Cherry, Harry & Raquel! 1969

The film opens with a subdued, almost clinical narration about the creeping danger of marijuana in contemporary life, framing the issue as a moral and social test. It sets a tone that is both observational and uneasy, hinting that vigilance against the so‑called pushers and smugglers is essential to keep the community safe. The commentary sits over barren landscapes and quiet, sun-bleached towns, preparing the viewer for a story that blends noir mood with a strained sense of social alarm.

Harry, Charles Napier, a small‑town border sheriff, makes his home at a long‑unused silver mine. He shares this austere setting with Cherry, Linda Ashton, an English nurse whose practical calm anchors the story’s other half. Into this already tense mix enters Raquel, Larissa Ely, a striking writer who uses her charm to tease and tease apart the local men’s defenses, turning flirtation into a kind of power play. The film also introduces Soul, Uschi Digard, a persona whose presence adds a half‑mystical edge to the desert tapestry, hinting at a more complicated moral economy beneath the surface.

The two women cross paths with wary curiosity, but Harry, suspicious of decadence and what he sees as un-American indulgences, resists the idea of two women sharing a sexual moment. His tension with sexual openness becomes a recurring undercurrent, a moral strain that will echo through the ensuing intrigues and betrayals.

Harry’s business partners include Enrique, Bert Santos, a Mexican‑American associate who works alongside the sheriff and a local politician, Mr. Franklin, Frank Bolger. Their operation, framed by a broader anti‑drug campaign, involves diverting marijuana across the border—a scheme that muddies loyalty and blurs lines of authority. Mr. Franklin informs Harry that their rogue associate, Apache, has stepped outside the agreed boundaries and must be neutralized. The plan to neutralize threats quickens the pace as Harry and Enrique venture into harsh desert terrain, hoping to confront Apache in the heat and dust.

As the pursuit unfolds, the plans unravel. Apache proves elusive, slipping away with Harry’s jeep and leaving a trail of broken confidences in his wake. The pursuit becomes a brutal contest of wit and firepower, a harsh reminder that violence often eclipses the motives that sparked it. Back in town, the dangerous calculus continues. Apache’s presence resjoins the narrative thread as he brutally overpowers the pursuit, turning the chase into a deadly game of cat and mouse. The consequence is swift and devastating: Enrique is killed in the desert when Apache rams him with Harry’s jeep, a moment that marks a clear moral turning point for the story. Just as Raquel has come to the hospital to be near Mr. Franklin, she discovers that Franklin has also been murdered, a discovery that intensifies the film’s spiral of danger and desire.

Raquel’s path leads her to a hospital where Cherry works as a nurse. In a twist that tightens the film’s intimate focus, Raquel brings a small case of marijuana cigarettes into her hospital room, and the two women share a secret moment. They dance together and experience a private, charged connection, a moment that expands the story beyond political conspiracy into personal rebellion and longing.

Meanwhile, the chase culminates in a violent confrontation at the mine. Apache arrives in the night, taunting Harry with the sound of a horn and a standoff erupts. A volley of gunfire follows; both men are wounded, and in the final exchange, Harry dies while Apache also falls. In the quiet aftermath, Cherry and Raquel remain together, their earlier intimacy lingering as a counterpoint to the violence that has just unfolded.

After the immediate danger subsides, a reflective voice—narration—considers the film’s message and the characters just witnessed. Then a startling twist reveals that the entire narrative has been a work of fiction, and that Raquel herself is the author. The manuscript’s pages pass from one hand to another, with Tom, a friend who had a past connection with Raquel, sharing a knowing look that hints at deeper entanglements behind the story’s frame. The closing image veers into the surreal: a naked woman running joyfully across a grassland, leaving the viewer with a lingering, ambiguous sense of freedom and consequence.

Throughout, the film blends stark, sunlit geography with a cool, cautionary mood, using setting—the desert, the mine, the hospital—as a kind of character in its own right. The performances—led by Charles Napier in the lead, supported by Linda Ashton, Larissa Ely, and Uschi Digard—anchor a story that refuses neat moral tidiness. The result is a tense, often provocative meditation on power, sex, and the unsure line between fiction and reality, all wrapped in a longform, atmospheric structure that keeps the viewer engaged through escalating danger, intimate moments, and a final, mind‑bending twist.