Louise Leroi / Frenchie King
An ace bandit who comes into the possession of a ranch.
- The Ace: She's a highly successful thief who directs her gang's robberies with army-like precision. She's a skilled shooter capable of Blasting It Out of Their Hands. She can ride broncos and tame them while in a frilly dress.
- Affably Evil: She’s pretty nice and fun to be around when she's not on the job or being annoyed by Maria.
- Alliterative Name: Much like her actress, with different letters.
- Berserk Button: As befitting a woman who's known as a king, Maria trying to order her around when they first meet sets her off more than anything else in the movie (though she waits until she leaves to vent).
- Big Eater: She was totally going to eat that third rabbit if Maria hadn’t interrupted her.
- Calling Card: Louise likes to leave white flowers in the scenes of her crimes (preferably pinned on her wanted posters too).
- Card-Carrying Villain: She's pretty proud of being the greatest thief ever.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Louise seems to smoke a lot both after an adrenaline-charged event (smoking three cigarettes in a row after a train robbery) and before (smoking twice while waiting for Maria to come to her after kidnapping her brothers). Marquis remarks that she's smoking too much in the former case.
- Daddy's Little Villain: Her dad was the original Frenchie King and she succeeded him when he died.
- The Dreaded: Being a highly successful, nigh-uncatchable thief will do that to your reputation.
- Easily Forgiven: You'd think Maria would have some long-lasting issues with her for kidnapping her brothers, but no. Everything is alright between them after their fight.
- Evil Wears Black: Her outfit as Frenchie King is all black.
- King of Thieves: She doesn’t actually have a large crew of bandits at her beck and call; she just got the title because she’s very successful.
- Leitmotif: "Les Petroleuses"
, which, despite the name, isn't actually the main theme of the movie; that'd be "Generique". - Lovable Rogue: Louise is beautiful, smart, charming and goes out of her way to be honorable and not hurt people unless it's really necessary (though she's ruthless if it is).
- Meaningful Name: Leroi means "the king" and she's considered the king of thieves in the West, not to mention she also tends to act haughty and dignified and unworthy of peasant trash like Maria (*ahem*), like royalty. * Though it's worth noting that only her father, the original Frenchie King, is referred to by their family name in the movie.
- Never a Self-Made Woman: Frenchie King’s legend originated with her father, not her. She’s “just” perpetuating it.
- Noble Demon: She faces off against Maria alone for a more fair fight, even though she could’ve had her sisters back her up or they all could’ve overpowered Maria.
- Retired Outlaw: By acquiring the Little P. ranch, she intends to settle down and presumably live off the spoils of her robberies. It’s not clear whether this was going to be permanent or temporary but it doesn’t work out in the end at any rate.
- She Is the King: Frenchie King is her title, but she’s a woman.
- Smug Smiler: Louise is a self-assured and relaxed person, so she sports this expression for a great deal of the movie, especially when dealing with Maria.
- Spanner in the Works: Louise ruins the ambitions of a murderous doctor without realizing them or what kind of person he is. But subverted because in the end, all she really managed to do was delay him, and what finishes him off is an explosion she had no hand in causing.
- Villain Protagonist: She’s a thief, and not even the Robin Hood type of thief; she steals from anyone for herself and her family, and won’t hesitate to use violence on people who don’t submit to her.
Maria Sarrazin
The bad-tempered head of the horse-breeding Sarrazin family, who discovers that the ranch has oil.
- Badass Longcoat: Maria gets one with the white outfit that Louise gives her.
- Big Sister Instinct: If nothing else, the woman is protective of her brothers, not hesitating to go to Little P. ranch all on her lonesome against terrible odds to save them.
- Cassandra Truth: Aunt Amelie doesn’t believe her when she tells her that the Little P. ranch has oil.
- The Dreaded: On a smaller scale than Louise. The inhabitants of Bougival Junction are terrified of her, as she has a reputation for being trigger-happy.
- Family-Values Villain: She’s pretty mad when she sees that the figurine of baby Jesus is without its head. She also implicitly disapproves of her aunt Amelie’s work in the oldest profession. And she thinks she shouldn’t be alone in the house while meeting a potential suitor.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: She fights Louise to fulfill her own ambitions, not because Louise is an outlaw. At the end, Maria becomes part of her gang.
- Hot-Blooded: She’s easily angered and passionate in its expression.
- Iron Lady: She’s not officially the leader of Bougival Junction, but the inhabitants are quick to cower before her and obey her, to the point where she has more power than the marshall.
- Leitmotif: "La Chevauchee Corse".
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: She doesn’t like seeing her brothers around Louise’s sisters, though her wrath is usually directed at the boys for straying, not at the sisters for approaching them.
- Of Corsets Sexy: Gets a red corset from her aunt for Christmas, which she wears and strips down to during the town fair.
- Spell My Name With An S: IMDB and other sources list her name as Marie. You don’t see her name written anywhere in the movie but everyone clearly pronounces it Maria.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Maria clearly enjoys the power that wearing pants and wielding guns gives her, but she also adores the corset she gets from her aunt.
- Tough Love: She's very harsh on her brothers but that's how she thinks she should lead her family.
- True Blue Femininity: The most elegant dress she owns is blue. She wears it when she goes to visit her aunt.
- Unkempt Beauty: She doesn’t take as good care of her appearance as Louise (justified as she’s poor and works with horses) but she’s still more beautiful than average.
- Villain Protagonist: Unlike Louise, she’s not a criminal (until the end of the movie), but she’s unscrupulous, way more vicious than Louise and enjoys terrorizing people.
Marshall Morgan Jefford
Played by: Michael J. Pollard
The ditzy, unmotivated sheriff of Bougival Junction.
- All Love Is Unrequited: He starts the movie feeling attracted to Maria, but his crush seems to merely amuse her. The one time she seems to give him a chance she’s just trying to play him into giving her the ranch. Later he spends time with Louise at the town fair and falls for her, but she’s just keeping him busy so her sisters can kidnap the brothers, and she cares about him even less.
- Animals Hate Him: His horse does, anyway. Runs away the moment he calls for it. But Confucius seems to like him fine.
- Distracted by the Sexy: He won’t arrest Louise or Maria because he’s too busy ogling them.
- Dogged Nice Guy: He's alright, if ditzy, but Louise and Maria are simply out of his league.
- Everybody Calls Him "Barkeep": The only people who call him Morgan are himself, and Maria one time she tries to seduce him. The rest of the time, people just call him Marshall.
- Funny Foreigner: He only starts learning French a good while into the movie, so his broken conversations with the other characters can get quite humorous.
- Good Is Impotent: He’s the only character in the movie that can be considered good but he’s completely incapable of putting a stop to Louise and Maria’s schemes.
- Police Are Useless: He’s too smitten by Maria to stop her disruptive behavior and is completely ineffective in giving Dr. Miller his ranch back and arresting the invaders. The posse accompanying Miller has to do the latter for him.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: He’s not crazy about being marshall of a town of French immigrants.
- Turn in Your Badge: At the end, he throws away his badge and presumably resigns for failing to keep the promise he made near the start of the movie that he'd take Frenchie King to the gallows.
Virginie, Caroline, Little Rain and Elisabeth Leroi
Played by: Emma Cohen, Teresa Gimpera, Patty Shepard and France Dougnac (respectively)
Louise’s half-sisters and gang members.
- Acceptable Feminine Goals and Traits: They confide amongst each other and to the Sarrazin brothers that they’d rather settle down and start a family than keep the outlaw lifestyle going. This is balanced out by Louise and Maria who express no such desires.
- Ax-Crazy: Virginie shows shades of this when she asks/screams who they're going to kill in response to Louise saying they’ll take over the ranch (Louise answers rhetorically), goes completely ballistic for the bar brawl, and at first doesn’t want to stop Louise and Maria’s fight.
- Card Sharp: One particular con of theirs involves cheating at poker by using “girl talk” as a code so men won’t pay attention, but it gets discovered by the Sarrazin brothers anyway.
- Chairman of the Brawl: Caroline smashes a chair over Luc's head during the bar brawl.
- Dub Name Change: In the German dub, Little Rain's name is Blue Sight (as it happens, she's the only one with blue eyes), and Elisabeth's name is Elise.
- Flat Character: Their personalities are basically “the same but less” as Louise. Virginie maybe escapes this with her little quirks but they’re pretty isolated from the rest of the movie.
- Informed Flaw: Virginie is apparently short-sighted, but only wears glasses in a single scene, and it doesn’t make her a liability anywhere in the movie.
- The Nose Knows: In the nutty Italian dub, it’s said that Virginie has a great sense of smell to compensate for her poor eyesight, and she manages to detect the Sarrazin bros through it.
- Number Two: Leadership is deferred to Caroline in Louise’s absence. Notice how she directs the other sisters when they go scouting in the bar, and how Louise only talks to Caroline when they’re discussing what to do with the kidnapped brothers despite the others being right there.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Virginie and Caroline. The former is ambiguously crazy and quick to jump into action while the latter is calmer and more of a responsible big sister type.
- Token Minority: Little Rain is the only one with non-pure European origins, and that’s made clear by her entire character screaming “Native American”.
Luc, Jean, Marc and Matthieu Sarrazin
Played by: Patrick Prejean, Riccardo Salvino, Georges Beller and Oscar Davis (respectively)
Maria’s dim-witted brothers.
- All There in the Script: Only Matthieu is directly called onscreen. The others' names are only heard when Morgan leaves their house and Maria calls for them all together, making it impossible to tell who is who without looking it up.
- Dumb Is Good: They’re not heroes by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re a lot nicer than their smarter big sister Maria.
- Expy: Rowdy and immature men with religious names sounds a lot like Adam’s brothers in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. This makes sense, as the part where the Leroi sisters kidnap them and fall in love with them is taken from that movie, only gender-flipped.
- Flat Character: They’re childish young men and that’s the extent of their characterization.
- Manchild: They can’t be younger than 20, but they’re very immature, shirking off their chores to goof off the minute Maria is out the door.
- My New Gift Is Lame: Marc gets a bust of Napoleon Bonaparte for Christmas and is bummed out by it. To be fair, he’s been getting that same present for years and has a cabinet full of them.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Luc and Marc. Luc is shown to be more nervous and excitable, while Marc seems to have a cooler head and even be a bit more mature than the other brothers (but only a little bit).
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The Four Gospels.
- Squat's in a Name: They might be named after biblical people but that doesn’t really reflect in their personalities.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Luc turns out to be claustrophobic when he’s put in a pit by the Lerois.
Marquis
Played by: Leroy Haynes
The manservant to the Leroi family.
- Mammy: He's a fat and aged servant who takes care of all domestic chores, he acts motherly to the Lerois and occasionally nags Louise to take better care of herself. The one thing missing is, you know, actually being female, which is probably the point considering how this movie parodies gender roles.
- Meaningful Name: His name is a noble rank. He serves a family whose name means "the king".
- Old Retainer: His previous boss was the original Frenchie King, Louise's father. Louise treats him like family.
- Prone to Tears: Marquis breaks down in tears at the slightest mention of his former boss or at the idea of Louise's sisters staying out late (as if they couldn't take care of themselves).
- Token Minority: The Lerois are all white (well, Little Rain is half-white), and Marquis is black.
Spitting Bull
Played by: Valery Inkijinoff
The manservant to the Sarrazin family.
Amelie Pastucci
Played by: Micheline Presle
Maria’s aunt on her mother’s side. Runs a brothel/casino and is rather wealthy (despite what she might say).
- Of Corsets Sexy: She first appears singing while wearing a revealing corset.
- Miss Kitty: Runs a brothel in Fort Sage and is probably a prostitute herself. If Louise had ever met her, she’d have had a field day at Maria’s expense.
- The Scrooge: While she's more than happy to buy presents every year for her niece and nephews, she doesn't like the idea of lending money to Maria. Only after Maria threatens to go to the bank, which she hates since she thinks bankers are all thieves, does she lend her 5 dollars, and then sends her to gamble in her rigged casino.
Dr. F. B. Miller
Played by: Henri Czarniak
A medical doctor who buys the Little P. ranch for its oil but gets his identity stolen by Louise.
- Asshole Victim: He doesn’t hesitate to kill a man so he doesn’t have to share his fortune, so you probably won’t feel too bad for him when Louise mugs him, gets his deed and assumes his identity.
- Kick the Dog: Throws Confucius out the train’s window for no reason, other than it came too close to his briefcase. The ranch is in his name, so he has nothing to fear, and it’s not like the dog can prove he killed someone, so…
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: He’s a murderer who doesn’t care about anything except the oil fortune.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Since he gets injured pretty badly by Louise, he’s out of commission and too far from Bougival Junction to do anything until near the end of the movie.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He doesn’t appear much and isn’t hugely important, but if it weren’t for his deed, there’d be no story.
- The Unfought: Louise and Maria are so busy fighting each other that they don’t notice his arrival, so they don’t face him for the possession of Little P. ranch.
- Waking Up Elsewhere: Louise chucks his unconscious self off the train, leaving him for dead, but then an Asian man finds him, takes him to his house and nurses him back to health (for a price).
