Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here

Plot synopsis:
The film's story revolves around the Paiute Indian outlaw Willie Boy (Robert Blake), who escapes with his lover, Lola (Katharine Ross), after killing her father in self defense. According to tribal custom Willie can then claim Lola as his wife. According to the law, Deputy Sheriff Cooper (Robert Redford) is required to charge him with murder.
Willie Boy and Lola are hunted for several days by a posse led by Cooper. Willie manages to repel the posse’s advance when he ambushes them from the top of Ruby Mountain. He only tries to shoot their horses, but ends up accidentally killing a bounty hunter, resulting in another murder charge.
Days later, as the posse closes in, Lola dies by a gunshot wound to the chest. It is left deliberately ambiguous whether Lola shot herself in order to slow down the posse's advance or whether Willie killed her to keep her out of the posse's hands. Cooper is inclined to believe the latter and then goes off ahead of the posse to bring in Willie dead or alive. As soon as Cooper catches up, he comes under fire from Willie, who is positioned at the top of Ruby Mountain. Cooper narrowly avoids being shot on several occasions.
In the film's climax, Cooper maneuvers behind Willie, who has donned a ghost shirt, and tells him he can turn around if he wants to, which he does. The two pause before Willie raises his rifle at Cooper, who beats him to the draw and shoots him. Fatally struck in the chest, Willie tumbles down the hillside. Cooper picks up Willie’s gun and finds that it wasn't even loaded, making it apparent that Willie deliberately chose death over capture. Abashed, Cooper carries the slain outlaw the rest of the way down Ruby Mountain and delivers him to other Paiutes, who carry the corpse away and burn the remains.
When confronted by the county sheriff, Cooper is told that the burning of Willie's body will ruin the people's chance to see Willie in the (now-dead) flesh, denying them the ability "to see something". Cooper retorts: "Tell them we're all out of souvenirs".

Tags: violence, murder

Review:
The film's four leads are excellent: Robert Redford is a wise and humane Coop, the sherriff obliged to lead the inappropriate manhunt: Robert Blake is perfect as the nihilistic, elemental Willie: Doctor Elizabeth Arnold is played by Susan Clark, developing nicely the ambivolence of a woman who needs Coop sexually but despises herself for it: Katharine Ross is the spry, athletic Lola, the young indian girl who becomes Willie's 'wife by capture'..
Every character (including Blake's Indian) is weak, vacillating & morally changeable, which makes for a wonderfully complex tale.Blakes dialogue gives us the film's title: "Well, at least they'll know that Willie Boy was here."  He says this in responding to Katherine Ross' comment asking why he is willing to keep running, even though the whites will eventually trap & kill him.
Even Willie Boy is pig headed, monomaniacal and self-destructive.I think Blake does a great job in this role.
I consider Robert Blake's performance in this movie to be one of his best, and this comes from someone who has always thought he was a fine actor.
Robert Redford, too, shines here as the sheriff, and almost all the supporting cast keeps up with the two male leads.Blake's character is a Paiute Indian who is the object of a manhunt which is sensationalized by the press because of its concurrence with a visit by President Taft.
The sheriff is pressured into hunting down the Indian and the girl he loves but whose father has forbidden the match.It's a good solid early-1900s Western with much better-than-average acting.
TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE has top-notch color photography by Conrad Hall, a thinking man's script that is character driven, and good performances all around by a cast that includes ROBERT REDFORD, ROBERT BLAKE, SUSAN CLARK, BARRY SULLIVAN and KATHARINE ROSS.
But it's a lumbering tale that takes a good hour before the dust begins to settle and we get some action along with the character development of both Blake and Redford.Every scene is painfully slow in getting to the payoff so that the film seems a lot longer than one hour and thirty-six minutes.
The first hour is devoted to the manhunt for an Indian killer (Blake) and then the plot involves the arrival of President Taft in 1909 California and the effort to protect him from any kind of assassination attempt.Redford's role as the reluctant sheriff is never too clear since he's a man of a very few words (a regular Gary Cooper type), so it's up to Blake to carry much of the film and he does.
He's terrific as the Indian lad who's trigger happy when the posse starts getting too close.The last twenty minutes should have been a model of suspense as they close in on Willie Boy, but it's allowed to drag out interminably.Summing up: Character driven tale had the potential to be a fine western, but badly paced direction of Abraham Polonsky is no help nor is the sluggish script.
This lesser known Redford film has been recently, exploitively unearthed in the wake of co-star Blake's real-life arrest and trial for murder.
Blake plays a Peyote Indian in 1909 who kills in self defense and is tracked all over the desert by a small posse led by sheriff Redford.
Notable as the return to directing by a man who was blacklisted for 18 years prior, it has strong social commentary and the characters really represent aspects of a more contemporary society (namely the one that went on a Communist witch-hunt in the 1950's!) The film, though the plot line is fairly straightforward, isn't always easy to understand because many of the characters' traits and motivations are blurry.
Beautifully filmed, the movie creates the same edge-of-your-seat tension to see the outcome as the book by Harry Lawton, and, indeed, the real events must have engendered.Too bad Hollywood once again played with the truth.
While much of the film appears to fairly closely follow history, with a few excusable abbreviations, two crucial incidents and Redford's character are Hollywood inventions.
They add to the drama and mystery of the sad story, but considering most people know only the history they see on film, it's a shame to see the truth corrupted.Blake is outstanding.
Ross is completely unbelievable as an Indian.The movie captures the essence of this turn-of-the-last-century western environment transitioning from horse & buggy to automobile, from cowboy to urbanite, from the remaining blend of Indian autonomy side-by-side with encroaching white man encroachment and ultimate domination.The fact that it took several posses of 75+ men on horse, with supplies, days and nights of tracking to catch up with one Indian on foot without more than a rifle, a few shells and only what food he could scrounge, speaks volumes for the Indian-vs-white fight for survival and the tactics used.Quietly intense, the movie is dramatic, captivating, and over-ridingly sad at the unavoidable outcome of the decidedly unbalanced "battle.".
Here is the true account of this story as told by posse member Law-man Ben de Crevecoeur in 1941.Willie Boy was a 25 or 26 year old Paiute Indian.
Isoleta's father, Old Mike Boniface was a Paiute Indian.Willie Boy had an unrequited interest in Isoleta.
Her father didn't like Willie Boy. Willie Boy kidnapped Isoleta the first time from the family's camp at Twenty-nine Palms, Ca. Her father found them, took her back and told Willie Boy that if he came near her again he would kill Willie Boy.Some days later, after drinking with a White friend, Willie Boy went to the Gillman Ranch, near Banning Ca., where the Boniface family was working and crept up on Old Mike, his wife and their 7 children where they were sleeping under a Cottonwood tree.
When she couldn't go any further, Willie Boy shot her in the back and killed her.Lawman Ben Crevecouer said, "The sight of that girl's body was something a person would want to forget, but couldn't.
She had worn through her thin little shoes and her feet were raw and bloody".The posse eventually discovered Willie Boy's body after chasing him for 11 days and 500 to 600 miles in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties in Ca..
Willie Boy killed himself with his last bullet.Willie Boy was just a scumbag who murdered two of his own people but ,of course, this director, Abe Polonsky, turns the story into another anti-White Hollywood propaganda film.Info from interview of Ben de Crevecouer in "Desert Magazine", Nov. 1941..
Good and interesting film about a stoppable manhunt to a Paiute Indian well played by Robert Blake.
Based on the Willie Boy incident that was one of the most savage chapters in frontier history .Contemporary Western drama set in 1909 , it tells the story of one of the last and violent western manhunt.
Set in Joshua Tree , California , about a killing carried by a Paiute Indian , Robert Blake , who murders his bride's father in self-defense , it triggers a non-stop pursuit .
Later on, Willie Boy and and his white bride , Katharine Ross , escape and go on the run across the sunny desert .
They become the objects of a manhunt by a tough posse led by the reluctant local sheriff , Robert Redford , and his followers : Barry Sullivan , Ned Romero , John Vernon , among others .Well paced film with bitter irony and stunningly directed by Abraham Polonsky , this was once-blacklisted Polonsky's first movie in 31 years .
A sober Robert Redford gives fine acting , he plays as a reluctant as well as stubborn sheriff who pursues mercilessly Willie .
After defying the comittee by refusing to name names , 8Polonsky was pursued , juzged and condemned by the HUAC , once blacklisted he only wrote and directed a few films as Romance of a horsethief and this Tell them willie Boy is here.
A drifting Paiute Indian in 1900s Southern California kills the father of his Indian girlfriend in self-defense; the couple escape into the desert, but a sheriff and his posse are on their trail.
The depiction of relations between the Indians and the white man has historical interest, but aside from Robert Blake as macho Willie Boy, these actors do not look comfortable in their roles.
Bad movie due to below average production and editing.The message regarding the Native American plight was good but wasted on this movie effort.Too bad bacause the actors gave good performances.The last 20 minutes was the best part but nothing you can't miss.Flows like a slow  TV movie.Thank God Redford is preety.Still worth a look if you are a fan of pro Native American Western action drama or a big fan of the lead actors.......
In the era of Peckinpah and Leone, 'Willie Boy' cannot but look dated, feeling more like one of those naive 50s liberal Westerns where the Indians were played by minstrels.
look a lot like medieval Verona, Italy but the story is the same.The title role of Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here is played by Robert Blake who is a
in the national media and blows up the story.Robert Redford plays the sheriff charged with bringing in Blake dead or alive.
Loosely based on the true story of the West's last famous manhunt in 1909, a Chemehuevi-Paiute Indian named Willie Boy (Robert Blake) kills a man in self-defense and escapes into the desert wilderness with an Indian woman (Katharine Ross).
While a modest hit, it failed to achieve the success of the other two films, especially "Butch Cassidy." It has since fallen into nigh obscurity and is almost never mentioned in 'Best Western' lists.Along with "Hombre" (1967) and "Butch Cassidy," and soon-to-come Westerns like "The Missouri Breaks" (1976), "Willie Boy" ranks with the breakthrough 'modern' Westerns of the 60s-70s.
The director was an admitted communist who was blacklisted by the McCarthy squad in the late 40s and "Willie Boy" was his big return to filmmaking.The cast is great, also including the stunning Susan Clark as a patronizingly liberal white missionary, and the desert scenery is spectacular.
The real Willie Boy was in his mid-20s and kidnapped the 15 year-old Isoleta, his second time, after murdering her father in his sleep.
It stars Robert Redford, Robert Blake, Katharine Ross and Susan Clark.
Hall."In the summer of 1909 a member of the oldest American minority, a Paiute Indian named Willie Boy, became the center of an extraordinary historical event.
This is what happened in the deserts of California."It's a very intense and captivating movie, sad even, it is well performed by the boys up top, beautifully photographed and boosted tonally by a haunting musical score that takes its heart from Jerry Goldsmith's score for Planet of the Apes, yet there's just something too Hollywood about it that stops it breaking through into a film worthy of the subject matter.Problem in the main is that in trying to tune into the coolness of Robert Redford, and he is very smooth here, the focus of the film is more on Redford's Sheriff Cooper than it is Robert Blake's Willie Boy. Oh for sure the Willie Boy axis, as he goes on the run with his Indian girlfriend Lola (Ross unconvincing in race terms but emotionally impressive), is explored, but it's Cooper's movie and that just can't be right.
The opening explains, "In the summer of 1909, a member of the oldest American minority, a Paiute Indian named Willie Boy, became the center of an extraordinary historical event.
This is what happened in the deserts of California." The setting seems more 1969 than 1909.The plot gets started when downtrodden Indian Robert Blake (as Willie Boy) is caught in a sexual liaison with his Indian mate, Katharine Ross (as Lola), by her father.
Mr. Redford isn't as prejudiced as others in his posse, who'd prefer Blake be brought back dead.This film gets credit for renovating the careers of Jennings Lang and Abraham Polonsky; but, it isn't, otherwise, very remarkable.
Redford and Ross, riding on the success of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", receive relatively exaggerated billing, over Blake and Susan Clark (as Liz Arnold).
The film is well-intentioned, but dull.**** Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (10/31/69) Abraham Polonsky ~ Robert Blake, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross.
(I doubt this film did anything for Redford's lover-boy image.)At the same time, none of the principals is particularly likable, certainly a departure from usual box-office appeal.
My guess is that Polonsky used perhaps too much caution in dealing with what is admittedly tricky subject matter.Nonetheless, it remains an interesting film, well acted and beautifully photographed, making good use of the barren edge of California's Mojave desert.
According to Lawton's obituaries he remained committed to Native American rights and culture throughout his life.Willy Boy (Robert Blake) kills a man who was bigoted and goaded him.
Also, while thirty three years since Little Big Horn, and nineteen since Wounded Knee, the possibility of an Indian uprising was not hard to dismiss (the great chief Geronimo died in 1905, shortly after attending Theodore Roosevelt's inauguration - we were that close in time to the period when he was on the warpath).The film goes to it's tragic conclusion - a long, hard chase to the death of a representative of a defeated people.
Blake plays a character who shoots the white father of Ross's character, and ends up on the run.
There is a better scene when the sheriff (Redford) finds Ross's character shot dead.
Dusty little towns like Banning and Lancaster are now sprawling environment engulfers but I digress.Robert Blake is the Paiute Indian, Willie Boy, who kills the white father of his girl friend, Katherine Ross, and takes off with her into the desert, which Hall captures as a rather benign place with towering Washingtonian palms creating a shady oasis, the breeze whooshing gently through the fronds.
Robert Redford is Sheriff Cooper ("Coop") who pursues Blake and Ross from one picturesque place to another.
But when Katherine Ross's body is found with a bullet through her heart, he's compelled to track down the worn-out horseless Blake and, finally, shoot him in an act of suicide by Sheriff.This was directed by Abraham Polonsky, one of the famous blacklisted writers who returned from exile.
Thus, the final confrontation between Sheriff Coop and Willy Boy had no suspense factor for me- and I didn't care when either he or the Katharine Ross character (no, she did NOT look like an Indian!) died.
The only real relevance to the proximity of the US President was that it also meant there was an over abundance of newspaper reporters near San Bernardino and Riverside who sensationalized the chase not even knowing that Willie Boy was already dead before most of them had even heard of him.The true story of the manhunt (or at the least the closest to the truth as it was based on eyewitness and second-hand accounts from the remaining witnesses) is The Last Great Manhunt by Harry Lawton, the book TTWBIH is based on (Lawton even changed the title to that of the film).
Years later a couple of politically correct college professors wrote articles claiming Lawton's book was all wrong and Willie Boy was a hero, even going so far as to suggest Carlotta was killed by the posse.
Redford looks so much younger here; it must have been the mustache as The Kid. Curiously, he had a similar scene here with Susan Clark as Sundance did with Katharine Ross, a kind of surprise bedroom attack that was used as misdirection before the true relationships became known.Robert Blake does a convincing job as Willie Boy, on the run from the law with his 'captured wife' after killing her father in self defense.
Sheriff Chris Cooper (Redford) treads that line carefully, as he knows he must bring Willie Boy to justice, but is keenly aware that it wouldn't take much for his search party to turn into a lynch mob.
The prelude to that showdown is perhaps even more of a shocker, as Willie's girl Lola commits the ultimate sacrifice so her man has a better chance of escaping.I haven't seen Robert Blake in a lot of films besides this and "In Cold Blood", though I was a regular viewer of 'Baretta'.
Like NAKED GUN, this WILLIE BOY Western stars a Real Life Lady Killer, ironically playing the mad dog slayer responsible--either directly, or indirectly--for the female shot dead off-camera.
Apparently, a seriously fictionalized adaptation of the saga of troubled Paiute "Willie Boy", transforming it into a Romeo and Juliet-like tale, with Willie(Robert Blake) and his half-breed girlfriend, Lola(Katherine Ross), the victims of racial slurs and prejudice by judicial authorities.
In part, it's also a standard western, with a long posse chase of this horseless fugitive and his girl through a rocky desert wilderness in southern CA, followed by a hide and seek shooting duel with Deputy Sheriff Coop(Robert Redford) on a bare rocky Ruby Mountain.
Coop's action was in apparent self-defense, as was Willie's earlier shooting of Lola's father.
However, Coop is regarded as a hero, whereas Willie rightly assumed that he would be regarded by white authorities as an unjustified murderer.The film ends with Willie's body being cremated at the base of Ruby Mountain, where he died.
The white girl's father never approved of his daughter's love for the boy just because of his American Indian heritage!
Robert Redford as Sheriff Cooper "Coop"(pretty as ever and gives a fine performance) and Robert Blake (very convincing as Willie Boy) meet physically only twice during the film, but they form a superb ensemble.
Spreading the gap between the white man and the American Native is TELL THEM WILLY BOY IS HERE.
Willy Boy, a Piute Indian(Robert Blake)kills a man in self-defense and becomes the subject of a manhunt in 1909 California.
With him is his lover Lola(Katherine Ross)trying to stay one step ahead of a posse led by Deputy Sheriff 'Coop' Cooper(Robert Redford).