WILL PENNY On Blu-ray From Kino

 

Charlton Heston considered WILL PENNY to be his favorite film role. This unique 1967 Western gets a nice Blu-ray treatment courtesy of Kino Lorber. 

Heston's Will Penny isn't a larger-than-life legend of the Old West. He's an ordinary man, a true working cowboy, and he's spent his entire life on his own, fending for himself. While spending a winter as a line rider for a large spread, Penny comes upon a woman (Joan Hackett) and her young son, who have been abandoned by their guide. Penny lets them stay at the line rider shack, while forming an attachment to them. Penny starts to consider that he might have a chance at a new way of life, while fending off a crazed "preacher" (Donald Pleasence) and his degenerate brood. 

WILL PENNY was written & directed by Tom Gries, and the story was based on an episode of the short-lived TV series THE WESTERNER that Gries also wrote & directed. This movie is about as anti-formulaic as you can get--there's a true sense of the real West here, and even the California locations feel more authentic than those constantly used in the typical Hollywood cowboy flick. 

Charlton Heston gives one of his best performances as Will Penny, portraying a man who has lived a hard, cold life, but one who still has an innate sense of decency about him. Penny is a give-and-take-no-excuses type of guy, but the more time he spends around Joan Hackett's Catherine, he realizes how empty his life has been. Heston expertly shows this through his eyes and subtle body language. At one point Penny tells Catherine he's nearly 50, but Heston looks and acts older. displaying the wear and tear that the actual Western life does to a working cowboy. 

Joan Hackett gives a wonderful performance as well (a better known or more glamorous actress wouldn't have worked in the role). Tom Gries' son Jon plays Catherine's young boy, and he's very good, despite the fact that he had never acted before (maybe that's the reason why he did so well). WILL PENNY also features a great supporting cast of welcome faces such as Anthony Zerbe, Ben Johnson, and Slim Pickens.

The one issue I have with this movie--and I know plenty will disagree with me on this--is the subplot concerning Donald Pleasence's mad villain and his grungy "family". These brutes (including Bruce Dern doing one of his many 1960s bad guy Western roles) are so over the top, they jar with the overall tone of the story--it feels as if they wandered in from the set of another film. I realize that the movie needed some sort of conflict, and some type of a shootout, being a big studio Western.....but Will Penny's predicament is far more interesting to the viewer. (I also wonder if Pleasence's brood was Tom Gries' comment on the hippy culture of the time.) 

The most important thing about Kino's Region A Blu-ray of WILL PENNY is how magnificent it looks. The back of the disc case claims that the source used for the HD master comes from a 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative--and I believe it. The color and visual quality is fantastic, allowing the viewer to properly appreciate Lucien Ballard's brilliant cinematography. The sound is bolder and sharper as well. 

The main extra is a new commentary featuring C. Courtney Joyner, Henry Parke, and Michael Preece, who was script supervisor on WILL PENNY. Most of the talk revolves around Preece and his TV and movie career, and he has plenty of stories to tell, although there are times when the chat wanders away from the main subject at hand. There are also two short featurettes from 2002 that have Charlton Heston and Jon Gries discussing the making of the film, and trailers for other similar movies released by Kino. 

WILL PENNY pops up occasionally on various retro movie cable channels, but I've never seen it look and sound as good as it does on this Blu-ray. That fact alone makes it worth purchasing, along with it being one of Charlton Heston's best big-screen titles.