24: Alfonso Balcázar’s ¡Viva Carrancho! (1965)
Rewatching this fairly early Spanish-Italian Western was a real pleasure, not least because I was able to find a very good-looking Spanish TV version with English subtitles. My assessment of the movie hasn’t changed since 2018, which is why I’m allowing myself a partial self-quotation here.
¡Viva Carrancho! anticipates the duo of opposing characters of many later so-called Zapata Westerns, a constellation central to the narratives of Damiano Damiani’s ¿Quién sabe? (1966), Sergio Corbucci’s Il mercenario (1968) and Vamos a matar, compañeros (1970), Giulio Petroni’s Tepepa (1969), Sergio Leone’s Giù la testa and Duccio Tessari’s Viva la muerte … tua! (both 1971).
Fernando Sancho, as the film’s eponymous protagonist, reprises his role from Pistoleros de Arizona (1964), this time in an uneasy partnership with Luis Dávila’s gringo character. Robert Woods plays the duo’s antagonist, an arrant villain, mine owner, capitalist, racist, misogynist, murderer. ¡Viva Carrancho! shows a not unpleasant populist left-wing bias, the oppressed Mexican workers triumph over their exploiter and his minions. Unfortunately, it also shows many signs of a rushed, meagerly budgeted, slapdash production.
Next up: John il bastardo (1967), directed by Armando Crispino.