Slim Pickens	...	Virgil Cane
Robert Ginnivan	...	Confederate Officer (as Robert Ginnaven)
Bud Davis	...	Maj. Lee Blackburn
Roger Manning	...	Yankee Officer
Coy Kelly	...	Sentry
Kerry Smith	...	Barmaid
Don Kellams	...	Bartender

Also Known As:

Demon Mountain
Diamond Mountain (USA) (alternative title)
Shadow Mountain (USA) (reissue title)
The Ballad of Virgil Cane
The Curse of Demon Mountain
Thunder Mountain
Wishbone Cutter

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:PG | Australia:M | USA:PG | Norway:16

Filming Locations:

Arkansas, USA

Company:

AVCO Embassy Pictures

Soundtrack:

The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down

Uh ... Is This Movie For Real?

This is perhaps the most interesting & disturbing film I have seen in a couple years. Interesting because there is a fantastic idea here and a certain amount of novelty in it's look + mood. And disturbing because the film apparently shows a scene of such barbaric cruelty to some of the animals used in it's filming that it stopped the fun cold dead in it's tracks. The story managed to re-interest me in time for the conclusion but it is little wonder to me that Paramount "shelved" the project, or at least quietly distanced themselves from it. I am not sure if it's a a bad movie, a good movie or a stupid movie, but it is fascinating.

THE PLOT: Mutton-chopped Confederate captain Joe Don Baker and his faithful mystic half-breed Injun scout ("Half Moon"?? c'mon) survive the Civil War to go in search of a hidden cache of diamonds secreted in a haunted cave on a "cursed" mountain that has a history of general weirdness about it. On the way they collect Jesus Christ: Superstar (yes Ted Neeley, who shaved in time to be in the movie) to act as their geology expert, and rescue cinema waif Sandra Locke from the same fate that Clint Eastwood saved her from a year earlier in OUTLAW JOSEY WALES. She even reprises her role: potential gang rape victim/white slave prisoner (her name is "Drusilla", one usually associated with Roman Slave Girls) stumbling around the west in search of anti-hero types to save her. She finds some.

The motley band of explorers make their way up the foreboding mountain -- meeting up with your requisite DELIVERANCE "bushwacker" cannibal mutated hicks upon the way, one of whom is even a mute who plays a musical instrument rather than speaking -- while dodging attacks from unseen hostile Injun warriors who have declared the mountain sacred. You get the picture, and my hat's off to the fellow commenter who stated that it's PREDATOR without the slack-jawed comments from Republican governors. But also like PREDATOR the film twists and mixes motifs from different genres: War, High Adventure, Western, Romance, Drama, Social Satire, and eventually Horror. The ending is *VERY* effective & creepy, with Sandra Locke in her best screen moments ever, a potentially meaningless statement from me since I usually cannot stand her. She is better here than in THE GAUNTLET, if that is any comparison.

So anyway they search for treasure, fight off mystical Injun demon braves, everybody falls in love with Ms. Locke (except for Half Moon the half-breed, of course, which is odd since he is the one whom she instantly identifies with & is most suited for as a mate) but THANK GOODNESS!! :D this movie was made during the pessimistic, paranoid 1970's and the film concludes with as creepy of an ending as you can ask for. In fact, if it wasn't for the presence of one single sequence from the movie -- which is sadly too vital to the plot to be removed without throwing the logic of the film into the gutter -- I would rate this as a near miss mini masterpiece of alternative cinema waiting to be re-discovered by people who enjoy daring, adventuresome low budget 1970's cinema. Here is what happens:

Without spoiling any developments, the film is of course set on a mountain, meaning it has some vertical lift & expected cliff faces. At one point somebody is done away with by having him tumble over the side of the mountain to crash lifelessly on the valley below, presumably in the form of a mannequin or dummy shown on camera. All well and fine, except that the guy was leading a team of horses, who also go over the edge to crash on the valley floor below. I certainly do not know exactly how the sequence was staged, but you do not have to be a rocket surgeon to conclude that those were actual horsies (hopefully deceased before being pushed over) smashing onto the valley floor along with the dummy of the actor. You cannot just whip up a horse mannequin, and certainly not THREE of them. And even if they were cadavers of horses that were used (how sick is that??) it is still extremely disturbing to see their twisting, contorting forms smash into the ground just to get a really cool looking effects shot.

The event is so disturbing that it overwhelms the ridiculous use of "The Night The Drove Old Dixie Down" by The Band, performed by The Band, during a battle scene montage depicting the South losing the war. I wonder how the deal to include the song in the film was struck, and if the producers promised Robbie Robertson personally that the song would be used in the most gratuitous manner possible within the first ten minutes of the film or something like that. Granted that the purpose of using it was to help sell tickets and LPs rather than to save the world, so fortunately it's a good enough song & well edited montage to allow a pass for bad taste, or poor judgment.

But the horses thing ...I cannot get over it and would point to both potential soundtrack rights issues over The Band's song along with the exploitational use of animals without a "no-harm" disclaimer at the conclusion as the primary reasons no responsible media company is interested in reviving this movie. To make matters worse the "public domain" prints available on DVD (look for it on the "50 Gunslinger Classics" box set at Amazon.com) show an edited full-frame AND time compressed TV version which looks like it was transferred to home video by the Muppets. But it's also another one of those movies that you sort of have to see for yourself to believe it was actually made at all, and again I am not sure if it sucks or is good or just stupid, but it is fascinating.

6/10