Wrath of God (1968) (orig. L’ira di Dio) - Director: Alberto Cardone - 5/10.
The oater constitutes a very unpretentious, ably assembled piece of entertainment which benefits from Cardone’s proficient combination of Spanish and Italian locations as well as surprisingly firm grip on the narration. Film’s primary downside stems from its far-fetched plot-weaving: certain developments are so unbelievable and strain credulity so much that the storyline almost appears to be a naive fairy tale of sorts. A pack of bandits bushwhacks Halsey’s character and having robbed him of his money and killed his girlfriend, they abandon him because they are confident he is never going to find them.
In spite of the aforementioned, the protagonist effortlessly tracks them down one by one, knowing exactly where to go and what to do so as to exact revenge in just the way he wishes. Indeed, some of the executions are preceeded by successions of events whose eventual result is far from being as obvious as our main hero’s poise would lead us to believe. Therefore, notwithstanding tale’s outstanding focus and excellent pacing, the story seems almost risible in how oversimplified it is, not to mention the final revelation does not really make for much of a surprise and is exactly what you would expect from this sort of material. Thankfully, the flick is fun enough to watch and does not get bogged down by any unnecessary detours along the way, so the streamlined narrative at least partially compensates for the somewhat insubstantial script.