Garringo (Rafael Romero Marchent, 1969)

(Bill san Antonio) #1

https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Garringo

-Good film from Rafael Romero Marchent. Peter Lee Lawrence’s Johnny is interesting character, first I was about to think he’s the hero of the film as the film starts with blond kid whose father is killed and then his uncle teaches him to shoot. Then in the sudden cut Marchent cuts to grown up Johnny who kills a bunch of soldiers and tortures one of them. He is crazed killer but also a gentleman and a tragic figure. Anthony Steffen makes his usual routine but he’s not much of a hero either, especially during the first 30 minutes when he’s tracking down Johnny and brutally beating his gang members and he’s even about to drown a whore in the saloon. During the latter half of the movie he plays it more usual Steffen style which is a bit let down as the pattern of psychotic killer against another would have been interesting.

Film has lots of familiar spaghetti faces: Raf Baldassarre, Frank Braña, Lorenzo Robledo etc. and some decent music by Marcello Giombini.
Recommended film. 3 1/2 out of 5.

(alk0) #2

Agreed it was also a bit of a letdown for me that the movie didn’t went on that manner. Steffen’s character was like some kind of Terminator of Wild West in the beginning and he fitted that role perfectly. The middle of the film drags a little bit but the beginning and the ending are very enjoyable. 7/10

(CactusCharlie) #3

Viewed yesterday for the first time.

Steffen reminds me of Eastwood in many ways, the (almost) taciturn lone avenger.

PLL is great in his role as the villainous Johnny.

I enjoyed it, albeit a tad boring in parts, but the climax was excellent.

(Lasky) #4

Lawrence does an admirable job in conveying his character’s wickedness as well as effectively displaying a more gentler side to his lady friend in the movie.

Anthony Steffen delivers a typically wooden performance.

Slightly above average sw to which i give 6 out of 10 :-\

(korano) #5

any releases that would work on a region1/0 DVD player? That’s all I have. :’(

(Silver) #6

There’s an OK quality english language dvdr at Atlas Visuals…they are all region free. Other than that there’s just the region 2 Italian only dvd. (though there may be an fan dubbed dvdr of this one floating around…i think.)

(Col. Douglas Mortimer) #7

I wouldn’t recommend the Atlas visuals version. It sucks. The quality is pretty bad. I have it and its missing the original opening credits sequence. I think atlas visuals sucks as a company as a whole. I don’t recommend that farce. They sell crap.

I’ve acquired a fanmade version thats terrific. DVD quality picture combined with english audio.

(ENNIOO) #8

Yes, nice this one.

(Stanton) #9

How’s the runtime of this “nice one”?

Mine is uncut, but the english audio is mostly a bit out of sync. It’s based on a spanish TV showing.

Reminds me that I have an english dub of Django Shoots First which is so completely out of sync that it is unwatchable. Luckily it has also italian audio and engl. subs.

(Bill san Antonio) #10

[quote=“stanton, post:9, topic:1155”]How’s the runtime of this “nice one”?[/quote]92:30, I believe I have this same fandubbed version Mortimer and Ennioo mentioned.

(Stanton) #11

oops, if it’s Pal it would have more than 96 min, 6 more than mine.

(p.pereira) #12

This one is one of my latest buys, and viewed recently.

Liked the twisted personality of Peter Lee Lawrence’s character, it could take the film to a different level, but unfortunately Steffen’s role didn’t go so deep. Which in my opinion makes the movie kind of average.

(davidf) #13

thought this was above average but uneven and slightly disapointing. starts off really well and film is violent. Peter Lee Lawrence’s Johnny is an intresting character both psychotic and somehow you feel more sympathy for him than steffen’s “dirty harryish” character. i felt johnny didn’t deserve such an “undignified” demise although you know he would meet his end. i quite liked the film but it could have been better.

(autephex) #14

gave this one another viewing today and pretty much the same opinion as the first time i watched it… begins excellently and ends decently, with a boring mid-section… except for the middle, its a pretty violent film… would of been a lot better had it continued in the spirit of the first 30 minutes, but instead gets caught up on the dull sideplot trying to give some humanity to PLL or something, and in the end he goes out like a punk… another waste of potential greatness…

(ION BRITTON) #15

It had its moments (PLL, soundtrack), but basically it was a boring film with a quite lame ending.
2.5/5

(Stanton) #16

The uncut fandub has a runtime of nearly exactly 90 min, which means Garringo has a theatrical runtime of 94 min.

It is a good SW, albeit it had the potential for more, as already had been mentioned in the above posts. The 2 leads are better than usual, but again the film would have benefited from more variable actors for these roles.
Some of the minor characters are also a bit old fashioned, but generally this film has a good SW feeling with a fine score.

And it contains one of the best cuts of every SW. This cut connects the first scenes set in the youth of the PLL character with the rest of the film, by jumping into the present of the film’s story. And it is cut into a movement, which is pretty well done and shows the child practising shooting and then the adult killing a group of soldiers. The 2nd part of this scene, directly after the cut, can be seen in Silence’s signature (albeit a bit small).

(Col. Douglas Mortimer) #17

Yeah I think Marchent was in rare form for Garringo

(ENNIOO) #18

Forgot I had this one…will view the nice version next week.

(Bad Lieutenant) #19

I think he made better films like Uno a uno sin piedad or Un par de asesinos. Garringo was a bit boring for me. A talky film in cheap settings.

(Stanton) #20

Un par de asesinos is another one which has some great ideas, but fails to bring them to full bloom. The undecided ending wastes a lot.
But I will have to watch the English version as the German dub is a terrible fun dub.