As you might expect, âA Professional Gunâ received wide distribution in the UK. Opening on 30th November 1969 as co-feature with âCross Plotâ, it screened right through into summer 1970.
The Guardianâs film critic Richard Roud was impressed: The rest of the films were not up to much. Only A Professional Gun, a spaghetti Western double-billed at the New Victoria with the dreary Cross Plot was of any real interest. This was mostly because of Franco Nero, who, as a Polish professional gun-fighter mixed up with turn-of-the-century Mexican revolutionaries, gave a very neat performance compounded of the best kind of professional cool and wry sense of humour. But Tony Musante is not bad either, and director Sergio Corbucci deserves credit for keeping the picture moving and quite prettily, at that. (The Guardian, 28th November, 1969)
After its initial run ended it would routinely show up on the big screen until its UK television premiere in May 1976.
In the U.S. âThe Mercenaryâ opened at Victoria and Pacific East Theaters, New York, March 6, 1970, followed by Newark, Passaic, Hackensack, Atlanta, Washington D.C. etc, April 1970. In Canada it opened in Windsor, Ontario, May, 1970.
