Billy Two Hats

19741974
PGPG
1h 39m

6.2/10

After a bank robbery, runaway Scottish outlaw Arch Deans and his young half breed Kiowa partner Billy Two Hats develop a father-son relationship but Sheriff Henry Gifford is determined to ca... Read allAfter a bank robbery, runaway Scottish outlaw Arch Deans and his young half breed Kiowa partner Billy Two Hats develop a father-son relationship but Sheriff Henry Gifford is determined to capture or kill them.After a bank robbery, runaway Scottish outlaw Arch Deans and his young half breed Kiowa partner Billy Two Hats develop a father-son relationship but Sheriff Henry Gifford is determined to capture or kill them.

6.2/10

1.3K

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Videos1

Trailer 4:01

Official Trailer

Gregory Peck, Desi Arnaz Jr., and Jack Warden in Billy Two Hats (1974)

Sian Barbara Allen in Billy Two Hats (1974)

Gregory Peck and Desi Arnaz Jr. in Billy Two Hats (1974)

David Huddleston and Jack Warden in Billy Two Hats (1974)

When someone gets killed during a bank robbery by Deans, half-breed Billy Two Hats and their partner, the robbers flee. Sheriff Gifford tracks the robbers, killing one of them and capturing Billy. Deans escapes, but during a successful plot to free Billy from the Sheriff, Deans is shot, leaving him unable to walk or ride a horse. Billy, not wanting to abandon his friend, builds an Indian cot to drag Deans behind the horse. With the Sheriff hot on their trail, Deans and Billy try to stay one step ahead of the many obstacles which threaten their lives and freedom. —E.W. DesMarais <jlongst@aol.com>

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Taglines
- Against the Law...Against the Odds...Against the Land Itself
Genres
- Romance
- Western
Certificate
- PG
Parents guide
- Add content advisory

Trivia
The fact that this was a Western filmed in Israel was fodder for a number of comedians, who dubbed it "Shalom on the Range".

Quotes
Esther Spencer: Billy Two Hats? How did you get a name like that?
Billy Two Hats: Well, my mother was a Kiowa and I don't know who my father was except he was white. My mother didn't know too much about him neither, except she told me he was kind of important. She said that in his room he had two hats - one for special and one for ordinary. That impressed my mother a whole lot. And when I was a kid it impressed me.

Connections
Featured in A New Breed: Ted Kotcheff Remembers Billy Two Hats (2015)

Top review

6/10

Odd But OK...

I saw this film on Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

It seems others have made a virtue out of this film's odd credentials and quite possibly used these against the film itself. On the face of it and if you didn't know (most folks won't, or care) then this is a decent western, with a Sam Peckinpah sense of gritty realism and dynamism.

The story follows a familiar one; an aged Scottish Gregory Peck and a young half-caste youth become fugitives - then friends - after a bungled bank robbery. They are pursued by racist and violent sheriff Jack Warden who hounds the pair, right to the bloody finale. There's good action and the unusual Israeli scenery actually adds a bit of variety to the surroundings.

The interestingly titled Billy 'Two Hats' is given an unusually sympathetic and approachable role, especially considering the western genre's tendency to the opposite toward native American characters. This again, adds to the flavour of the film, giving it a nuance that marks it apart from dozens of others.

I'd not heard of 'Billy Two Hats'; its title got me interested in the TV listings and found it well worth the time and effort but not quite enough to buy it on DVD.

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