The Legend of Frenchie King (1971) - Film Review

There are not been many female lead cowboy films one I remember was “Hannie Caulder” (1971) a British-made film, staring Raquel Welch. After being gang raped following the murder of her husband, she seeks revenge and hires a bounty hunter to instruct her in the use of a gun so she can have her revenge on the three outlaws responsible. This was no comedy like the film “Cat Ballou” (1965) starring Jane Fonda, it was gritty.

There is no way “The Legend of Frenchie King” (1971), Les pétroleuses (original title) the film I am reviewing today can be called gritty it’s more pure sexploitation. The two main stars were the ravishing beauties Brigitte Bardot and Claudia Cardinale but that didn’t stop the film receiving negative reviews from critics at the time. It was release in French and dubbed into English.

Brigitte Bardot (Louise) nicknamed Frenchie King, is the leader of a woman's gang with her four sisters and a train robber to boot, all very attractive women in this female-dominated movie and on inheriting valuable property via a train robbery decides to go to the ranch for a while. There is oil on the land and the neighbouring rancher Claudia Cardinale (Marie Sarrazin) wants to take them out with the help of her four brothers. Could love be in the air?

It’s a ramshackle spoof of a western if it was played for laughs I couldn’t find them it’s more a kinky male fantasy gone south, with a botched-up Brigitte Bardot and turbo-feisty Claudia Cardinale proving that the Wild West is definitely no place for a man, especially not when it is deluged in clichés.

There are some who will doubtless derive some pleasure from watching Brigitte Bardot play the pistol-firing dominatrix for all it is worth, humiliating every male she encounters. She claims the West as her own with her band of black clad amazons, and her catfight with Claudia Cardinale is a remarkable sight (probably the silliest fight scene ever too committed to celluloid) it took a reported seven days to film. It was a scene to show off their impressive cleavage. A woman's revenge is never a pretty sight, even if she is wearing tight-fitting corsets and a low-cut bra at the time. 

Probably not the film either star would like to be remembered for, but this is campy if you approach it not expecting too much. A refreshingly different considering the wave of not-very-funny European westerns spawned by the Spaghetti craze.

You’d certainly be hard pressed to find a European Western with more sex appeal, and the cleavage enhancing outfits Brigitte and Claudia squeeze their bodies into enhances the films eye appeal. Michael Pollard is a delight as the sheriff who keeps losing track of his horse, frantically studies French so he can win Marie over and loses so many other things, he finally handcuffs himself to his pet dog. In one of the more memorable scenes, Frenchie’s sisters have no luck “torturing” the truth about the Little P ranch out of Marie’s brothers. So Frenchie lines them up, facing away from her, stark naked, and begins firing her rifle until they squeal about the oil. After they are jailed, they team up to take revenge on the town's men.