I think "Sam Whiskey" is a bit underrated and is actually one of Burt Reynolds' better films despite it's meager score of 5.9 on IMDB. It's very enjoyable...enough that you can look past the final portion of the movie which is, needless to say, farfetched....but fun.

Sam Whiskey (Reynolds) is certainly NOT a great hero in this film. He talks big and makes big promises, so that is why Laura (Angie Dickenson) hires this ne'er-do-well to do an anti-robbery! What is an anti-robbery? It's when you are paid to return something stolen without anyone being the wiser! In this case, apparently Laura's father stole gold from the local mint and replaced it with gold-painted lead blocks. Sam's job is to retrieve the faux gold and replace it with the original. First, he needs to hire some partners to help him. Second, he needs to retrieve the gold. Third, they need to somehow switch it with the fake stuff!

In many, many ways, this film is a like a lighthearted and slightly comic version of a later film, John Wayne's "The Train Robbers". The Wayne film is rated higher but I frankly enjoyed the Reynolds movie more even though how they replace the gold is hard to believe...especially since gold is MUCH heavier and difficult to work with than it is in the film! Worth seeing and fun...and, incidentally, the song Sam sings will DEFINITELY get stuck in your head if you do watch it!

Sam Whiskey (Burt Reynolds) is a roguish cad in the Old West. Seductive Laura Breckenridge (Angie Dickinson) recruits him to retrieve a sunken treasure. In turn, he recruits blacksmith Jed Hooker (Ossie Davis) and gunsmith O. W. Bandy (Clint Walker) to do some diving.

It's a nice enough western. There are some nice light laughs. There are some fun enough characters. Burt Reynolds is the embodiment of this character. This is a group of fun actors doing fun characters. I don't really understand why the trio doesn't take the gold and run. So the second half isn't as compelling since they aren't being reasonable. One would have to believe that Sam is completely smitten and whipped. One would also have to believe that the other two are such good buddies that they would support him no matter what. All of that is too unlikely. That's if one ignores some other unreasonable elements. Ignoring all that, this is still some light fun without much harm.

Playing the title role Burt Reynolds settles into the cynical good old boy character he would really shine in for the 70s and 80s in Sam Whiskey. Burt's playing a man no better than he should be who often goes back and forth on both sides of the law who gets an interesting proposition from widow Angie Dickinson.

It seems during the late war between the safe her late husband robbed the Denver Mint of a lot of its bullion. She wants to give it back, but not so anyone would know it was ever stolen because some fake bullion was left in its place and about to be discovered as the U.S. government is about to withdraw Greenbacks and resume specie type money. He gets $20,000.00 from Dickinson for he and his associates Ossie Davis and Clint Walker.

They to devise quite the caper and that I won't go into. Reynolds took a lot of his style and persona from James Garner and his Sam Whiskey could have been Jim Rockford in the old west. Dickinson's the kind of woman you don't turn down, she knows how to keep a man's interest.

Special mention goes to Woodrow Parfrey as the inspecting Treasury man from the east. Without knowing it Parfrey and his hapless checker playing self become an integral part of the caper.

A caper western in the tradition of The War Wagon and a good one.