MADRON

US/Israel, 1970, 93 minutes.
Leslie Caron, Richard Boone.
Directed by Jerry Hopper.

Madron is a western with more than passing similarities to John Huston's Heaven Knows Mr Allison. Leslie Caron is the nun journeying through a patchy territory, Richard Boone is Madron the gunfighter being pursued by the Indians. The Indians and some white gunfighters are the villains.

The film is set in attractive scenery, has action sequences - but is rather drawn out, focusing on the relationship, so unlikely, between the gunfighter and the nun. The film has a score by Ritz Ortolani and is directed by Jerry Hopper, veteran of so many action adventures and comedies at Universal in the '50s.

1.Interesting and different western? Cowboys and Indians? Romance - different?

2.The Indian landscapes, the west? Beauty, menace? The action sequences? Stunt work? Musical score? Theme song?

3.The title and the focus on Madron? A man of the west, Richard Boone's rugged style? His encountering the wagon train, Antoinette? His calling her `Lady' and not understanding what it was to be a nun? Guiding her, their adventures together, the dangers from the Indians, the shooting of the white gunfighters? Treating her as a woman, as a nun? The infatuation, falling in love with her, the romance, the waterhole? His burying her to save her? The final confrontation with the Indians? The motivation, the clash with Red Sand? His death, the memories of Antoinette sustaining him as he died?

4.The nuns, the covered wagon, the massacre by the Indians? The burnt nun? Antoinette surviving? Prim and proper, the rules, the Grand Silence, abstaining from meat on Fridays? The encounter with Madron? Riding through the desert with her pink umbrella? Her explanation of her background, vocation, vows? The dangers, the gunfighters, treating her as a woman, her modesty? Infatuated with Madron, the romance, the waterhole? Buried, emerging like a ghost, frightening the Indians? Her manner, the experience in the west and changing her?

5.The white gunfighters, their treatment of the nun, the confrontation with Madron? His killing them? Angel, his support, capture and torture?

6.The Indians, revenge, brutality? Stalking the white people? The fights? The death of Madron?

7.Conventional western material? The differences with the gunfighter and the nun? A film of the '70s - rather old-fashioned in its ingredients, characterisations, themes?