This typical early eighties western, shot in the shadow of HEAVEN's GATE, is made in a different way from the Gordon Douglas's version of 1949, DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA,thirty years earlier, but it matches it. I like both, this one shows tenderness and light heart too. Lancaster is as usual excellent as the aging outlaw.

Robert Ward and David Eyre adapted Ward's fictionalized book about two true-life outlaw women who headed west from Oklahoma in the 1890s and attached themselves to the Doolin-Dalton gang, who had given up robbing trains and moved on to robbing banks. Undistinguished western has corny dialogue thick with purple prose and is blanketed with generic bluegrass music. Burt Lancaster as Bill Doolin faces off against Rod Steiger as vigilant U.S. marshal Bill Tilghman, and their combined charisma gives the movie whatever personality it has, the ladies of the title being negligible. As mercurial Annie, Amanda Plummer (in her film debut) has an eccentric quality that fails to engage the audience; with her mop of untamed hair, her wild eyes and wise-old-lady speaking voice, she's a human tumbleweed. It takes over an hour into the proceedings for Diane Lane's baby-faced Jenny to exhibit some sign of life; too modern for this scenario, it's easy to forget she's even in the picture. Lamont Johnson directed, erratically. Film improves in its second-half, but the tone of the movie is off. It has elegiac qualities that aren't used to bolster the narrative, which Johnson then drops entirely for a more standard, upbeat western-genre feel. *1/2 from ****

Cattle Annie and Little Britches is directed by Lamont Johnson and Robert Ward co-adapts the screenplay with David Eyre from his own novel of the same name. It stars Burt Lancaster, Amanda Plummer, John Savage, Diane Lane, Rod Steiger, Scott Glenn and Buck Taylor. Music is by Sahn Berti and Tom Slocum and cinematography by Larry Pizer.

A strange Oater, one that's high on promise via its cast list and premise, but ultimately ends up unfulfilling. Story is based around how two teenage girls - fascinated by tales of outlaw's movements - hook up with the remnants of the Doolin-Dalton gang and inspire them to attempt former glories. Naturally it's all historically dubious and is bogged down by its derivative nature, while the quirky parodic blend of drama and cheery never sits comfortably, the later of which compounded by a string based score that would be more at home with Hanna-Barbera.

Mixed notices upon release are perfectly understandable given that Lancaster and Steiger offer fine presence to the play, and Plummer is electric on debut, but the chance for something more wistfully potent is sadly wasted. 5/10