There are revisionist westerns... and then there are what might be called vivisectionist westerns: prairie adventures harsh and brutal, particularized by shootings, stabbings, burnings, beatings, mutilation, and the wholesale slaughter of men, women, children, and animals. Unlike the critical kudos awarded Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969), no one stood up to defend Don Medford's The Hunting Party (1971). The tale of an outlaw who kidnaps the wife of a Texas cattle baron and asks her to teach him to read even as the gang is hunted down by the rancher's posse, the production had been slated as a vehicle for married actors Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom - whose pending divorce (not finalized until 1972) necessitated recasting. Fresh from his torturous experience filming The Devils (1971) for Ken Russell, Oliver Reed headed to the deserts of Almeria, Spain, to play illiterate bandit Frank Calder opposite Candice Bergen as Melissa Ruger, the mistreated housewife whom he mistakes for a school teacher, and Gene Hackman (in his first role post-The French Connection) as the sadistic Brant Ruger. In her 1984 memoirs, Bergen maintained that Reed stayed in character on location, behaving as badly as a wanted man might in polite company, and demanding from her an off-camera sexual relationship to match that shared by their characters; when Bergen demurred, Reed cut off all nonessential contact with her, referring to Bergen for the duration of filming as "the Girl."

By Richard Harland Smith