A day or two ago I was flipping through the various channels and caught the opening minutes of a mostly forgotten 1967 James Coburn film Waterhole #3.  Here’s a clip from the movie’s first fifteen or so minutes… 

So I’m watching the film and its dated and all but it tries to present, as can be seen a little in the clip, a humorous take on the Western.  Further, I’m a fan of the late actor James Coburn.  He’s completely in his element playing these types of characters.

However…

Immediately after this scene finishes, the character Coburn plays, wanted outlaw Lewton Cole, heads to the farm of the Sheriff seeking his horse.  There, in the barn, he meets up with the Sheriff’s daughter, played by Margarete Blye, and what follows…ugh.

Here’s the IMDB description of the film (the highlights are mine):

Sergeant Foggers and two Confederate soldiers lay their hands on gold bullion belonging to the army, taking at the same time a certain Ben Akajnian hostage. Then they bury the loot near an isolated waterhole in the desert. Some time later, Lewton Cole, a professional gambler, fights a duel with one of the robbers, kills him and finds the map of the treasure on his body. Stopping at the small town of Integrity, Cole, in order to escape Sheriff Copperud locks him up in his own jail-house, steals his horse and even finds the time to “seduce and abandon” Billee, the sheriff’s comely daughter. The indignant father catches up with Lewton, arrests him and grabs the gold. But Foggers and his accomplice attack him, relieve him of the treasure and free Cole…

Don’t let the “nice” description fool you: Cole rapes Billee.

He.  Rapes.  Her.

The movie, clearly a product of its time, presents the rape as a “humorous” seduction.  Billee finds Cole in her barn, with his pants down (I’m not entirely sure why he isn’t wearing his pants…I suppose that was meant to be part of the “fun”), and he corners her (“humorously”), she tries to fight him (“humorously”), he pulls her down to the ground (“humorously”), he starts kissing her (“humorously”), and then, but of course, she’s somehow charmed by his actions and succumbs to the passion.

Holy shit.

There is no “seduce” about this.  This is rape, plain and simply, and with that supposed “humorous” scene, I could no longer watch the film and had to turn it off.

Again, I know this movie is a product of its obviously unenlightened times.  Yet it is jarring being hit with something like this today, nearly fifty years later.  Clearly as a people we have advanced beyond these medieval -or worse!- attitudes.

Which brings me to, coincidentally enough, to another topic regarding older mores… specifically in Walt Disney World/Disneyland.

I’ve written about changes to rides to make them more politically correct before (you can read the original post here), noting how the original version of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (the basis for the successful Johnny Depp movie series) has changed over time.

Well, it appears there are more changes to come!

This article, by Ed Mazza and found on Huffingtonpost.com, notes that the famous Redhead at the very-politically incorrect “Wench Auction”, will be changed:

Disney To Remove “Wench Auction” From Pirates of the Caribbean Ride

This is what the “Wench Auction” looked like for most of the ride’s run, until now…

Here’s a slightly closer look, which illustrates the comely women being auctioned with one big exception…

I’m not surprised by the change at all.  Much as I enjoy the ride -and it is one of my favorites- it was originally designed just a little before the release of Waterhole #3, and, frankly, featured some of the same oddball sexuality played for laughs.

The “Wench Auction” scene is specifically played for laughs.  A bunch of captured women are being auctioned off to be “brides” (ie sex slaves, no?) and the “prize” of the auction is a beautiful redhead.  However, the auctioneer has to first get rid of a comely, fat, and ugly woman first while the potential buyers demand to have a go at the redhead.

Ho…ho?

Later on, and in the original version of the ride, we had another sexually charged humorous sequence involving pirates chasing down women in one home, then the next.  In the third home (the punchline), a larger woman chases the pirate with her broom.

Again, what are the pirates chasing the women hoping to get from them?  Were they hoping to capture them and then they would very politely convince them to make them a nice meal?

Yeah.  Right.

That later part of the ride was changed and no longer were the pirates chasing the women but the women were chasing the men.

Now, the “Wench Auction” is being done away with and, with that, the ride certainly will strip (no pun intended) itself of some of its last… uncomfortable… elements.

I know there are those who argue the Pirates are villains and by removing these more risque jokes they’re castrating (again, no pun intended) the ride.

However, this is a park devoted, ultimately, to children.  As such, perhaps its best to remove these elements that at one time may have been acceptable but, frankly, by today’s standards are not.

By the way, the “Wench Auction”, for those too lazy to click on the link above, will be changed in this way:

The Redhead is now a pirate and the “Auction” sign remains but no mention of any wenches or auction of the same.

The Redhead’s there for the loot!