Bob Henryâs real name is Robert Henry Hensley. He recorded a couple of songs while living in England one was âThey Taken Our Childhood Awayâ backed with âHow Can I Tell Youâ(1969) on Polydor. He also recorded under the name of Jericho Brown âLittle Nevaâ bw âDarling I Love Theeâ (1957) âLonesome Drifterâ bw âI Need Youâ (1958), âBluebirdâ bw âThese Are the Thingsâ (1962).
they put a chinese man to play the role of a mexican general LOL!!!
the gunfights scenes are bore and so the actingâŚ
a SW close to fidani crapâŚ
when i buy from xploited cinema i was total disapointed
and now i remember this for a long time
after all was in my worst and a winer of my top bottom 20 :o
i buy this 32 dollars not worth even free!
I watched this last night. I found it to be one of the daftest plots outside an outright comedy western. The whole premise that the gang could be infiltrated by a gold prospector with a converted telescope to fool the mexi-baddy was laughable (did he ever find any gold to convince him?). Mexi-baddy Wangâs character deviates from sadistic (attempted) rapist and cold-bloodied killer, to amiable buffoon and caring buddy within seconds. And why did they attempt to blow a hole in the wall from inside when they had a load of cannon outside which couldâve done the job - instead of them being used indiscriminately to blast away at the folk inside - innocent or naughty?
There were a couple of dark patches - the massacre and the self-sacrifice (I wonât ruin it), but the overall feeling was of a much lighter tone than the cinema preview would have us believe.
Strangely, I found it rather good, :o and was never bored - so I go along with the majority here⌠entertaining!
Watched for the third time or so, but this time not drunk. Henry isn´t much of a leading man and Bergonzelli not much of a director. It´s ok, but there are no memorable scenes whatsoever. Wang is probably the best thing about this film.
Yes Wang is not bad at all, probably my favourite Spaghetti role I have seen him in so far.
Watched this one as the fourth Bergonzelli after Jim il primo, Su le mani, cadavere! Sei in arresto and El Cisco. One can say that this one is the best so far in a row ranging between crap and mediocre. Wang is the best thing about the movie, without question. Bob Henry is an impressive physical appearance and some of the filming locations are well chosen. But thatâs all to this oneâs credit- I agree with Bad Lieutenant [quote=âBad Lieutenant, post:24, topic:1328â]⌠Bergonzelli [is] not much of a director.[/quote]
I think this one deserves more attention. I watched it for the first time and I was entertained from start to finish. I love the theme, as well. The only thing I would have changed was the ending. I would have preferred El Condor to have a dramatic death. I thought it was a little strange that Scotty didnât want to shoot him. Even if they did bond with each other, it was only because he needed to get the job done and El Condor was hardly a sympathetic character. Does the smile on his face somehow justify killing innocent people and raping Jane whenever he was drunk? It reminded me of that moment in Texas Adios when they decide that Livio Lorenzonâs character isnât that bad after all since he used to âbelieve in justice.â The only reason I tolerated such madness in Texas Adios is because the whole film is full of ridiculous and nonsensical moments and I love that film for those reasons since I donât have to take it too seriously. However, this film was much more serious throughout, so Scottyâs affection for El Condor was extremely bizarre and out of place. Nevertheless, I recommend this one. It definitely belongs on the list of âhidden gems.â
While everybodyâs busy following the European Football Championship, I unflaggingly dedicate my precious time to scientific research in the burgeoning field of Spaghetti Western studies. Here are some (rambling) thoughts on Una colt in pugno al diavolo.
Already its opening sequence insults the viewersâ temporal and spatial understanding of moving pictures (shaped by cinematic conventions, of course). A wagon train is rolling through a barren desert landscape, from the left side of the frame to the right. The first cut directs the viewersâ attention up a cliff, from which seven armed riders look down. According to conventional camera movement, positioning, and cutting, the riders would watch the wagons from the trekâs left side. The wagons turn around, reverse direction, and now are moving from the frameâs right side to its left. Where are the armed riders, left or right? Next cut: the wagons are still moving from right to left. Cut: a look down at the trek from the viewpoint of the presumptive bandits; it moves from the right side to the left side, and the armed riders are again to its left side. Somethingâs wrong: either the first shot of the bandits was spatially (or temporally) misplaced, or they have changed their position and moved from one side of the âcanyonâ to the other. The camera zooms in on the mounted bandits: they still are clearly on top of a cliff, the only background blue sky.
The bandits start firing but â irritatingly â straight, not down, as would be expected.
Next cut: where are they now? How did they get down so fast?
Cut to close-ups of the banditsâ revolvers: verdure in the back.
âSculpting out of timeâ and just one of many instances of bad editing in Una colt in pugno al diavolo. The next one occurs right after the title sequence: again, the temporal and spatial coherence of consecutive shots is neglected, as the sheriff leaves his room and presumably âzapsâ down the main street to a horse with a dying rider on its back. Even an approaching man and woman in the background are out of time and space from cut to cut.
Mounted across the main street, a huge banner greets viewers and visitors: âWelcome to Las Vegas.â Why did the makers of Una colt ⌠choose this town? Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905. At the time of the filmâs temporal setting, it wasnât much more than an abandoned fort. Nevada gained statehood at the end of the Civil War, during which it was mainly pro-Union. Sergio Bergonzelli has Confederate troops stationed in Nevada. In their first scene, the commanding officers â who wear uniforms that look like leftovers from a WW I movie â study a map showing âFederal Land Grants Made to the Railroadsâ and railroad lines completed years after the movieâs time frame.
âDeath Valley he called it. Well, I suppose one nameâs as good as another.â Again, a strange decision by the movieâs makers: Death Valleyâs dislocation from California to Utah. Of course, Westerns, and in particular Italian Westerns, shouldnât be judged in terms of historical or geographical verisimilitude. Nevertheless, a certain degree of semblance or plausibility is required to obtain the viewersâ willingness to involve themselves into a (conventional mainstream) movieâs narrative (cf. Coleridgeâs suspension of disbelief).
I tried to like Una colt ⌠but failed. I think its cinematic craftsmanship leaves too much to be desired to take the film seriously. It suffers from sloppy editing, careless production design and ill-founded historical and geographical setting; not to mention thespian ineptitude, ranging from clumsiness (Bob Henry, Lucretia Love) to histrionics (George Wang, Marisa Solinas).
Nice read. Spaghetti western writers/directors were very negligible in this aspect. I often write about spaghetti westerns and Iâm neither a historian nor a geographer (nor a film scholar) so Iâm rather negligible in this aspect as well. We all bring in our own competence when watching and writing about movies (or for instance books).
Also not busy following the above.
I laughed about the Las Vegas thing, too, but I still found it incredibly enjoyable. 3/5 from me.
Was watching Seven Blood Stained Orchids and thought Pier Paolo Capponi looked a lot like Bob Henry.
I failed too !
This title haunts me 
I felt I could try out Colt in the Hand of the Devil with Robert Woods recently and I ordered a DVD-R but after some encouraging comments in this thread, my first mistake.
Then I was dissatisfied with the 3+ minutes (9-10 short sequences) of extremely bad image quality, and ordered a new one - at least I thought so.
Since it was not the 1973 film with Woods I ordered the second time but a 1967 film with the same title and actually the film I had first read about in this very thread, my second mistake !
The new copy was a nice DVD with high image quality, but it was not in the style I like at least not in the first half hour. Slightly bored and with increasing irritation I turned it of after 31 minutes. It also felt a bit âAmericanâ in style.
I think it is only the second time that I have skipped a bought SW DVD early (but in the Youtube cases I have given up 5-10 times early in the SWs), but maybe this was my third mistake !?
At least the plastic DVD case can be PK recycled for a DVD-R
In the newest season of âJames May: Our Man inâŚâ which takes place in Italy, there is a section on dubbing in the Italian film industry and uses a snippet from this film as an example
Thanks. Iâll give that a watch.
This brings up an interesting case of spaghetti westerns with the same name which often causes me so much confusion - not that it is particularly difficult to confuse me.
According to the database page, this particular Colt in the Hand of the Devil (Una Colt in pugno al diavolo) release is from 1967 and stars Bob Henry and George Wang.
Colt, in pugno al diavolo, Una - The Spaghetti Western Database (spaghetti-western.net)
The other Colt in the Hand of the Devil (Una Colt in mano del diavolo) is the one with Robert Woods and William Berger and is a 1972 release directed by Gianfranco Baldanello
Colt in mano del diavolo, Una - The Spaghetti Western Database (spaghetti-western.net)
Anyway, I just thought I would point it out as I am often confused as to which one people are referring to. 
George Wang is in both films ⌠just to add further confusion 
So he is! I hadnât noticed.
This movieâs page in the SWDb has been updated to the new layout (the one with the similar title will follow momentarily, stay tuned), please let us know if anything needs to be corrected. Maybe someone can add more links, info, trivia, reviews and pictures.
Spoiler alert:
After watching this one again, I think the ending is less ridiculous than it appeared the first time. I can see that El Condor is going to be executed for his crimes, so Scottâs comment about his release comes across as being sarcastic. Perhaps it isnât as inconsistent as I thought. Overall, itâs a highly enjoyable western with plenty of action. I love the soundtrack, too. Wish I could get my hands on the music!
