Two Mules for Sister Sara

Channel surfing while cooking breakfast is a Saturday-only pasttime. During the week, there's the Dallas news and on Sundays, CBS's Sunday Morning. But on Saturdays the news is spotty depending on when the griddle is heating up and I head for the movie channels.

AMC is all about Westerns on Saturday and I can usually click right through. But this morning, it was a favorite, one I can't help but watch every time, Two Mules for Sister Sara.

Released in 1970, I think this was the first movie I ever saw twice at a theater. I went with my family first, then back on a Sunday afternoon with a girlfriend. It's such a classic: classic Western, classic woman in distress (yeah, right), classic romance.

But the real fun part is with the second viewing. Finding out that Sister Sara, played mischievously by Shirley MacLaine, is really a prostitute and that Hogan, Clint Eastwood's character, has been hoodwinked for 90% of the movie is a surprise for the first viewing. The second time around, you can watch for the signs, like in The Sixth Sense. Knowing what is going to happen allows you to admire the storyteller's craft. Just as Clint was taken in, you were taken in. He gets his "revenge" and you are vicariously along for the ride.

And breakfast? Clean it up during the (too) long commercials and have that third cup of coffee while they ride off into the sunset, burro, scarlet dress, and all.