Cattle Annie and Little Britches

The time is the late 19th century and the western frontier has all but disappeared with the arrival of government law in the form of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Sound familiar? That's because Lamont Johnson's offbeat 1981 western drama "Cattle Annie and Little Britches" treads the same ground so many other films have, although it has a much different direction in mind with its two main female characters. Coming from a new HD master, the new Blu-ray from Kino Lorber and their Studio Classics label puts this film up for reappraisal. And while it doesn't entirely deliver on its promise of breaking down the American idyll in the wild west, it boasts a slew of great performances.

Cattle Annie (Amanda Plummer) and Jennie 'Little Britches' Stevens (Diane Lane) are two young women obsessed with the stories they've read about western outlaws, and set out to join a still-active pack. They're taken up by the Doolin-Dalton gang, led by the wise and comically self-assured Bill Doolin (Burt Lancaster). The arrival of Annie and Little Britches breathes new life into Doolin, who has all but hung up his outlaw ways. Now dead set on one last big heist - and on the run from Marshal Bill Tilghman (Rod Steiger) - the gang's new rebirth may spell their doom.

Sentimentality as humor is this film's game, and I must say it's pretty darn good at it. Lancaster, in particular, is the perfect choice for a man who isn't terribly violent to begin with and genuinely feels bad for all the misdeeds he's done. But it's Amanda Plummer as Annie that's the greatest performance in the film. She explodes onto the screen with a ferocity similar to that for which she was praised in "Pulp Fiction," and it's incredible to watch her grow as an actress as the film plods along. She's the emotional anchor of the movie, with her disappointment of the American west that she read about, and it's really a pleasure to see her ridicule a bunch of outlaws into feeling bad for not living up to that promise.

As for the new HD master, it's clear the film has seen better days, but this presentation is still pretty vivid and is probably the best the film has looked at home. As for special features, there aren't many to dig into, although an interview with producer Rupert Hitzig gives some fun background to how the production came about. Other special features include:

� Theatrical trailer

"Cattle Annie and Little Britches"
Blu-ray
$24.95
https://www.klstudioclassics.com/product/view/id/6817