A Girl is a Gun (1971)

Jean Pierre Leaud is Billy The Kid, who pulls off a bloody robbery, but is forced to flee on foot with a posse on his trail.

He stumbles across a young girl and takes her captive as he flees over harsh terrain toward Mexico.

But the captive named Ann (Rachel Kesterber) winds up saving his life, then introduces Billy to a tenderness he’s never experienced before.

The tender moments are fleeting, however, because water and food is in short supply, and the terrain keeps getting more difficult.

Besides, that posse is closing in, and Indians are also on the trail of the two youngsters.

Review:

An odd little French film that’s also odd because the U.S. title is probably closer to the intent than the exploitive French title (An Adventure of Billy the Kid).

It’s also the strangest Billy the Kid film you’re going to find, and that’s saying something considering “Billy the Kid Versus Dracula” came out five years earlier.

This Billy nearly drowns, falls into a hole and walks into trees. He proves less adept at handling the harsh terrain he crosses than his female companion.

Though he does spring to life — rather ridiculously — when she begins disrobing to tempt him back to his feet at one point.

Oh, and there’s a twist in the identity of the young lady Billy “finds” in the desert. Unfortunately, director Luc Moullet springs the surprise too soon and what follows makes about as much sense as a female lead wearing blue eye shadow in the Wild West of the 1880s.

Jean-Pierre Leaud as Billy the Kid in A Girl is a Gun (1971)

Rachel Kesterber as Ann in A Girl is a Gun (1971)

Directed by:
Luc Moullet

Cast:
Jean-Pierre Leaud … Billy the Kid
Rachel Kesterber … Ann
Luc Moullet … The husband
Michel Minaud … Sheriff Holiday
Bernard Pinon … Hunter
Jean Valmont … Hunter
Bruno Kresoja … Indian brave
Kathy Maloney … Squaw
Sarah … Squaw

Runtime: 76 min.

aka:
Une aventure de Billy le Kid

Music: Patrice Moullet
Song: A Girl is a Gun

Rachel Kesterber as Ann and Jean-Pierre Leaud as Billy in A Girl is a Gun (1971)

Jean-Pierre Leaud as Billy the Kid with a gun to his head in A Girl is a Gun (1971)

Trivia:

One of eight films directed by Moullet of the French New Wave and reportedly his first in color. According to one source, it was never released theatrically in France, only abroad with English dubbing. That might explain why the theme song is in English.

Lead actor Jean-Pierre Leaud was a darling of New Wave filmmakers at the time. He won a lifetime achievement award for his contributions to French cinema in 2000. The next year, he starred in a film called “The Pornographer,” about a filmmaker who comes out of retirement because of financial troubles only to find the porn industry has changed.