User Reviews

I'm not a fan of Westerns; I saw this movie only for the lovely star of "Bewitched." Stepping temporarily into the role of Etta Place created by Katherine Ross, Ms. Montgomery gives a very good performance in this movie along with Robert Foxworth (her future husband) and Robert Donner. While this movie may not be a sequel per se to the Butch/Sundance flick, the script is hard to follow and meters along barely moving to an end. It can be said that the television witch does do her best work with the most meaty of characters, such as psychos like Lizzie Borden, or interesting individuals such as Edna Buchanan. Foxworth pulls his own in his role, but most of the my attention was for Liz. Perhaps an afficianado of Westerns can give a better critique of this movie than I.

Elizabeth Montgomery was a fine actress, but she was hardly the frontier-type, and her refined, ladylike way of speaking (not to mention her painful bouncing in the horse's saddle) makes for an unlikely portrayal of Etta Place, girlfriend of notorious outlaw The Sundance Kid, herself wanted for robbery and treason. Director Marvin Chomsky attempts to set a dusty, dreamlike mood, and the opening (filmed in sepia tone) is promising. Unfortunately, the story really doesn't make much sense. Etta, tired of hiding out because of the bounty on her, tells a two-bit robber she's ready to turn herself in, yet he feeds her a lie about Sundance still being alive so that a legendary bounty hunter can capture her. Cheap, slim made-for-TV movie, mostly filmed on Fox's backlot, has a few scenes that work, but Chomsky doesn't fare too well with crowd scenes, and an opening moment where Etta watches her life portrayed on the stage is woefully slack. The picture is also not helped by poor editing and mediocre photography. Katharine Ross played Etta Place in 1969's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"; she returned to the role in 1976 with the TV-movie, "Wanted: The Sundance Woman".

I'm not ashamed to admit that I spotted this film in the television listings and watched it on the title alone; about six months previously I had seen 'Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid' and been shaken to my core by it in a way that the vast majority of movies never achieve - enough to go and do some serious research into Butch Cassidy and his period. So I came to this picture armed with far more knowledge of the actual period than the average audience at which it was aimed, and mentally braced for a horrid disappointment, yet irresistably drawn by the need to know what had been made of the subject matter I had come to hold so dear.

I had probably better say now that, yes, this film *is* total and complete historical hokum. Not only were the events in question never recorded as happening, but major plot points on which the action revolves are contradicted by known historical fact. The famous Tiffany watch worn by Etta Place was indeed a cherished present - from *Cassidy*, not from her lover. And the secret entrance to the hideout at Hole-in-the-Wall had been public knowledge since before Cassidy's time. And yet, somehow, it *doesn't matter*. The name 'Sundance' has nothing to do with dancing sunlight - it was the name of a jail in which the young Harry 'Sundance Kid' Longabaugh was once imprisoned - yet the scene in which Etta describes her lover in such tender terms is in its context somehow right and true.

The film purports to chronicle the further tribulations of the schoolteacher Etta Place after the deaths of her lover the Sundance Kid and his partner Butch Cassidy in South America. As history, it is totally unfounded. As fiction, however, I found it unexpectedly enthralling. In fact, I was hoping just as desperately as Etta, halfway through, that what I had been led to believe was false - that history could be rewritten. As a story of constancy and love against all hope, it touched some deep chord in me for which I had not been prepared.

Later on, I also watched 'Butch & Sundance: the Early Years'. While I believe the latter film is generally more highly-rated, and certainly much better-known, I found 'Mrs Sundance' infinitely superior. I cared about this film; I felt nothing for 'The Early Years'. As a sequel, it is 'Mrs Sundance' that recaptures the potent blend of humour, desperation and loyalties that has made its predecessor so rightly renowned.

I rated this film at a 6, because that is all I can honestly say that it deserves as a piece of work in its own right. On my personal scale of enjoyment I have to confess that it is probably up there on an 8, 9 or even 10.