Five Thousand Dollars on One Ace / Pistoleros de Arizona (Alfonso Balcázar, 1964)

A review of the film has arrived:

I’ve also written a short text for the Film’s page:

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Here’s the song by Ronny (Berger)

He sings about a man who went looking for gold in the Blue River
He did not find any gold (only sand and stones) and when he was from home, his sweetheart took another lover
Not really what happens in this movie (wasn’t there a German guy who wrote a book filled with made-up storylines?)

Ronny was a favourite singer of both my father and mother, they had several singles of the guy
I think Kleine Annabel was his biggest hit in Holland & Belgium

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Gracias por citarme en su review, aunque esta película es muy mala para mi, así que en aquella critica la verdad es que le di muchos palos…
Espero que nadie se moleste por ello.

Please quote me in his review, although this film is very bad for me, so in that criticizes the truth is I gave him many blows …
I hope no one will bother about it.

Great review scherpy - this is one of those films that I haven’t watched yet - but more to do with the quality of the copy I have (rather than quality of storytelling) which (like yours) is cobbled together - this one from maybe 4? different sources - it’s got Spanish, English, silent, Arabic subs? - who know’s what else (maybe Phil does, I think he’s watched it).
I do however have the Star-Cine Bravoure magazine story of it though which may tell the story more coherently…
Anyway, it seems the trouble starts when Billy-boy (Robert Woods) cops a leer at some woman’s blouse-puppies and this seems to provoke a gunfight …


then we’ve got Sancho staked out - rescued, nicks Billy’s horse. Billy goes to the GG ranch, plays cards in town, has a fist-fight, meets Sancho again (who seems to be his friend?), some greasy lookin’ town boys chat a bit. Ranch on fire, summat going on in a bank, fisticuffs, riding some horses thru’ a river, some bloke I’ve never seen before having a snog on ranchbird, smarmy town-boys, gunfight in the desert, fight in a haybarn, face-off with town-boys and shootout.
And it all ends how it started with Billy-boy copping a glance, but looks like he struck lucky this time and’s gonna get to cop a feel as well.

But what the fuck would I know - it’s in French.
I also think this film must be cut - as nowhere in this story does Fernando Sancho laugh maniacally and fire wildly with no regard for aim.
I hope this helps, anyway.

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The version I saw at least did look good:

[/URL]
[URL=http://img100.imageshack.us/i/vlcsnap2010040417h00m24.jpg/][url]http://img706.imageshack.us/i/vlcsnap2010040416h58m52.jpg/[/url]

But it felt chopped-up and problems with the sound were excruciating; a fansub would’ve been better

The joke with the watch at the end is very nice
Fernando gives it to Bobby, as a token of their friendship;
Bobby is very happy with it, but then the judge asks him:
“What are you doing with my watch?”
And Bobby shouts, at Fernando, waving in the distance:
“Damn you, you never change!”

[quote=“scherpschutter, post:5, topic:2293”]The joke with the watch at the end is very nice
Fernando gives it to Bobby, as a token of their friendship;
Bobby is very happy with it, but then the judge asks him:
“What are you doing with my watch?”
And Bobby shouts, at Fernando, waving in the distance:
“Damn you, you never change!”[/quote]
;D

Not that much differences with the visuals then… :wink:


There is alot of hiss on your copy Rev so the english audio for the fandub probably came from this source. I suspect someone will do a a full fansub job of the Spanish disc.

Is your copy Rev the one with Arabic subs?

Amongst all the other crap - yes.

I’ll be away for a week (short holiday/vacation, no PC allowed says the wife)

And rev: a ‘non-crap video quality but a lot o’ crap & hiss audio quality copy’ is comin’ your way

Have a good 'un scherp … and thanks :slight_smile:

Alfonso Balcázar wasn’t much of a director. He was a businessman who took to directing, although it seems that much of the crew did the work for him. His competitor Iquino was also a business type, but he had more abilities.
This film is certainly marred by some poor acting, mainly from the German element in the cast, and Woods gives in to his tendencies to overact. And then there’s that cheap-looking western town the Balcázars built outside Barcelona. But I like it and Carlini’s photography is great. From the very first frame (degenerate gambler César Ojínaga seen at a low angle in the saloon), it comes across as a very good-looking film.

Between the two (Balcazar and Ignacio Iquino) they must have made almost 200 movies. I’ve seen this one, but not to the end I must confess, the ones with George Martin are the best for Balcazar westerns, and Sonora on top.
Most of the Iquino sex comedies are not bad at all, always thinking how such films were possible to be made before 75 in Spain. They were bussiness men allright always filming want the public demanded

Yes, those Iquino comedies made post-1978…I remember the late Andrea Albani and the chocolates…

Alfonso Balcázar and Iquino were notoriously crooked as people, but they were pretty different in many ways. Alfonso was apprently something of an extrovert who splurged money, while Iquino was a peevish, choleric miser.
Alfonso Balcázar, by the way, initially wanted to play leads in his own films (!), until he was advised by others to proceed differently. Apparently, he was quite proud of his appearance.

Average big man wants all the land type western. The banter between Woods and Sancho becomes a bit tedious after a while. Forgetable western.

Database comment for this indeed forgettable SW:

Typical early SW which has a quite naive story and storytelling, here with seemingly endless and often badly edited fights with fists and guns. Like several others of those mainly Spanish genre contributions it contains on the other hand some good location shooting. Robert Woods in his first (and untypical) SW lead seems to imitate Giuliano Gemma, only that 5000 Dollars on an Ace was made before the Ringo films.