DARKER THAN AMBER. RED DAWN. THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR. RUMBLE FISH. GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE. Whether he was playing a supporting role or a starring one, William Smith always had a commanding on-screen presence, in everything from drive-in exploitation to primetime network hits like RICH MAN, POOR MAN. Produced by Smith and his old LAREDO co-star Peter Brown, this rural melodrama gave him a meatier part than usual, as a title character accused of a heinous crime he did not commit. Initially released in 1973 as CAMPER JOHN, distributor Cinemation Industries tried out the more salacious title THE SINS OF BETTY SCHAFFER a year later, with the film eventually turning up on TV as GENTLE SAVAGE... Camper John Allen (Smith) is a struggling, short-tempered Native American who lives on the reservation and has a bad habit of causing trouble after a few drinks. One night, while leaving the rowdy local tavern, blonde tease Betty (C.J. Hincks) asks drunken Camper for a lift on his motorcycle. He stupidly agrees. And when horny Betty tries to seduce him, her wealthy, "Injun"-hating stepfather Ken Schaffer (Kevin Hagen) walks in on the pair and flies into a rage. The next morning, our hungover protagonist discovers that he's a wanted man, wrongfully charged with raping Betty, after the badly-beaten young woman has been pressured to lie by her abusive stepdad. With the aid of his friends, Camper John escapes from police custody, even as vengeful Schaffer gathers a lynch mob of redneck racist townsfolk. A resulting family tragedy soon gives Camper John a damned good reason to destroy everything in sight, including explosives, hostages and a showdown with the law. Alas, there's an anti-climactic ending just as the film is getting good... Smith has several decent emotional moments along the way, but his performance can't completely save the film from workmanlike direction by Sean MacGregor (DEVIL TIMES FIVE) and a lack of focus -- unsure if it wanted to be a well-intentioned take on Native American oppression or simplistic drive-in exploitation, with incongruous comic moments (such as when the sheriff and his deputy are striped down to their tighty-whities, handcuffed together and forced to trudge back to town that way) further undercutting any serious agenda. Like Smith, the supporting cast tries their best, with Gene Evans (star of Samuel Fuller's THE STEEL HELMET and FIXED BAYONETS!) as Sheriff McVaney, Joe Flynn is milquetoast Deputy Moody and R.G. Armstrong owns the town bar. Supporting Native Americans are played by a long-haired Robert Tessier, Henry Brandon turns up as an aged Holy Man, plus Barbara Luna is Camper's girlfriend and mother of his young son. As Betty's stepdad, Hagen lays it on extra thick but makes a suitably vile heavy (and, immediately after this gig, proved his versatility by playing kindly Doc Baker on over 100 episodes of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE).

© 2023 by Steven Puchalski.