DEAD MEN DON'T COUNT is a Spanish western featuring not one but two leads for your buck. These are Anthony Steffen, that veteran of seemingly dozens of similarly sweaty spaghetti westerns, and Mark Damon, formerly the clean-cut kid of Roger Corman's FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER before he emigrated to Italy to make a name for himself in the western genre.
The story is nothing special but the film itself has style to spare and is packed with an increasing amount of action, with large-scale gun-fights dominating the screen particularly in the second half of the movie. The director's speciality is to have his two stars sweep their guns across the screen in sudden ambushes, wiping out huge gangs of bad guys in one fell swoop. It's an effect that never gets old and indeed provides much of the fun of the production. Elsewhere, plot elements include railroad-building, a corrupt sheriff, and a love story. The film is heavily derivative of the Leone trilogy and the score sounds suspiciously like Morricone throughout, but DEAD MEN DON'T COUNT is still solid fun.
The story is nothing special but the film itself has style to spare and is packed with an increasing amount of action, with large-scale gun-fights dominating the screen particularly in the second half of the movie. The director's speciality is to have his two stars sweep their guns across the screen in sudden ambushes, wiping out huge gangs of bad guys in one fell swoop. It's an effect that never gets old and indeed provides much of the fun of the production. Elsewhere, plot elements include railroad-building, a corrupt sheriff, and a love story. The film is heavily derivative of the Leone trilogy and the score sounds suspiciously like Morricone throughout, but DEAD MEN DON'T COUNT is still solid fun.