A cheap and cheerless spaghetti western starring no less than three former peplum strongmen. Kirk Morris gives a slightly wooden turn as the hero, left for dead by an outlaw gang and later deputising to take them down. Lots of action in this one but it's not particularly well staged and the director's aspirations towards grandeur doesn't really work very well. Gordon Mitchell is the best part as a crooked gunslinger and card cheat but Alan Steel's bad guy is below par. The whole film is distinctly average.
4 Reviews
Not very Smart.
dbdumonteil18 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
As the early sixties sword and sandal craze began to fade away ,many of the muscle men tried to move into spaghetti western;in this flick ,Kirk Morris and Gordon Mitchell tried their hand at wild west men;the latter is much more convincing,with his blue look which would certainly kill.Unfortunately Mitchell ,although at the top of the bill,disappears after a ten-minute stint;his part is pointless and does not bring anything to the plot...
This is the main problem: to write the screenplay is desultory is to state the obvious:why ,for instance does the hero yell he hates the Mexicans whereas his parents were killed in the Civil War?why does Jeff Smart (sic) leave Julie and her comfortable ranch where he could marry her ?(her dad obviously wants him to be his son-in-law)Why does he force the sheriff to take him as his deputy?As Smart has three or four lines with Katy ,the owner of the saloon,why these last lines to her?Some scenes are off the subject,particularly the death of the good friend (which justifies(?) Smart's desire for revenge) ,the card game.
A spaghetti western made of odds and ends .Only Mitchell plays his game well.On the plus side,a tuneful and hummable score,and cast and credits a la "wild wild west" series.
This is the main problem: to write the screenplay is desultory is to state the obvious:why ,for instance does the hero yell he hates the Mexicans whereas his parents were killed in the Civil War?why does Jeff Smart (sic) leave Julie and her comfortable ranch where he could marry her ?(her dad obviously wants him to be his son-in-law)Why does he force the sheriff to take him as his deputy?As Smart has three or four lines with Katy ,the owner of the saloon,why these last lines to her?Some scenes are off the subject,particularly the death of the good friend (which justifies(?) Smart's desire for revenge) ,the card game.
A spaghetti western made of odds and ends .Only Mitchell plays his game well.On the plus side,a tuneful and hummable score,and cast and credits a la "wild wild west" series.
Crap Movie
cpetersen194118 June 2020
GREAT WESTERN WITH 3 FORMER "HERCULES" STARS
larryanderson10 June 2020
This movie has 3 former HERCULES stars in it. Gordon Mitchell, Kirk Morris and Alan Steel all in the same movie. Kirk Morris is the lead who carries the story, about bloody revenge for the killing of his parents. Gordon Mitchell is a gambler who cheats at cards and gets killed by Morris. (There were 5 aces in the deck). Alan Steel is effective as the Mexican bandit leader who bungles every bank heist job. There are lots of female leads to enjoy. There is a rather explicit whipping of a woman, at least for 1968 standards. KM gets shot and falls into a lake but somehow manages to swim to the surface in an "artsy" looking bizarre sequence. When he gets to the road, director Amerigo Anton shows KM in pain and silently crying out as the sun at his back highlights his anguish. (It is almost like he DID DROWN and came back to life). (This scene is quit striking). He then convinces the Sheriff (almost begs him), to hire him as a deputy and then starts killing everyone who gets in his way. I always though KM looked like a "young" Elvis Presley. After the shooting stops, KM rides off leaving the bag of money he tried so hard to protect throughout the movie.
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