Spaghetti Western Trivia: Raquel Welch, Jim Brown and Burt Reynolds

 

Raquel Welch was well known for many reasons and one of them is making film history with African American actor Jim Brown. The duo starred in the 1969 Western 100 Rifles and made history for the first-ever interracial love scenes in a film. Burt Reynolds was also in the film.

According to Landrum C, Brown asked for a towel to be placed between his body and Welch's during romantic scenes but never said why. It's believed he wanted to lessen the impact of his being in such an intimate scene with a white woman. Brown did not socialize with Welch because he did not want anyone to get the assumption that he was "coming on" to his co-star. Reynolds said that he had to referee fights between Raquel and Jim and that Welch also was at odds with him.

Reynolds also said that Welch required that she was never in the same scene with him but that she was professional and always showed up on time. Welch admitted in later years that she was afraid Reynolds would steal scenes from her because he was so charismatic. The film did not obtain great reviews and was considered a Spaghetti Western which most times were cheap B-grade films made in the 1960s-1970s in countries like Spain with characters whose names are Django or Sartana and are antiheroes.

In later years 100 Rifles has developed a cult following and the film is being thought about differently today than when it was made. Raquel Welch and Jim Brown set the stage for other film characters to have romantic scenes with co-stars of a different race. Even though they clashed during the filming of the movie Brown says they later dated.