Red Headed Stranger is a 1986 Gothic Western drama film written and directed by William D. Wittliff. The film stars Willie Nelson and Morgan Fairchild and it is based on Nelson’s album Red Headed Stranger (1975), beginning production on April 29, 1985. The main set, a western town nicknamed “Willieville,” had been built over the previous two years across the road from Nelson’s golf course, thirty miles west of Austin, Texas. Most of the filming was done in “Willieville,” but nine other locations around Central Texas were also used.
The most convincing parts of the film show Nelson’s strayed-preacher character trying to redeem himself from a catastrophic fall from grace. Unfortunately, those sections take some time arriving. The plot of Red Headed Stranger concerns one Julian Shay (Nelson), a preacher who sets out from Philadelphia sometime in the 19th century in the company of his new bride, Raysha (Morgan Fairchild).
The couple arrives in the ramshackle Montana town of Driscoll, about which the new preacher hears harsh words from the minister he’s replacing. “Coldest snake I ever touched, this town,” the old preacher says. “You’ll be fighting the devil on his own ground here, sir.” The town is in the grips of the dastardly, scroungy Clavers family, headed by the vulture-eyed patiarch Larn. Character actor Royal Dano turns in one of the movie’s most memorable performances as Larn Clavers, who dominates the town by controlling its water supply.
As usual, Nelson’s personal charisma serves him well as an actor, although Witliff missed a bet by not letting the singer-actor’s lighter side come through. Television star Fairchild’s part offers her little to do or say and she does little with it Screen veterans Ross. Armstrong and Dano show by their on-target performances that it helps to have done this kind of thing before. The familiar songs from the Red Headed Stranger LP are brought into play throughout the film adaptation; Nelson has also provided new music for it.
