Another of those borderline films from 1965, this time patterned almost exclusively after American Westerns. There’s the pistolero trying to live down his reputation and go straight (The Gunfighter, The Fastest Gun Alive ad nauseam); the noble sheriff torn between his duty and the nagging of his peace-loving wife (High Noon); as well as a-man’s-gotta-do-what-he’s-gotta-do dialogue, a “Gee whizz pa” doting son, plot points and other elements copied faithfully from the B-Western handbook.
The plot, like the moral outlook, is as simplistic as they come, with square-jawed Frenchman Jacques Berthier as a heroic lawman looking to retire, and Livio Lorenzon (as Charlie Lawrence) providing the only real spaghetti spark as the sadistic eponymous bandit whose depradations force Berthier into strapping on his gun again.
It’s thoroughly routine stuff, predictable, ill thought out and full of misnomers: why is Lorenzon’s comic-strip Mexican bandido named Charlie (he certainly doesn’t sound like he hails from Colorado)? And Berthier is christened Wild Bill when he’s really the stolid type.
The best one can say is that it’s considerably better than Roberto Mauri’s subsequent Shotgun.
I liked Shotgun. It was better than Mauri’s Spirito Santo trilogy. Although I must say, the lead was a bit wooden. Maybe I should watch Colorado Charlie too.
Colorado Charlie the bandit is a little over the top for me at times. I did not fully understand 100% why Charlie did not kill someone in a certain scene…forgot the specifics as viewed a while ago.
I prefer the story in Shotgun and do not mind Tab Hunter.
One of Mauri’s better films, which isn’t saying much but at least it has a story that makes some sense. Who the hell is composer Gioacchino Angelo? This film has one of the weakest SW theme songs ever, even Lacerenza can’t save it.
Trivia: re-released as “Un meticcio chiamato Cimitero” (= “A Halfbreed Called Cemetery”) with a very bizarre locadina showing a Klaus Kinski lookalike with sombrero. Does someone know the year of this re-release?
I watched this last night… It’s very american, recall me a bit Gary Cooper’s “High Noon” at the end… not that bad, but lacks the “spaghetti” feel into the main character, with full of love and scruples, that was the less thing I liked, I wish he could be just like Sartana, haha…
The dub version on portuguese didn’t come with the original music score, so can’t tell about it, instead, just a mexican ‘charanga’, haha
I watched it this afternoon and I agree with many of the comments above, very boring, very american and full of clichés. I didn’t like the score either.
If Mauri’s westerns were mediocre-bad by the 70’s, I can only imagine how boring it would be to watch one the Americanized Spaghettis directed by him. : I don’t think I’ll be watching this one any time soon.
This is Mauri’s first western I think. And the fact that he had improved by the time he made Sartana in the Sandpit of Doom tells you all you need to know about this lemon. Awful cast. Berthier is particularly unconvincing as the lead guy, Wild Bill. About as wild as a nice warm cardigan in reality. Livio Lorenzon adds some colour but the High Noonesque story combined with pitifully corny dialogue and annoying kid all adds up to old time B western style but without the quality.
I can only thank the lord that I got around to this one so late. If this had been the first spaghetti I saw it’s likely I would never have seen another. Strictly for completists.
“Arghhhhhhhhhh…I’m really sweating bullets with this stupid wig!”
Below average Spagh with a dull story and awful acting by all involved. The lead actor looked uninteresting and bored at times and there’s a few action scenes here and there. Livio Lorenzo with one of the worst wigs that i’ve seen, fared better as the Mexican Colorado Charlie, a little over the top, but at least he wasn’t annoying. Well, I made it thru the ending with a little help from a few beers.
I personally much prefer Shotgun, a.k.a. Vengeance Is My Forgiveness, to this one.
The only thing of note is a conversation in which we find a major theme of Once Upon a Time in the West over three years in advance (the movie was completed in August '65):
“Presentimento… Tu, tu, ‘‘Wild Bill’’, io… siamo già morti! Il telegrafo, il treno, il progresso… Già, il progresso… Ptuh!”
From the Italian Database:
(…) finale dove Berthier ammazza sette uomini con una pistola di 6 colpi.
Non ammazza sette uomini in quanto i banditi rimasti sono sei. Si sentono sette spari, ma
il penultimo può essere attribuito al bandito che sta arrivando a cavallo mentre noi vediamo Pedro (interpretato da Luigi Batzella) cadere a terra.
Contrary to what is stated in the Database and most other sources Alfio Caltabiano
is not credited as Alf Randall and has nothing to do with this western. Creonte was his character in Sergio Leone’s Il colosso di Rodi.
Charlie Andersen is not Cevenini (Anthony Ross, see Minnesota Clay thread),
Big Matthew should refer to Attilio Severini and not Giuseppe Mattei.
Watched this movie at the weekend on YouTube in english language.
Roberto Mauri’s debut in SW entertained me very well and I give it a rating of 6/10.
According to the ofdb there is a German VHS, see there for further details.
I don’t think I’ll be watching this one any time soon.
