MRS SUNDANCE

US, 1974, 90 minutes, Colour.
Elizabeth Montgomery, Robert Foxworth, L.Q. Jones, Arthur Hunnicut.
Directed by Marvin J. Chomsky.

Mrs Sundance is a modest telemovie taking up the story after the deaths of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Katharine Ross was Etta Place in the original film. Here she is Elizabeth Montgomery, an effective performer in many telemovies (including The Outlaw Belle Starr). She receives competent support from Robert Foxworth and, especially, L. Q. Jones as a bounty hunter. The story is slight, the running time short - but is easy entertaining western material. It does not particularly add to the legend.

1. Audience response to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? The legend? The reality? This telemovie as an appropriate sequel?

2. Telemovie techniques, intended audience? A western, characters, locations, atmosphere, action?

3. The film's presentation of the Butch and Sundance myths? Their being performed on stage? The origins of legends, their development? Relationship with reality? The American heritage, especially as seen through cinema representations of the outlaws?

4. Audience awareness of Etta Place? The stage show and audience reaction? The film's reality compared with the stage show?

5. Etta and her experience, her teaching, seeing her in action, watching the performance, trying to leave town, the encounter on the train? The encounter with the man on the train, his thinking her a boy, her turning the tables on him and taking over?

6. Etta's character, strength, skill with guns etc.? Using her wits, the chase and the pursuit? The dangers, friends along the way, the ambush? Eluding her pursuers?

7. Robert Foxworth and his enigmatic hero? Showing off, thinking Etta was a boy, the tables turned? The bounty hunter and the deal? The lure of Sundance in The Hole in the Wall? Sharing Etta's adventure? The effect on him?

8. Etta and Sundance, the story that he was alive, the lure of her back to The Hole in the Wall, the bounty hunter following her, the taking up of clues, the arrival at the cemetery, with everyone dead?

9. The siege, the truth, the violence, the confrontation? The deaths?

10. The portrait of the bounty hunter. skill, relentless, using people, using his wits, the shootout? The deaths of his associates?

11. The sketch of Etta Place's friends, their lending aid. the farmer and his wife and child and her resentment? The old man and his clues?

12. An average western, entertainment value, heroes of the West, the American heritage?