I like this film but haven’t seen it for a while. I particularly like the mad South African trees - but I think it’s very spaghetti despite its geographical base.
I was just perusing Patrick Agan’s book Clint Eastwood that was written in the mid 70s, and I found an interesting quote that maybe puts a different slant on it’s intended ‘spaghettiness’ …
“Just as the news that Clint Eastwood was getting ready to star and direct himself in Play Misty For Me got abroad in the land, a rumour surfaced that he was going to re-tread The Man With No Name in a South African Western. A company there called Icarus Films had announced that he was going to star for them in Three Bullets For A Long Gun to be made on location in Pretoria, South Africa. In fact a deal was almost signed when the company ran into trouble. Their initial feature, another Western called Thou Shalt Not Kill, ran into difficulties with South Africa’s touchy censors, and had to be withdrawn as too violent. Unfortunately the movie company had planned on using the profits from the first picture to finance their second one. Since there were no profits the whole deal went down the drain.”
Or not…!
I haven’t yet done any research into what became of the first film, and whether it ever got a release. Obviously 3BFALG happened without Clint, but with Beau Brummell as the Major, and the Lucky character is a barely disguised Tuco really…
I just finished watching this one, watched the greek vhs Bad Lieutenant had sent me awhile back. I liked the first 5 minutes and I really believed this would be a good serious treasure hunt-themed SW, but unfortunately the comedic elements were much more than expected and the direction didn’t really improve things.
The mexican dude called Lucky was simply a BAD copy of Tuco and the other leading actor wasnt less annoying wearing that awful military hat throughout the WHOLE movie, not to mention his terrible acting. The score was below average. The south african locations however were great and probably the only reason to see this film. As for the sequel, it’s already deleted from my want-list.
Hello, I’m the granddaughter of Peter Henkel! I just wanted to say that it is so, so amazing that you are all posting about his movies, whether the comments are good or bad, I am so over the moon that people have simply seen them! I just searched his name in google and I found this forum and got so incredibly excited. I also can’t believe some of you have his movies on VHS!! That is so amazing. I am blown away. Anyway, thankyou for this discussion and on behalf of a Henkel, thanks for keeping these films alive
Hi, Samantha. Both Three Bullets for a Long Gun and They Call Me Lucky are nice westerns in the spaghetti western mould. And those are the kind we like around here.
Could you please tell us something about the film Scotty & Co.?
IMDB lists the film as a western. Is this correct? And was it ever released theatrically and/or on vhs?
Here’s my review of Three Bullets for a Long Gun in Dutch:
I have the film on Dutch vhs (Video For Pleasure), the type Yodlaf showed. I traded my Greek copy with someone on the forum. This is the scan:
“Scotty Smith was not real. Some of the time he was a hoax. At other times he was a dangerous robber. But most of the time he was a romantic highwayman whose real name was George Lennox, a former cavalry officer of the British Indian Army.” —mnetcorporate.co.za
