A weak effort by Sergio Bergonzelli with William Berger in a No-Name type of leading role.
Since the plot was full of holes, I was willing to settle for some mindless entertainment, but the action was not exactly exciting. The Italian Western gimmickry is present here as Berger uses exploding cigars as a weapon against all enemies, but this doesn’t help much as the action scenes are generally not so well directed while the explosions themselves looked really cheap making the whole thing even more disappointing.
Berger was simply OK and he seemed unable to lift the film beyond mediocrity. Bruno Nicolai’s score had some nice trumpet parts, but was quite different from the great style of Indio Black or Have A Good Funeral My Friend Sartana Will pay.
I mostly agree with you on this one, amigo.
I do like Nicolai’s trumpet themes, though.
Berger seems unsure how to play the lead role, for some reason. Usually, he does a fine job with the roles he is given; but, here, not so much. Most likely he wasn’t getting good direction from Bergonzelli.
EL CISCO isn’t the worst SW I have seen, but it isn’t exactly good, either.
It’s a very long time ago i’ve seen this one.
But if i remember right,i didn’t like it that much.Think because of this i hadn’t watch it again
There was a weak finale between Berger and Wang,in which Wang was stabbed or was he shot after all ?
Well,it was Bergers access into the genre, then he made a lot of better ones
This is true! Maybe that is why Berger seems unsure in this film. He just wasn’t comfortable, yet.
I hadn’t thought about this being his first Italian Western.
I was wrong,Chris
’Ringos big night’ was his first,‘El Cisco’ his second one
In the following ‘Face to face’ as Siringo,‘Today we kill,tomorrow we die’ as Colt Moran and ‘If you meet Sartana…’ as Lasky he had been at his best
Ah yes! I had forgotten about RINGO’S BIG NIGHT. Still I think he was just getting used to working in Europe at that point in his career.
Previous to that he had only done theater, US television, and small parts in US films.
It took him a couple of times to get into the groove, I bet.
Yes, he was great in all those films you mentioned that came later. And I like him as Banjo in SABATA, too.
Another title for this maybe…The Man With The Exploding Cigars ! Wondered what was going on when the first one went off. Thought Berger was fine in this. From the word go this one always has something going on in the story with all the schemes and plans of so many characters. Some nice trumpet work in the score. The guy who runs the graveyard has a novel way of making more space for incoming bodies. Nice middle of the road Spaghetti for this viewer.
Well, after watching this turkey for 25 minutes or so, I went into la la land mode pretty qwik. I don’t think i’ll be watching this one again anytine soon. :-\
This (William Berger) spagh was so poorly made and uninteresting to the point that it bored the crap out of me. Not too bad of a plot, but the dull action and the lack of emotion from (Berger) in the lead and the rest of the crew really sank this one for me.
Quite an enjoyable spaghetti western for me. It is a little slow at first but it really picks up after Cisco is discovered to be the bank robber. Nicolai’s music definitely helps the film.
Exploding cigars is probably best bit of this uneven spaghie. The gunplay is mostly ridiculously executed, El Cisco would probably obliterate whole army without a scratch, killing his pursuers just like flies. Action lacks any tension or coolness, opponents just run into the gunpoint to be shot there like dumb motherf%*#$@. There are some good scenes though like prolonged town chase, but soon enough spoiled by unconvincing script. 2/5
