Lone Ranger type spaghetti western. Totally predictable and pretty corny at times, but I sort of like it.
Savina’s music is quite nice (where has this been recycled?) and so is Luciana Gilli. The main bad guy is a second rate Fernando Sancho.
The speeding up of the horse chases is laughable and so is the fact that Gilli doesn’t recognise her fiance, but the flaws were kind of charming.
I watched the Dutch vhs (Empire), which unfortunately is fullscreen, but in English. There is a nice widescreen version on the web, dubbed in Spanish, ripped from tv.
I was going to say Zorro but yes, I agree with you. Not really that good one but somehow I found it amusing. I have actually watched this quite many times because I started to work on subtitles for the spanish version or more precisely dubtitles based on the english version some years ago. But then I got fed up with the whole project.
Watched this last night - then realised about 20mins in I’d seen it before, but stuck with it anyway.
It starts well enough with great spag music and a bunch of townsfolk (including the lovely Luciana Gilli), chewing their lips, their cigars and the scenery, as they await a stagecoach laden with gold. There’s some Mexi-bastards lurking about who have other plans for this, but there’s (predictable) tricks a plenty to thwart these, and the baddy in-cahoots town bossy types, from their ne’erdowell-ing.
Added to this mix, and arriving on the stage, are a couple of fellahs - foppy Georgie-boy who set to marry ball-breaker Louise (Gilli), and a mean moody one - a double-denim wearing hombre who ain’t shy of a bit of card playing and fisticuffs (cue predictable bar-room brawl).
There’s a drunkenish ol’ scrote as well, called Doc, ('cos he is) to add a bit more light-heartedness to what is already a reasonably lightweight romp.
And what makes it all a bit predictable (besides the obviousness of the storyline) is that somebody is always spilling the beans… loudly and innapropriately. The fellah mouthing off in the bar about the boss wanting to buy up the old mine, and stuff about a railway (in front of Double-denim) is one example, as is the Boss banging on about wanting to get the gold. It makes no sense, except to narrate the bleedin’ obvious to us viewers, as if we couldn’t work it out for ourselves.
Anyway - as mentioned - one of these two on the coach is gonna turn out to be the Zorro-esque/Lone Rangery type… will it be Double-denim, or wimpy George we all wonder? Georgie is getting some shit off his exasperated love interest for not being enough of a ‘man’ - and she has recently been rescued by the masked fellah who is a cock-sure arrogant ‘proper man’. So where will all these shenanigans lead…? It’s not that I could give you too many ‘spoilers’ here - the film is good enough at doing that itself.
Despite all the negatives, as BsA says, it is amusing - as BL says it’s “kind of charming”, and I found it so as well.
The print I watched was the afore-mentioned full screen version with Dutch subs, which like the film, was ok.
Only 2 stars - but it still did the job - worth a watch.
A charming early Euro-Western: two good-looking protagonists, a dandy and a denim-clad rocker; an evil, evil capitalist as antagonist; a very beautiful young lady between them; attacks on stagecoaches; shoot-outs, fisticuffs and fireworks; and a masked avenger – foxy yet not Zorro – whose true identity will baffle the most jaded movie buff.
Nice Review.
I also think this film is quite charming.
In Germany it was shown only one time on RTL television in the 1980s.
The print is really nice (considering the age).
Since then no release on video or dvd…
We have a fine 35mm copy in stock that we probably will show in cinema next year.
My feelings are the same as everybody else. It reminded me of El Cisco quite a bit but I remember liking that one a bit more. I’ll have to revisit El Cisco to know for sure. Hopefully this one gets a DVD or Blu-ray release. I watched the Dutch VHS, which wasn’t too bad but it would be nice to see it get some Koch treatment.
My Colt is the Law has been updated to the new layout (3.0). Let us know if you can add anything: pictures, posters, trivia, facts, figures, links, etc…
