Put away your thinking cap for this one, sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Boy, talk about getting from Point A to Point B by the most roundabout way possible, I think Burt Reynolds and crew did it here. The kicker to this whole story had to be melting down the gold bars recovered from the Bonnie Blue, pouring it into a mold of George Washington's bust, and melting it back down into bars to replace the stolen loot at the Denver mint. As a caper movie this one really kept you guessing, and it could have all gone South at any point along the way.I guess if you're going to take this story at face value, you have to accept the idea that Sam Whiskey and his new buddies are going to put a quarter million dollars worth of gold back into the Denver mint from which it was stolen by Laura's now dead outlaw husband, and not be tempted to keep it for themselves. I can't imagine why no one bothered asking Miss Breckenridge where she was getting the twenty grand to pay for the job, but I guess with her figure it didn't really matter.I became a Burt Reynolds fan when I first saw him in "The Longest Yard". No, not the 2005 one with Adam Sandler, the original one where he played Paul 'Wrecking' Crewe. This flick came out a few years earlier and the lack of a mustache makes him look even younger. I'd have to say Sam's (Reynolds) first meeting with Laura Breckenridge (Angie Dickinson) was pretty racy even for 1969.Reynolds had a pretty effective team for the reverse heist if you will, Ossie Davis and Clint Walker had credible character introductions for the roles they would assume in the story. I got a kick out of the signpost in the road that offered the way to Gila Bend and North Fork. For a minute there, I thought Chuck Connors might be right around the corner to join the boys. Old time Western fans will get the reference, everyone else will have to look it up.

Burt Reynolds and Anne Margaret sizzle with on screen chemistry in Burt Reynolds first good movie.Up till this point Burt had been in mostly forgettable movies like "Operation CIA" and "Navajo Joe" or smaller roles in movies like "Angel Baby" and "Armoured Command". Here he shines as he does the type of light comedy for which would become his trademark. Without his trademark moustache his performance is full of charm and wit, with a twinkle in his eye, he is clearly enjoying himself. Plot In A Paragraph: Sam Whiskey is an all round nice guy, but with a loud, fast mouth that gets him in trouble. He is willing to try his hand at just about anything but when the attractive widow Laura offers him a job, he is to salvage gold bars, which Laura's dead husband stole recently, from a sunken ship and secretly bring them back to the mint before they are missed. But how shall he manage to get several hundred pounds of gold into the mint without anyone noticing??Of the rest of the cast, frequent costar of Burt Reynolds, Sweet Ossie Davies who I adore, is great here, like wise Clint Walker. Anne Margaret is gorgeous, and it's easy to see how she tempted Reynolds character to do her bidding!!

Sam Whiskey is directed by Arnold Laven and written by William W. Norton. It stars Burt Reynolds, Ossie Davis, Clint Walker and Angie Dickinson. Music is by Herschel Burke Gilbert and cinematography by Robert C. Moreno. Widow Laura Breckenridge (Dickinson) offers Sam Whiskey (Reynolds) a $20,000 reward for the return of some gold that her late husband had stolen from the Denver mint. However, she doesn't want the gold for herself, she wants Sam to put it back into the mint before it's found to be stolen and soils her family name! Maybe it's because I consider myself a Reynolds fan that I found this to be a whole bunch of fun? That I appear to be at odds with critical consensus about Sam Whiskey's worth as entertainment? Stolen money burns a hole in your pocket. Sam Whiskey knows exactly what it's doing, it mixes the caper movie with a Western setting and lets the principal players have fun with it. The quadruple lead players bounce off of each other with considerable charming results, the set-up is suitably daft, a reverse robbery if you like, and there's no shortage of suspense and action. In fact the various twists that arise as Reynolds, Davis and Walker go about their mission of goodwill for the sultry Dickinson, are well implemented into the plot. The De Luxe colour photography is most pleasing, though the absence of scenic panoramas is sorely felt, and the music score is complementary to the tone of the story. True, the direction is hardly inspiring, the quirky nature of the whole thing narrows down the number of film fans it might appeal to and the idea is indeed thin. Yet for Reynolds fans it should be sought out, to see him at the end of the 60s before "his" time would come in the 70s. Watch him perform with a comedic glint in his eye, see Dickinson smoulder and raise temperatures, Walker play at odds with his macho persona, and Davis having fun being the tough boy of the group. Enjoy the cheekiness (Re: ludicrousness) of the caper, the early diving technique on show or sample the verbal amusement that comes from the stars. I just know I had a big enough grin on my face come the end to make this a strong 7/10 rating. Non Reynolds fans should probably knock a point off that rating, though.

This is a forgotten Burt Reynolds film, that is not really that bad. This is some humor in Burt's character, and Ossie Davis, The two were paired again years later in evening shade. maybe united artists will put this on dvd, or at least tape.