After the unexpected commercial success of Alfonso Balcázar’s Pistoleros de Arizona – Kevin Grant writes that P. d. A. was “highly profitable” and that the film “earned more than any western apart from A Fistful of Dollars and […] Two Gangsters in the Wild West at the Italian box office in 1964” (A. G. C. P., pp. 61–62), which is highly unlikely since it passed the Italian censura on December 30, 1964 – the Balcázar brothers were really cranking it out: Oklahoma John was followed by Tierra de fuego (directed by Mark Stevens and/or Jaime Jesús, who is credited as director in the Spanish version, maybe for “administrative reasons”), a Spanish-German co-production, and Alfonso’s ¡Viva Carrancho!, a Spanish-Italian co-production, both released in October 1 AL. Tierra de Fuego is an undistinguished film, maybe only notable for Marianne Koch’s tragic role, in her fourth Western, a year after Per un pugno di dollari. It tells of four prairie-punks who terrorize a small town until the initially reluctant local sheriff takes action against them; an uninspired story, culminating in a violent climax.
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