Sam Whiskey
Sam Whiskey
PG-13 | 01 April 1969 (USA)
Sam Whiskey Trailers

A widow hires an ex-gambler to retrieve gold bars from a sunken river boat in Colorado and discreetly return them to the Federal Mint, from where they had been stolen by her dead husband.

Reviews
Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Actuakers One of my all time favorites.
PlatinumRead Just so...so bad
Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.
classicsoncall Put away your thinking cap for this one, sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Boy, talk about getting from Point A to Point B by the most roundabout way possible, I think Burt Reynolds and crew did it here. The kicker to this whole story had to be melting down the gold bars recovered from the Bonnie Blue, pouring it into a mold of George Washington's bust, and melting it back down into bars to replace the stolen loot at the Denver mint. As a caper movie this one really kept you guessing, and it could have all gone South at any point along the way.I guess if you're going to take this story at face value, you have to accept the idea that Sam Whiskey and his new buddies are going to put a quarter million dollars worth of gold back into the Denver mint from which it was stolen by Laura's now dead outlaw husband, and not be tempted to keep it for themselves. I can't imagine why no one bothered asking Miss Breckenridge where she was getting the twenty grand to pay for the job, but I guess with her figure it didn't really matter.I became a Burt Reynolds fan when I first saw him in "The Longest Yard". No, not the 2005 one with Adam Sandler, the original one where he played Paul 'Wrecking' Crewe. This flick came out a few years earlier and the lack of a mustache makes him look even younger. I'd have to say Sam's (Reynolds) first meeting with Laura Breckenridge (Angie Dickinson) was pretty racy even for 1969.Reynolds had a pretty effective team for the reverse heist if you will, Ossie Davis and Clint Walker had credible character introductions for the roles they would assume in the story. I got a kick out of the signpost in the road that offered the way to Gila Bend and North Fork. For a minute there, I thought Chuck Connors might be right around the corner to join the boys. Old time Western fans will get the reference, everyone else will have to look it up.
Spikeopath Sam Whiskey is directed by Arnold Laven and written by William W. Norton. It stars Burt Reynolds, Ossie Davis, Clint Walker and Angie Dickinson. Music is by Herschel Burke Gilbert and cinematography by Robert C. Moreno. Widow Laura Breckenridge (Dickinson) offers Sam Whiskey (Reynolds) a $20,000 reward for the return of some gold that her late husband had stolen from the Denver mint. However, she doesn't want the gold for herself, she wants Sam to put it back into the mint before it's found to be stolen and soils her family name! Maybe it's because I consider myself a Reynolds fan that I found this to be a whole bunch of fun? That I appear to be at odds with critical consensus about Sam Whiskey's worth as entertainment? Stolen money burns a hole in your pocket. Sam Whiskey knows exactly what it's doing, it mixes the caper movie with a Western setting and lets the principal players have fun with it. The quadruple lead players bounce off of each other with considerable charming results, the set-up is suitably daft, a reverse robbery if you like, and there's no shortage of suspense and action. In fact the various twists that arise as Reynolds, Davis and Walker go about their mission of goodwill for the sultry Dickinson, are well implemented into the plot. The De Luxe colour photography is most pleasing, though the absence of scenic panoramas is sorely felt, and the music score is complementary to the tone of the story. True, the direction is hardly inspiring, the quirky nature of the whole thing narrows down the number of film fans it might appeal to and the idea is indeed thin. Yet for Reynolds fans it should be sought out, to see him at the end of the 60s before "his" time would come in the 70s. Watch him perform with a comedic glint in his eye, see Dickinson smoulder and raise temperatures, Walker play at odds with his macho persona, and Davis having fun being the tough boy of the group. Enjoy the cheekiness (Re: ludicrousness) of the caper, the early diving technique on show or sample the verbal amusement that comes from the stars. I just know I had a big enough grin on my face come the end to make this a strong 7/10 rating. Non Reynolds fans should probably knock a point off that rating, though.
zardoz-13 Burt Reynolds, Clint Walker, and Ossie Davis make up a threesome of thieves in "Rough Night in Jericho" director Arnold Laven's comic western "Sam Whiskey" about an elaborate "Mission: Impossible" heist at the Denver Mint in the 19th century. Actually, Laura Breckenridge (busty Angie Dickinson of "Rio Bravo") uses her natural endowments to seduce free booting adventurer Sam Whiskey (Burt Reynolds of "Mystery, Alaska") to pull the ultimate job. Our hero faces several challenges that would daunt a lesser soul. First, Sam must raise a quarter of a million dollars in gold ingots from a sunken riverboat at the bottom of the Platte River. Second, he must then substitute it gold-painted lead bars in the Denver mint with nobody the wiser or Laura may wind up serving time in prison. Third, he must get away without getting caught so he can enjoy the $20-thousand that she is paying him to pull the job. Before Sam can pull the job, he has to convince his old inventor buddy O.W. Bandy (Clint Walker of "None But The Brave") and his new blacksmith pal Jed Hooker (Ossie Davis of "BubbaHo-Tep") to help him. Jed likes the five grand that Sam is going to pay him, but O.W. is reluctant to join them because he was to devote his time to his inventions. Sam lures O.W. into a liquor drinking contest and gets O.W. so drunk that he passes out and doesn't awaken until Sam and Jed are well on the way to the Platte River to fetch the gold. Initially, O.W. isn't pleased with Sam's conniving ways and he climbs out of the wagon and grasps the back wheel so it won't roll. Eventually, O.W. and Sam reach an agreement and they continue to the river. Little do our heroes know it but they are being trailed by a suspicious looking gent wearing thick lensed glasses who likes to surround himself with plug-ugly, hardcase types to do his dirty work. O.W. devises a breathing apparatus that involves a bellows to pump air through a lengthy hose that is attached to a bucket. The diver has to go fifteen feet to the riverboat and look down at his hands and feet to find his way around. Just as our heroes are getting a knack for diving, the villain, known only as 'the Fat Man' (Rick Davis of "What Waits Below") and his men overpower O.W. as well Jed who were out in the boat. Meanwhile, Sam--diving when the villains arrive--hides in the smokestack of the river boat. The villains end up doing the heavy lifting and pull the entire quarter of a million in gold off the ship. Sam swims back to shore as the villains are about to hang Jed and O.W. and rescues them, gets the gold, and leaves the villains the worse for their wear. Afterward, our heroes penetrate the Denver Mint after Laura kidnaps Treasury Inspector Thorston Bromley (Woodrow Parfrey of "Planet of the Apes") and holds him as a hostage while Sam impersonates him so he can get into the mint. Director Arnold Laven relies on comedy to lessen the far-fetched nature of this western outing and Reynolds delivers a crisp comic performance. Burt Reynolds fans who haven't seen "Sam Whiskey" are missing a real treat.
wolvus It's no mystery that Burt Reynolds is one of the most underestimated actors of our time. In this particular film, he gave us one of his best comedy-stilish acting ("no-one noticed it", he said) which makes this movie working. Burt's acting would be enough to make it watchable, but also Ossie Davis and Clint Walker fit well in their roles.For me the remarkable of this movie is a) the way it is directed and edited (it ain't dull for one second), although there are some silly situations (e.g. Burt firing with a machine gun to save his friends killing all his enemies without hitting his friends...), but hey, it's a comedy and it's not the story which is most interesting. It's the mood of the film and the way characters are portrayed. It contains a lot of fine jokes and dialogue ("I'm not riding this long way to bury your bird") and chemistry between Burt and Angie Dickinson is amazing. Also the more serious parts of the film (stealing the gold out of the fort) are working well.Also, there are some things which seem to be rare in a film: The fact that no-one of the "thieves" have intentions killing his buddies to keep the gold for himself. No, they even break in to return it back to the government! It's hardly believable, but it is that fact that make the film and these characters charming.I give it a 7 of 10