Luigi Vanzi’s Un dollaro tra i denti, an Italian-American co-production made in 1966, could be described as an exercise in minimalism. It seems almost impossible to reduce further its generic Spaghetti-Western plot: A mysterious stranger arrives in an all but deserted town at the border between Mexico and the United States, where he gets involved with Mexican banditos, American soldiers and a local ingénue. The shared goal of all parties is money, preferably in large amounts.
Frank Wolff plays the bandits’ führer, Gia Sandri his sadistically inclined press secretary, Jolanda Modìo the señorita in distress, and Tony Anthony is the stranger – who will return in Un uomo, un cavallo, una pistola. For Alex Cox, Un dollaro tra i denti is “entirely routine and derivative,” “stupid, rather than cruel” and “brain-dead” (p. 146, 2019 edition).