It's the JFK assassination - The Western! The plot of this film would easily still be playable in cinemas in 2017. No stolen gold here, no Mexicans, relevant social commentary, and actual politics! The President killed in this one is President Garfield, but here Garfield is killed in Dallas in an open top carriage beside his glamorous wife and shot in the neck and head whereas the real Garfield was killed in Baltimore (I think) and died eight months later of his wounds. This one is JFK all the way.
Gemma plays the son of a man who is murdered when he gets wind of the initial assassination plot to blow up the president's train. Gemma manages to stop that attempt but fails to stop people shooting the president in Dallas and pinning the murder on Gemma's black mate, who was merely trying to stop the actual assassins! Conspiracy theories arise right away as the actual killers track down and kill the accused, whereas most folk don't believe he did it anyway. This leads to several characters (one of which is disabled and goes around in a wheelchair) to figure out where the actual shots came from and track down the killers.
To complicate things further there is an upper layer of bad guys who have been orchestrating the whole lot and are trying to start a second Civil War! These guy have to try and control the barely sane Confederate guys who are still smarting from the result of the civil war, and also contend with a mysterious government guy who is trying to cover up the crime but also bring those responsible to justice.
There's an awful lot of plot in this one, but Tonino Valeri manages to squeeze in a lot of action too, thankfully. Gemma was an acrobat in a previous life and although he does his thing here, he plays it all deadly serious and has many gun fights with the numerous bad guys, including a gunfight in pitch darkness! Fernando Ray is especially good as the refined bad guy trying to conduct all this bad business without getting his hands dirty, but the main star here for me is Stelvio Massi's camera-work. There's just something about the way he handles every shot that enlivens everything you see here.
Not a film to watch when tired, but really rewarding in that it is a Spaghetti Western that contains very few clichés and oodles of plot.
Gemma plays the son of a man who is murdered when he gets wind of the initial assassination plot to blow up the president's train. Gemma manages to stop that attempt but fails to stop people shooting the president in Dallas and pinning the murder on Gemma's black mate, who was merely trying to stop the actual assassins! Conspiracy theories arise right away as the actual killers track down and kill the accused, whereas most folk don't believe he did it anyway. This leads to several characters (one of which is disabled and goes around in a wheelchair) to figure out where the actual shots came from and track down the killers.
To complicate things further there is an upper layer of bad guys who have been orchestrating the whole lot and are trying to start a second Civil War! These guy have to try and control the barely sane Confederate guys who are still smarting from the result of the civil war, and also contend with a mysterious government guy who is trying to cover up the crime but also bring those responsible to justice.
There's an awful lot of plot in this one, but Tonino Valeri manages to squeeze in a lot of action too, thankfully. Gemma was an acrobat in a previous life and although he does his thing here, he plays it all deadly serious and has many gun fights with the numerous bad guys, including a gunfight in pitch darkness! Fernando Ray is especially good as the refined bad guy trying to conduct all this bad business without getting his hands dirty, but the main star here for me is Stelvio Massi's camera-work. There's just something about the way he handles every shot that enlivens everything you see here.
Not a film to watch when tired, but really rewarding in that it is a Spaghetti Western that contains very few clichés and oodles of plot.