Interesting film which relies heavily on traditional american westerns but also has some pure Italian ingredients as well. This is kinda similar film to Hellbenders as Jospeh Cotten is playing basically same fanatic southerner character. Gordon Scott is also good in the lead as well as James Mitchum who is here much more better than he was in Massacre at Grand Canyon. Franco Nero has a small role too.
It might look like copy of old american western at first with cattle herding (impressive scene with hundreds of cows) and drama but it turns out to be quite gritty film with twisted family ties and impressive over the top gunfights almost similar to Massacre Time -or Fidani film: my girlfriend was remarking how unrealistic the people died all the time. It didn’t bother me, I was just enjoying the show
I watched fullscreen vhs-transfer with faded colours. I’d say here’s yet another film which deserves a good dvd release.
I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to see this movie too, it’s amazing to see the transformation in on-screen presence that Franco Nero went through between this movie and DJANGO. Any idea where the exteriors with the stampedes were filmed? Doesn’t look arid enough to be Spain or Italy, I have wondered if maybe some of it was shot in Yugoslavia.
Bill, I could be wrong about this but I seem to remember reading somewhere that this was not filmed in Argentina. Instead, they just used stock footage which made it appear so.
I think I must have read this in Western All’Italiana since I can’t think of another place I would have read about The Tramplers. I’ll check later.
On the other hand, wasn’t Savage Pampas actually filmed in SA?
This what I found in Howard Hughes’ Once Upon A Time In The Italinan West (not Western All’Italiana as I had thought): “Some Sources note that The Tramplers was shot in Argentina. What actually happened was that Band acquired some footage of gauchos driving a huge herd of cattle through the Argentine pampas ('courtesy of Mr. John Bryan O’Sullivan and the Argentine Estates of Lovril Limited) and incorporates the stock into his film. This explains why Band’s cast never apper in the same shot as the Argentine cattle.”
"Some Sources note that The Tramplers was shot in Argentina. What actually happened was that Band acquired some footage of gauchos driving a huge herd of cattle through the Argentine pampas ('courtesy of Mr. John Bryan O'Sullivan and the Argentine Estates of Lovril Limited) and incorporates the stock into his film. This explains why Band's cast never apper in the same shot as the Argentine cattle."
Aha! Yes that makes sense and I had indeed noted that the cast never interacts with that stock footage. Now that I think about the film’s tragic ending it seems to have a lot in common with FEDRA WEST with that sort of Spanish romanticist “Saturn devouring his children” theme of a family at war with itself.
I watched it last night and it was entertaining. It’s closer to an American Western but still better than the run of the mill U.S. films. Gordon Scott is good as the prodigal son Lon and nice to see Franco Nero in a pre-Django role.
Second time i have seen this and i liked it a lot better this time. strong performances from Joseph Cotton. and Gordon Scott ( not the best of actors but he is good here) and Jim Mitchum was good too. Film Is not quite as good as " The Hellbenders" but is a lot better than a lot of similar films. 8/10.