Waterhole #3 (1967)

James Coburn is Lewton Cole, a rascal and gambler who finds a map to Waterhole Number 3 and heads off in that direction, not sure what he’ll find at the end of the trail.

In the process, he steals a horse belonging to Sheriff Copperud (Carroll O’Connor) and seduces the sheriff’s daughter (Margaret Blye as Billie).

Copperud, much more concerned about recovery his horse Blue than his daughter’s chastity, sets off after Cole.

At Waterhole Number 3, they discovered a stash of stolen Army gold large enough to tempt the sheriff to throw in with the rascal.

But there’s a band of outlaws on their trail who figure the gold is rightfully theirs. After all, they were the ones who stole it in the first place.

And there’s the sheriff’s daughter, somewhat taken by the handsome stranger she slept with, but a whole lot more concerned about her father’s lack of interest in the fact she’s been “raped.”

James Coburn as Lewton Cole, the man who winds up with the map to the gold in Waterhole #3 (1967)

Carroll O’Connor as Sheriff Jim Coppenrud, determined to get back his stolen horse Blue in Waterhole #3 (1967)

Review:

The film starts promisingly enough, with Lewton Cole out-cheating a pair of cheaters at cards, then gunning down a quick-on-the-draw thief in a not-so-conventional gunfight.

But the film soon grows tiresome, even though it inludes lots of familiar faces in supporting roles. Also tiresome is a not-so-bad theme song that seems to interrupt the proceedings every five minutes or so.

Blye gets one of the best parts as a young woman who doesn’t mind being soiled so much as she minds the fact that no one seems to worry about the fact that she’s been soiled.

And Harry Davis does a nice turn as a shopkeeper who’s forced to participate in the robbery, then turns “reckless” after a night with Lavinia (Joan Blondell) in her whorehouse.

Blye had made her big-screen debut earlier the same year in the Western “Hombre.” She plays Carroll O’Conner’s daughter here. In 1988, she’d play his girlfriend in the pilot of his TV series “In the Heat of the Night.”

Margaret Blye as Billie Copperub, pointing out her assailant to the cavalry in Waterhole #3 (1967)

Claude Akins as Sgt. Foggers, one of the men in on the gold robbery in Waterhole #3 (1967)

Directed by:
William A. Graham

Cast:
James Coburn … Lewton Cole
Carroll O’Connor … Sheriff Jim Copperud
Margaret Blye … Billee Copperud
Claude Akins … Sgt. Foggers
Timothy Carey … Hilb
Bruce Dern … Deputy Tippen
Joan Blondell … Lavinia
James Whitmore … Capt. Shipley
Harry Davis … Ben
Roy Jensen … Doc Quinlen
Jim Boles .. Cpl. Blyth

Runtime: 95 min.

Title song:
“Code of the West”
sung by: Roger Miller

Harry Davis as Ben, the shoemaker forced to cooperate with the gold thieves in Waterhole #3 (1967)

James Whitmore as Capt. Shipley, trying to get back the stolen gold in Waterhole #3 (1967)

Memorable lines:

Deputy Tippen: “You mean you want for us to take off everything we got on?”
Lewton Cole: “Down to the last little stitch.”
Sherrif Coppenrud: “Cole, why you doin’ this terrible thing to me?”
Lewton: “A naked sheriff makes a slow posse.”

Sheriff Copperud, inquiring about the man who “raped” her: “Was your man wearing a gambler’s coat and a brown vest?”
Billie Copperud: “Part of the time.”

Lewton Cole: “You gotta tell me why you named her Billie.”
Sheriff Copperud: “Well, her ma and me were trying to make a boy.”
Lewton: “You didn’t even come close.”

Lewton, describing his encounter with Billie: “Assault with a friendly weapon.”

Sheriff Copperud, grumbling about his horse: “Oh, Blue, he’d let anybody ride him.”

Carroll O’Connor as Sheriff Copperud and Bruce Dern as Deputy Tippen, about to be locked in their own jail cell in Waterhole #3 (1967)

James Coburn as Lewton Cole, in an unconventional gunfight with Doc Quinlen in Waterhole #3 (1967)

Joan Blondell as Lavinia, a whore offering some comfort to the shoemaker in Waterhole #3 (1967)

Margaret Blye as Billie Copperud, leaving the barn after her encounter with Lewton Cole in Waterhole #3 (1967)

Carroll O’Connor as Sheriff Jim Copperud, tempted to go bad thanks to a fortune in gold in Waterhole #3 (1967)

Margaret Blye as Billie Copperud, pondering her father’s lack of interest in her lost innocence in Waterhole #3 (1967)

Lewton Cole (James Coburn), Sheriff Copperud (Carroll O’Connor), Hilb (Timothy Carey) and Sgt. Foggers (Claude Akins) find the gold in Waterhole #3 (1967)