Billy Two Hats *** (1974, Gregory Peck, Desi Arnaz Jr, Jack Warden, David Huddleston) – Classic Movie Review 11,886

Director Ted Kotcheff’s 1974 Western film Billy Two Hats stars Gregory Peck, Desi Arnaz Jr, Jack Warden and David Huddleston. Unusually Peck is playing a Scotsman, and it is written by a Scotsman, and even more unusually it is filmed in Israel.

Gregory Peck plays an ageing Scots outlaw called Arch Deans and Desi Arnaz Jnr plays his partner, the young half-Kiowa Indian Billy Two Hats, in this fine Western tale of their fumbled bank robbery and male bonding that was later retitled The Lady and the Outlaw, which isn’t the same film at all.

Scots writer Alan Sharp’s sharp script gives a pleasingly oddball role to Peck, almost hidden by his beard and funny accent. Jack Warden enjoys himself as the nasty lawman, Sheriff Henry Gifford. This low-key but enjoyable Western, filmed uniquely in Israel, is very nicely realised by director Ted Kotcheff and beautifully filmed by Brian West.

It is produced by Norman Jewison, who directed Peck’s 1992 comedy Other People’s Money. Jewison was going to direct.

It takes place in Arizona but is filmed in Israel (and dubbed Shalom on the Range) on the site where King David battled against enemy tribes, while David and Bathsheba, in which Gregory Peck played King David, was shot in Arizona. Billy Two Hats: ‘Well, my mother was a Kiowa and I don’t know who my father was, except he was white. My mother didn’t know too much about him neither, except she told me he was kind of important. She said that in his room he had two hats – one for special and one for ordinary.’

Alan Sharp is the screenwriter of Rob Roy and Ulzana’s Raid.

The cast are Gregory Peck as Arch Deans, Desi Arnaz Jr as Billy Two Hats, Jack Warden as Sheriff Henry Gifford, David Huddleston as Saloon Owner Copeland, Sian Barbara Allen as Esther Spencer, John Pearce as Spencer, Dawn Little Sky as Copeland’s Squaw, W Vincent St Cyr as Indian Leader, Henry Medicine Hat as Indian, Zev Berlinsky as Indian, Antony Scott as Indian and Vic Armstrong as Harry Sweets Bradley.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,886

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