Killers Three **½ (1968, Robert Walker Jr, Dick Clark, Diane Varsi) – Classic Movie Review 5375

Director Bruce Kessler’s intense and involving 1968 western crime drama stars Robert Walker Jr and Dick Clark, who play ex-con Johnny Warder and Roger, backwoodsmen from North Carolina, who rob a bootlegger’s safe with Johnny’s wife, Carol Warder (Diane Varsi).

The robbery goes wrong, and they end up killing a law enforcement officer and Carol’s sheriff brother Charlie (Merle Haggard), and head for California. Roger is Johnny’s former Army buddy, with a helpful expertise in explosives.

Clark also produces and writes the screenplay with Michael Fisher.

Also in the cast are Norman Alden, Maureen Arthur, Tony York, Merle Haggard and Bonnie Owens.

The soundtrack album features country singers Merle Haggard, Bonnie Owens Kay Adams, and Jack Clement.

It is made by Dick Clark Productions and was released by American International Pictures in November 1968 and again in 1972 in a double bill with Martin Scorsese’s Boxcar Bertha (1972) starring Barbara Hershey and David Carradine.

Country music legend Merle Haggard not only appears as the sheriff but also sings his sings his own compositions, including the hit title number ‘Mama Tried’, originally written as the film’s theme song. He died of pneumonia on his birthday, 6 April 2016, age 79.

Dick Clark (1929–2012): ‘For now, Dick Clark — so long!’

Robert Walker Jr is the son of actors Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones, born on 14 April 1940.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5375

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Dick Clark Productions.