The Implacable Three (1963) (orig. Tres hombres buenos) - Director: Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent - 4/10.
The movie is a far cry from Marchent’s subsequent western efforts, exhibiting an extremely corny and histrionic disposition throughout with most characters enunciating their lines in a distinctly dramatic fashion, vacillating between euphoria and misery on a regular basis. Regrettably, this milquetoast attitude is likewise found in pic’s maudlin story: the protagonist is a noble man who sets out to track down and dispatch people responsible for his wife’s untimely demise. There is a corrupt mayor whose shady dealings have antagonized his constituency and who, in his boundless arrogance and iniquity, does not want to pay for his misdeeds and so on, and so forth. Needless to say, all of this comes out remarkably old-fashioned which perhaps would have turned out more palatable had it been informed with some originality in other respects.
Regrettably, it’s pretty much by-the-numers and superficial across the board which is further exacerbated by Francesco De Masi’s chronically dated score. It is tough to assert anything specific about the main hero inasmuch as apart from exacting justice, he is not elaborated in any way whatsoever, absent anything in the way of a backcloth so as to shed some light on his roots or general outlook on life. Certain figures entering the equation, e.g. Fernando Sancho’s character wooing a certain woman, do not substantially advance the principal plotline, oftentimes distracting from male lead’s quest for revenge. Marchent’s handling of the material is obviously not beyond the pale, yet given that project’s other aspects appear so arrantly platitudinous, the adequate competence demonstrated in the way the plot is narrated here does not really ameliorate the work to any significant extent with film’s emphasis on drama largely falling through on account of its invariably one-dimensional characterization and quintessentially simplistic nature. Of interest to completists and die-hard fans of the genre only.