Death Walks in Laredo / Tre pistole contro Cesare (Enzo Peri, 1967)

Database Page: Tre pistole contro Cesare - The Spaghetti Western Database

Heres my ramblings over this weeks’ viewing :

"Now, there are many euro-westerns that would fit into the “weird” category, but woh this one is weirder than most!

The story starts with Whity Selby (Thomas Hunter) being confronted by a solicitor whilst leaving a saloon (inside which he has just thwarted an attack by killing all three opponents with one blast of his three barrelled pistol - one of many gimmicky weapons in his arsenal).

The solicitor advises Selby that his father, who had died ten years ago and he had never met, had left him his goldmine as part of a will. The document is accompanied by a picture of a young girl. Selby travels to Laredo to reclaim his father’s legacy, and to identify the identity of the girl.

On arriving at the goldmine, Selby encounters two men on a similar mission - Etienne Devereaux (Nadir Moretti), a man of french origin with magical powers of magnetism (honestly!) and Lester Kato (James Shigeta), a kung-fu kicking oriental. As the three men fight it out for what they consider rightfully theirs, they are accosted by an old local man, and it soon becomes clear from the ensuing discussions and matching wills/photos that the three are unlikely brothers. Their father enjoyed the company of women, and many of them!

The men are informed that their father fought bitterly to retain his land, but had been forced out of Laredo by powerful landowner “Julius Caesar” Fuller (Enrico Maria Salerno) - a man obsessed by the history of the great roman leader, likening him to the power that he himself possesses. Fuller is quite possibly the strangest character of all the euro-westerns that I have seen - he lives in a replica palace, has a penchant for young girls, surrounded by scantily clad ladies from around the world as his lolls about in his toga. He is guarded by a gang of pistoleros all clad in black (reminiscent of the equally bizarre Django Kill which, incidentally, I believe this film predates).

All in all “Death Walks in Laredo” makes for quire compulsive viewing! Not just because of its unique and bizarre take on the genre, but also for its interesting story with its subtle twists and turns. Thomas Hunter is pretty convincing in the main character role, but not as enjoyable as Salerno, who hams his Caesar role in a style reminiscent of Jack Nicholson.

There are also some moments of great humour - with some priceless dialogue as the old man explains why it has taken ten years for the wills to reach the brothers. The confrontation between the two ladies is also very pleasing on my male eyes! (How shallow!)

Can I recommend this? Well, of course! But there is probably as much a chance of you hating it as loving it. Personally, I had a love in".

Sebastian - I don’t think you have this one listed yet. The IMDB link is Drei Pistolen gegen Cesare (1967) - IMDb ;D

Now I have :slight_smile:

Database link Tre pistole contro Cesare - The Spaghetti Western Database

imdb.com lists a quite bizarre dvd though…

Yeah, no idea what that pic is about! Doesn’t seem to relate to the movie at all!

One of my favourite westerns - great title song and music also from Giombini.

Yes, this is one of those “must see” SpWe´s because of its unique style and that title-song is just amazing.

Yes, I agree about the music - its great throughout ;D

I saw this film some years ago, but I don’t have a copy of it nowadays. What are the best versions available? I guess it’s only available as a bootleg somewhere?

i haven’t seen this film, is it available on DVD?

You can order a dvd-r copy of it on cine city’s page

Yes I know, do you have this version yourself and if so, how is the print?

No I don’t have it. I’m also interested in quality of this one. Are the other dvd-rs from cine city a good quality stuff? Those guys have have a lot of interesting stuff that I would like to buy, but I don’t know if it’s worth it, because I don’t have any of their dvd-rs

this has been a favorite since i was a child. used to watch at least once a day in my fathers video store, and i still love it

I have seen this one last week, uncut it seems, but full frame.

And I was disappointed.

Story and directing are very ordinary, and the action scenes are weak. It has some bizarre touches (at least for 1966) by containing gimmicks and gadgets and a decadent baddie, but Peri does not manage to make anything interesting out of them.
Some years before the Sartana/Sabata films Hunter uses a four barreled weapon so that he can gun down 4 men simultaneous, at least if they stand side by side, which they luckily always do.

All in all it’s a purely routine film and therefore get’s a bit boring towards the end.

[quote=“stanton, post:13, topic:105”]Story and directing are very ordinary, and the action scenes are weak. It has some bizarre touches (at least for 1966) by containing gimmicks and gadgets and a decadent baddie, but Peri does not manage to make anything interesting out of them.

All in all it’s a purely routine film …[/quote]

I mainly have to agree ! Finally being able to watch the flic I was slightly disappointed after doing so. The movie is far from being bad but Peri just misses the opportunity to make something really good out of its “bizarre touches”, which is sad.

IMO solid average stuff anyway !!!

Just watched this one for the first time ever and thoroughly enjoyed every minute! Nice, refreshing change of pace, and funny without necessarily trying to be. I knew this was the movie for me the minute I saw the heroes come tumbling out of the abandoned mine like the Three Stooges. It also defied traditional formulae, even the absurd fighting gimmicks (kung-fu, mesmerism and a four barrel shotgun pistol) were handled in an atypical manner. I’d definitely say this is one overdue for some sort of restoration or renaissance, and again reflects why I am more drawn towards the “experimental” period of 1964 - 1968 or so, when the filmmakers were taking risky chances even at the expense of seeming silly. I also like how the sets + costuming looked like stock Holodeck duds from a “Star Trek” episode, very “fake” looking to the point where it re-enforces how you’re looking at something that isn’t trying to be “real”.

Review for…
“Death Walks in Laredo”

This is an odd ball spaghetti. Just as goofy as “heads you die, tails I kill you” but far more entertaining and better, despite it’s lower production values and it’s less capable director (Carmineo is far better than Enzo Peri)…

The story is of three strangers drifting into the town of laredo to proclaim their rightful inheritance to a gold mine that each of their fathers left them…but wait! We later find out that these three strangers are from the same father with different woman…thus making them siblings.
They are quite a strange trio indeed…each of them have their own little gimick. White Sibley (Thomas Hunter) carries an arsenal of gadgets including a four barrled revolver, his asian half brother Kato is a master of martial arts (The weakest gimick) and finally his french brother Devereaux uses the power of magnetism to stop baddies from using their pistols .

Together these three caballeros use their gadgets, fists and jedi mind tricks to stop the corrupt town boss who has stolen their father’s land.
The town boss is Julius Cesar Fuller (Enrico maria Salerno) and he fancies himself to be THE Julius Cesar. Some may think that he is an excellent baddie but I dont. He is quite memorable but he fails to be threatening, he kinda just sits around barking orders at his lackies until he is finally disposed of at the end (surprise surprise). His Surroundings are far more interesting then he is…he’s house is like a Roman palace complete with indoor bathing house, elevator and scantily clad woman who “service” him.
It was surprising ( and disappointing) to me that he did not have a large gladitor arena outside in his back yard. It would have been nice to see him pit our three heroes in a ring with bulls and some of his best men. Oh well…wishful thinking for the remake .

The music isn’t bad but aside from the main theme with the vocals I cannot recall a single tune.

The action scenes are well put together and their is a lot of them. There is not a dull moment in the whole film.

The acting is what you would expect from the likes of Thomas Hunter…Terrible. He is best suited for silent films rather then talkies. the rest of the cast is of little mention except for maybe Salerno as the memorable (but hardly threatening) Cesar.

On special mention their is a great cat fight between two woman about an hour into the film. Not to be missed!

Liked this one as its weirdness actually works. Clear fun that kept me interested all the time and never lost the pace or got boring. I found the music to be quite a mixed bag - some nice Morricone-like pieces, title song of the kind i dislike the most and there’s even some wierdo 60s psychedelic-pop song that accompanies the dance scene [i found it weirder thatn all the magnetism, kung fu, 4-barelled gun and Caesar stuff]. Salerno gives the best performance in the movie as a crazy but not really too threatening villain. Recommended. 7/10

My way of choosing which ones to watch is mainly in the plot of them. I research films in Thomas Weisser’s book and buy or rent them. This one looked good. I liked Get Mean and have no idea if I loved or hated Matalo but I have my eye on this one. Is it worth it to buy?

Just watched this one from my old Greek VHS. Quite entertaining although i think that the use of the kung fu character didn’t work well enough and also we could have been given a few more action scenes with the four barelled gun. Salermo was great in the role of Ceasar. The score was incredibly catchy, amazing singing tune. 3/5

Watched this one this morning and found it reasonably entertaining without having anything I could actually praise or recommend outside of Giombini’s score and the female eye candy. The cat fight between Mady and Debbie was a high point too as it seemed to consist of nothing but each girl ripping clothes off the other.

In general though the film was pretty darned laughable in a way that in the right mood you can enjoy but on another day would be plain irritating.