The White Buffalo *** (1977, Charles Bronson, Jack Warden, Will Sampson, Kim Novak, Clint Walker, Stuart Whitman, John Carradine, Slim Pickens) – Classic Movie Review 7105

Director J Lee Thompson’s intriguingly bizarre 1977 symbolic Western The White Buffalo stars Charles Bronson in one of his better roles as the haunted, dying Wild Bill Hickok, who is stalking a murderous white buffalo seen only in his dreams, or rather nightmares.

Will Sampson plays the grieving Chief Crazy Horse, who is on the warpath after the white buffalo has killed his daughter, and teams up with Wild Bill to hunt down the supernatural monster of a buffalo.

The White Buffalo’s ambitions are not all fulfilled, but it certainly involves and lingers in the mind, and it is good to see Bronson flexing his intellectual muscles.

Sampson and the support cast are excellent, and it is also good to have Kim Novak back in a movie after a long gap, playing Poker Jenny Schermerhorn, as well as Jack Warden, Clint Walker, Stuart Whitman, John Carradine, Slim Pickens, Cara Williams, Douglas Fowley, Shay Duffin and Ed Lauter.

Richard Sale adapts his own novel. Bronson and Sale went on to make Assassination (1987) together, Sale’s final work.

Also in the cast are Cliff Pellow, Martin Kove, actor Scott Walker (1922–1988), Richard Gilliland, David Roy Chandler, Douglas Hume and Eve Brent.

The White Buffalo is directed by J Lee Thompson, runs 97 minutes, is made by Dino De Laurentiis Company, is released by United Artists, is written by Richard Sale, based on his own novel, is shot in Technicolor by Paul Lohmann, is produced by Pancho Kohner and scored by John Barry.

Clint Walker (1927–2018).

The 6′ 6″ Clint Walker, who plays Whistling Jack Kileen, died on 21 May 2018, aged 90. Clint Walker is for ever Cheyenne Bodie in the classic 1950s Western TV show Cheyenne (1955-1962), but he also  appeared in The Dirty Dozen (1967), The Night of the Grizzly (1966) and None But the Brave (1965).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7105

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