Another Man, Another Chance (1977)

James Caan is David Williams, a veterinarian who settles in the West against the wishes of his wife, who yearns for a return to Philadelphia.

Genevieve Bujold is Jeanne, a young French girl who falls for a photographer and winds up on the Western frontier.

Years later they meet, after both have lost their spouses to violence, after both have been left as single parents.

Genevieve has been planning a return to France with her daughter, Sarah, as soon as she can raise enough money.

But she didn’t figure on falling in love with a Westerner who refuses to wear a gun, who talks to animals as though they were human, but who isn’t afraid to use a gun when he stumbles upon the men who raped and killed his wife.

James Caan as David Williams, craddling his infant son after making a grisly discovery in Another Man, Another Chance (1977)

Genevieve Bujold as Jeanne, reacting to the sound of a gunshot in Another Man, Another Chance (1977)

Review:

Eleven years earlier, director Claude Lelouch made “A Man and a Woman,” set in modern times with much the same premise. He need not have bothered trying a Western.

Sure, he served up a beautiful-looking film and some imaginative scenes,. Like Caan playing pool on horseback in a saloon. And like the settler’s hilarious attempt for circle the wagons during an Indian threat.

But the film is horribly slow-paced for the amount of action it offers. Until the leads meet and begin to fall for one another. Then they seem to fall in love way too quickly.

It doesn’t help that neither of the men in Jeanne’s life seem very admirable. Caan’s character could care less about his first wife’s well-founded concern about spending so much time alone at their remote home. Jeanne’s first husband is a smart-ass to everyone else around him.

Susan Tyrell has an interesting role as Alice, a whore trying to reinvent herself as owner of a boarding house where she teachers youngsters about Jesse James and Sam Bass. But she disappears for the last hour of the film.

In the cast list below, Sarah is Jeanne’s daughter; Simon is David Williams’ son.

Franics Hustler as Francis Leroy, meeting Jeanne and taking her photograph in Another Man, Another Chance (1977)

Jennifer Warran as Mary Williams, expressing her fear of life in the West and her desire to return to Philadelphia in Another Man, Another Chance (1977)

Directed by:
Claude Lelouch

Cast:
James Caan … David Williams
Genevieve Bujold … Jeanne
Francis Huster … Francis Leroy
Susan Tyrell … Alice
Jennifer Warren … Mary Williams
Rossie Harris … Simon
Linda Lee Lyons … Sarah
Fred Stuthman … Mary’s father
Diana Douglas … Mary’s mother
Michael Berryman … Bandit
Richard Farnsworth … Stage driver
Jean-Francois Remi … Jeanne’s father
Walter Barnes … Foster

Runtime: 126 min.

Susan Tyrell as Alice, the former whore who opens a boarding house for children in Another Man, Another Chance (1977)

Richard Farnsworth as a stagecoach driver, posing for a photograph in Jeanne’s shop in Another Man, Another Chance (1977)

Memorable lines:

Jeanne’s father, as she writes about the seige of Paris in her diary: “Are you coming down to the cellar?”
Jeanne: “No, I’m more afraid of crowds than of cannons.”

Saloon owner: “Why don’t you open a boarding house around here?”
Alice, his whore: “Around here, women trust me with their men, not their kids.”

Mary Williams: “My parents have offered to set us up in Philadelphia.”
David Williams: “I don’t want to take care of rich people’s pets.”

Francis Leroy, Jeanne’s first husband, to a friend: “A pessimist is an optimist with experience.”

French photo studio customer: “Where are you going?”
Francis Leroy: “Where the sun always shines for photographers.”
Customer: “Where’s that?”
Francis: “Out West, in America.”

Alice: “Betwee men and children, there isn’t a hell of a lot of difference.”

David Williams to Jeanne LeRoy: “Jeanne, do you think I might have a chance, with time?”
Jeanne: “A gambler always has a chance.”

Genevieve Bujold as Jeanne and Francis Hustler as Francis Leroy, on a ship bound for American in Another Man, Another Chance (1977)

James Cann as David WIlliams, determined to make a life as a veterinarian in the West in Another Man, Another Chance (1977)

Genevieve Bujold as Jeanne, trying to explain the proper pronunciation of her name to David Williams (James Caan) in Another Man, Another Chance (1977)

James Caan as David Williams, reacting to Jeanne’s (Genevive Bujold’s) story of her husband’s death in Another Man, Another Chance (1977)