The standout section of this ultra-low budget later period Spaghetti Western is easily the buildup to the climax of the film when lovely doe-eyed Marina Malfatti (she of the porcelain flesh from THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE) and Monica Miguel's sneering, oddly costumed Pistoleress have a duel using bullwhips.
Up until then I didn't "get" this one, which is a rather plodding tale about a gunslinger referred to as Sartana (Tony Kendall, minus his trademark mirrored sunglasses) who engages in the standard mission of vengeance to bring justice to the man who killed his brother/father/cousin/notary public (can't remember for the life of me). Along the way he meets up with Ms. Malfatti, who is kidnapped and "interfered with" by Ms. Miguel and her band of similarly strangely costumed banditos. For added novelty there is a Woody Strode like buddy for the movie's resident black dude, who also embodies the film's novel killing gimmick deal by wearing a vest of throwing knives. Aside from the bullwhips he is the most interesting thing in the film and his death -- phoned in from HALLS OF MONTEZUMA or any other buddy/action flick you care to mention -- leaves a vacuum in the film that is only filled by sleaze.
This is one of the instances where a stringently low budget kind of works against these projects: I love later period Spaghetti's but this one was sort of hard to follow, lacked energy and had sort of odd pacing. Kendall is good but one doesn't get the impression he has handled a gun very much, and the catfight scenes are actually more exciting than the traditional action interludes, which sort of shows the director acknowledging that there was something lacking. Maybe some sunglasses. But one interesting thing about Kendall's gunslinger: He doesn't smoke. Nobody smokes in the whole film, where Spaghetti Westerns are often all about smoking.
4/10
Up until then I didn't "get" this one, which is a rather plodding tale about a gunslinger referred to as Sartana (Tony Kendall, minus his trademark mirrored sunglasses) who engages in the standard mission of vengeance to bring justice to the man who killed his brother/father/cousin/notary public (can't remember for the life of me). Along the way he meets up with Ms. Malfatti, who is kidnapped and "interfered with" by Ms. Miguel and her band of similarly strangely costumed banditos. For added novelty there is a Woody Strode like buddy for the movie's resident black dude, who also embodies the film's novel killing gimmick deal by wearing a vest of throwing knives. Aside from the bullwhips he is the most interesting thing in the film and his death -- phoned in from HALLS OF MONTEZUMA or any other buddy/action flick you care to mention -- leaves a vacuum in the film that is only filled by sleaze.
This is one of the instances where a stringently low budget kind of works against these projects: I love later period Spaghetti's but this one was sort of hard to follow, lacked energy and had sort of odd pacing. Kendall is good but one doesn't get the impression he has handled a gun very much, and the catfight scenes are actually more exciting than the traditional action interludes, which sort of shows the director acknowledging that there was something lacking. Maybe some sunglasses. But one interesting thing about Kendall's gunslinger: He doesn't smoke. Nobody smokes in the whole film, where Spaghetti Westerns are often all about smoking.
4/10
