Richard Roundtree is the Black Man, a former Union soldier paid to kill whites when he would have done it for free.
Now he’s on the run for gunning down a white officer; that officer caught him in bed with his wife.
Roy Thinnes is the Indian, a crippled Indian, in fact. The two form an uneasy alliance in their quest for survival.
They eventually make a home out of an abandoned mission where there’s an abundant supply of water.
But their new life is interrupted when a bounty hunter (Nigel Davenport) comes calling. Seems there’s a $500 bounty on the black man’s head.
There’s also two fresh graves in the mission cemetery from Mexicans the black man killed. And if the Indian doesn’t testify about those killings, the bounty hunter vows to see both men hang.
Richard Roundtree as The Black Man in Charley One-Eye (1973)
Roy Thinnes as The Indian in Charley One-Eye (1973)
Review:
A strange little film that’s intriguing, but not wholly successful, with just three characters — the black man, the Indian and the bounty hunter — dominating the screen time.
Roundtree made this movie after becoming a star as Shaft. And he plays the most unsympathetic of characters. One who doesn’t seem to understand the difference between murdering a white officer and killing Rebel soldiers during war. One who hates the whites for their treatment of blacks, but treats the Indian like a slave as soon as he realizes Thinnes’ character will have a difficult time defending himself.
Thinnes clearly has the film’s best part. He proves his value via his wits. Crippled himself, he adopts a one-eyed rooster as his pet — hence the film’s title. And as he watches the violence around him from black, white and Mexicans, he becomes more and more comfortable embracing his Indian heritage.
Oh, and the 96-minute version typically shown in the U.S. is apparently missing a key scene in which the Indian and the black man test their marksmanship by shooting at an effigy of Jesus, judging from this review.
Nigel Davenport as The Bouny Hunter in Charley One-Eye (1974)
Nigel Davenport as The Bounty Hunter tries to coerce cooperation from Roy Thinnes as The Indian in Charley One-Eye (1973)
Directed by:
Don Chaffey
Cast:
Richard Roundtree … Ben, The Black Man
Roy Thinnes … The Indian
Nigel Davenport … The Bounty Hunter
Jill Pearson … Officer’s Wife
Aldo Sambrell … Mexican driver
Luis Aller … Mexican youth
Rafael Albaicin … Mexican leader
Runtime: 96 min.
Richard Roundtree as The Black Man in Charley One-Eye (1973)
Roy Thinnes as The Indian in Charley One-Eye (1973)
Memorable lines:
Ben: “You ain’t much of an Indian, is ya?”
Ben: “You ain’t even wanted, is ya? Well, I am.”
Ben: “I don’t understand honkies. One minute, they’re paying me to kill ’em, next minute they wanna string me up for it.”
Indian: “Indian see better than white. Indian see better than black too.”
Ben: “Geronimo, if I get to heaven and there’s any white folks there, or anything approaching white, I’m gonna kill ’em with my bare hands. And that goes for you.”
Indian: “Must be good to kill white man.”
Ben, laughing: “I’m beginnin’ to like you, Indian.”
Richard Roundtree as The Black Man in Charley One-Eye (1973)
Roy Thinnes as The Indian in Charley One-Eye (1973)
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