It's not as if Willie is over there

Another of the movies that I had the chance to DVR during one of the free preview weekends was Tell Them Willie Boy is Here. StarzEncore Westerns runs the movies they have the rights to a lot, so it's got a couple of airings coming up tomorrow, one overnight at 2:57 AM and a second at 4:32 PM.

Robert Blake plays Willie, a Paiute Indian who is returning to the reservation where he grew up in San Bernadino County, California in 1909. California hadn't grown anywhere near to the extent that it is now, but change was definitely coming to the place, and one of the plot points deals with President Taft's upcoming visit to the area and the notion that any man with a gun who was determined enough could assassinate him -- McKinley's assassination was still fresh in people's minds.

Not that Willie is thinking about the president, however. He's come back to the reservation, managed from the Bureau of Indian Affairs by Dr. Elizabeth Arnold (Susan Clark), because there's a young woman he loves, Lola (Katharine Ross). There's a problem, however, which is that Lola's father most definitely does not like Willie and doesn't want Willie to see Lola, much less think about asking for her hand in marriage.

So what does Willie do? Kill Lola's father in self-defense and start running across the desert of that part of California with Lola in tow. Obviously, the Sheriff, Frank Wilson (Charles McGraw), has to find Willie, since with the president coming there's the possibility for mayhem, even if that's not in Willie's mind. The police have no way of knowing until the capture Willie that the killing was in self-defense.

Sheriff's deputy Christopher Cooper (Robert Redford) leads the posse that goes after Willie, and even though he may have some respect for Willie, he still has to do his duty knowing that it's not going to be easy. Indeed, Willie is even able to shoot several of the posse members' horses before eventually reaching the top of a mountain where he's going to make his last stand.

Tell Them Willie Boy is Here is relatively slow going until after the shooting and the the chase begins, at which point it turns into one of the western formulas that we all know. Not that the movie is bad by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it's more than solid entertainment, with both Redford and Blake doing well and a couple of surprising twists along the way. It's also based on a true story.

Tell Them Willie Boy is Here wouldn't be my first choice of a western to try to get people interested in the genre, but for people who like westerns, there's definitely a lot to like here.