Very much enjoyed the charisma between the leads. The repeated like in [city] gimmick was fun up through the end, especially.
The contrast between this lightheartedness and the weight/consequences of the violence was mostly handled well, except for…
The younger lead’s reaction to his love-interest’s family being slaughtered, in which case, the emotional response came off as insincere as a result, verging on callous due to the tonal whiplash of how quickly he reverts to his status quo for the finale.
That said, the supporting cast of the family near the center of the movie was really refreshing and helped carry a lot of the film’s weight, especially the dinner cooked by the brother scene.
Glad you liked this! It’s one of my favorites. The older lead is called Anthony Steffen and he has lots of interesting films. If you want similar films with a lighthearted tone, I recommend A Train for Durango (the younger lead, Mark Damon, is also in this), Tequila and Too Much Gold for One Gringo. Other films with Steffen that I strongly recommend are Django the Bastard, Apocalypse Joe, Shango, Garringo and A Few Dollars for Django.
Im think it is a bit uneven due to the lightheartness, but cool in some scenes as when the professional killers arrive for a showdown with Steffen & Damon in “Golden City”
A 6/10 for me and ranked 75 on my SW top 79 list (of “approved” quality, i.e. at least a 6/10 )
x71 Vengeance (Antonio Margheriti ) 1968
x72 Bandidos (Massimo Dallamano) 1967
x73 All Out / One for All / Copperface / Go for Broke (Umberto Lenzi) music Marcello Giombini 1968
x74 Poker With Pistols (Giuseppe Vari) 1967 75 Dead Men Don’t Count/Cry For Revenge (Rafael Romero Marchent) music Marcello Giombini 1968
76 Mannaja/A Man Called Blade (Sergio Martino) 1977
x77 Hey Amigo, You’re Dead/Hey Amigo ! A Toast To Your Death/Killer Amigo (Paolo Bianchini) music Carlo Savina 1970
78 Django Shoots first (Alberto De Martino) 1966
x79 If You want to Live…Shoot (Sergio Garrone) 1968
the scene where the farmers son was hanged and the rest of the family were shot (the father and Johnny’s love interest) reminds me on Delli Colli. Maybe the best made scene in the whole movie, i guess. Big difference to how the rest of the movie were shot… Maybe Delli Colli was there, only to shoot this single scene ?
I like this flick…really !
I thought it was one of Steffen’s poorer films. It seemed to go on for ages and there was hardly any plot. The music was frequently out of synch with the visuals and the fight choreography was below par.
Difficult to get over that everyone thought the Damon character was only 20 years old when he obviously was much older.
watch the hanging scene and tell me what you think about the quality. I suppose it’s really Delli Colli. Same style he did for OUTITW. But maybe, I’m wrong…who knows
I think this one is overrated and alot of people are allowing the chemistry between Damon and Steffen to overshadow the flaws, which were heavy. It was nice seeing Steffen adopt a slightly more ‘varied’ role than his usual stern self, but there were too many issues for me. Some minor spoilers ahead.
4/10.
Not overly keen comedic based spaghetti westerns and I felt this leant too much into that. The opening 15-20 minutes was a little too messy and convoluted for my taste, and overall there were just too many little subplots thrown into the mix running in parrallel with very little depth throughout the runtime. We had Damon falling in love after 16 seconds of screentime and then not overly bothered when the ladies entire family gets slaughtered. I also didn’t care for any of the villians at all, I don’t think they had a sufficient backstory or context (Logan and co). The final showdown was just… Meh. Very basic and routine. Not saying it was bad, but it wasn’t anything special.
The chemistry and fun factor between Damon and Steffen was cool, Damon’s hair was nice, the more brutal scenes (primarily the hanging scene) were good, but aside from that, below average.
My list of Steffen films in order of how I rate them:
Django the Bastard
Gentleman Killer
Killer Kid
A Train to Durango
Seven Dollars on the Red
A Coffin for the Sheriff
Blood at Sundown
Garringo
Few Dollars for Django
No Room to Die
Stranger in Paso bravo
Why go on Killing
Name That Cried Revenge
Ringo Mark of Vengeance
Dead Men Don’t Count
Arizona Colt Returns
Sabata the Killer
A Man Called Django
