COLD FEET

US, 1989, 94 minutes, Colour.
Keith Carradine, Sally Kirkland, Tom Waits, Bill Pullman, Rip Torn.
Directed by Robert Dornheim.

Cold Feet is a kind of shaggy dog, shaggy horse western. Co-written by Thomas Mc Guane (Rancho Deluxe, 92 Degrees in the Shade), it is an ambling kind of comic western with touches of irony. Musician Tom Waits gives an engagingly eccentric performance as a killer. Sally Kirkland (Anna) is very good as the hero, Keith Carradine.

The film is a story about thieves who hide jewels in the belly of a horse, the horse being then taken to a farm in Montana. There are various humorous adventures on the road and in Montana. Jeff Bridges makes an unbilled cameo appearance as a bartender. Direction is by Robert Dornheim (Echo Park).

1.Engaging shaggy dog story? Crime? The west?

2. Mexico locations, the open road, the state of Montana? The picture of the American west, the farms? The musical score?

3.The title, the joke? Whose cold feet?

4.The prologue, the horse, Monte, Kenny and Maureen and the vet, the hiding of the emeralds, Kenny killing him?

5.On the road, the plan, Monte taking the horse, the others' reactions, the beginning of the search?

6.Bud and Laura, nice, their farm, the horses, the relationship with Monte, his coming home, bringing the horse, their hopes, his presence with them, Rosemary coming, their looking after her, the preparation for the wedding?

7.Kenny as an engaging mad killer? Driving, the range of his reactions to Maureen, exasperation, his exercise, his points about food, his manias, the postcard to his mother? The plans, the holding up of the children at the survival school? In Montana, buying the boots, throwing them away, getting the map, cutting Monte's ear, asking Rosemary about the horse, the wedding plans and meeting the sheriff, taking Bud, with the guns, the vat, his being pushed in - and his reappearance during the final credits?

8.Maureen as a hooker, her pastel-bright clothes, passion for eating, talking, erratic behaviour during the drive, the fight with the woman at the survival school, the chase looking for Monte at the station, with Kenny, finding Monte, love for him, sex, the proposal, her eating, the build-up to the wedding, her dress? The arrest?

9.Monte and his shrewdness, love for Rosemary, his being on the farm, fear, the gun, the horse and trying to hide it, relationship with Bud and Laura, especially with Laura? The arrival, Kenny and the cut, Maureen and the sex, the build-up to the wedding, the arrest?

10.The sketch of the sheriff, his shrewdness, his posing as the minister, arriving to do the wedding, his marrying them, arresting them? The store manager and his assistant, selling the boots, recovering them, phoning the sheriff?

11.The wit, the ironies? Humour in the west? The justice tongue-in-cheek ending?