I just watched an OK Youtube video and found this SW entertaining, not boring but maybe a bit leightweight without being lighthearted.
The story is OK and so is the acting. Maybe I will rate it as a 6/10, good but not very good is my first impression.
Regarding the locations, discussed above in this thread, one of the western towns was as stated before Golden City south of the real pueblo Hoyo de Manzanares north/northwest of Madrid.
Some other scenes were shot near Colmenar Viejo north of Madrid and southwest of the characteristic mountain with its peak San Pedro which is easy recognisable in many SWs.
There were also some scenes from La Pedriza north of Colmenar Viejo.
Several riding scenes for example were shot less than 2 km south of Ciempozuelos pueblo which is located south of Madrid. That area was also used in several SWs.
The prison which one of the leading characters broke out from was as far as the outdoors concerned also located near Ciempozuelos.
I still rate it as a rather solid 6/10 for its overall entertainment value, and agree with the thread starter Reverend_Danite regarding his statement :
" Despite good individual performances from the leads (and Erika Blanc and Pilar Velasquez in it), and it having a smidge of charm and style of it’s own, it ultimately doesn’t sparkle enough to put it in the same league as some of the other lesser-knowns that turn out as diamonds. High hopes at the start were somewhat let down - but having said that - it still kept me there til the end and I (pretty much) enjoyed the ride."
So most of the scenes were shot in Spain :
Colmenar Viejo, Madrid, Spain
“Golden City”, Hoyo de Manzanares, Madrid, Spain
Ciempozuelos, Madrid, Spain
La Pedriza, Madrid, Spain
But the other western town was Elios, Rome, Italy.
The green first scene I am not sure where it was shot, or maybe could even be in Italy ? :
Thunder Over El Paso has been updated to the new layout (3.0). Let us know if you can add anything: pictures, posters, trivia, facts, figures, links, etc…
Copied from the Spagvemberfest 2023 thread:
I loved it. Awesome little movie that combines just everything I like about SW. It is action packed buddy movie with brutal and sometimes even quite disturbing scenes and filled with colourful characters. Definitely Sabatos best western. The direction is very strong with a lot of nice looking pictures and soundtrack is just perfectly fitting to each scene. It is going straight to my upadated top 20.
Version on You Tube runs 88m50s but I suspect that is a Pal copy as Italian print (in English) which would make it about 93m close to the original 94m running time.
El Paso (main town) is the Golden City town set in Spain used for Fistful of Dollars etc. Canyon City (second town) is the Elios set in Italy with the famous water tower and the church at the end of the road. Not much filmed there - possibly they used it for contractual co-production reasons. So, my gut is that most of this was filmed in Spain with only a bit in Italy for contractual reasons.
I’d agree with the others that there are various references to the Dollar films but that the film is lacking that Je Ne Sais Quoi to put it in the top echelons. I’ve always found Sabato a rather boring and insipid actor although he was popular and had a lot of leading roles. I thought his best part was Twice a Judas when he played a man who had lost his memory didn’t know what was going on which suited his acting better. The story of this one does read a bit like a Sartana movie and Minnesota could easily be redubbed as Sartana. Erica Blanc played a similar role in one of the Sartana films. Released in January 1972, it was probably filmed in the Summer/Autumn of 1971 before the release of Trinity Is Still My Name after which everything became a slapstick comedy.
I watched this directly after the Peter Lee Lawrence film Death on High Mountain and the plots were very very similar (although no crew overlap).
Can we add Lorenzo Robledo to the credits list - he turns up near the end driving a wagon on which the buried money is loaded and is killed after about 1m of screen time. Called Fabian in the English version.
Nice enough film. Not great, but certainly not a waste of time.
6/10. Maybe a 6.5. Some nice dialogue and some witty moments. I liked Antonio Sabato here. And Chris Avram. First time seeing the Romanian Avram in anything.
Bit rough around the edges in places. Overall production and soundtrack spring to mind. Some of editing.
But I did enjoy it. Would have been nice if Pilar Velazquez has been given more screentime.