Wanda Nevada (1979)

WANDA NEVADA  (1979)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Peter Fonda
    Peter Fonda, Brooke Shields, Luke Askew,
    Fiona Lewis, Ted Markland, Paul Fix,
    Severn Darden, Bert Williams, Henry Fonda
A gambler wins a girl in a poker game and the two of them hit the road in his Studebaker. A series of adventures leads them to the Grand Canyon, where they trade the car for some pack animals and go off on a search for gold. A crazy-ass, shaggy-dog western with some bits of magic realism, a few random acts of brutality, and a somewhat casual attitude toward the fact that its leading lady is seriously underaged. It helps a lot that as the playful, bickering relationship between Fonda and Shields becomes more affectionate, it stays platonic. She's as irritating as only a 13-year-old can be, and he's clearly not interested in her sexually. (When they cross paths with an attractive photographer who's about Fonda's age, it's a different story.) Henry Fonda does an eccentric cameo as a goggle-eyed prospector - the only time he and Peter appeared together on screen - and the motel clerk who gives Peter a hard time is Teri Shields, Brooke's mother.