Saturday, August 13, 2016

Shoot, Gringo... Shoot! (1968)

Original title: Spara, Gringo, Spara

Director: Bruno Corbucci

Writers: Mario Amendola, Bruno Corbucci

Composer: Sante Maria Romitelli

Starring: Brian Kelly, Fabrizio Moroni, Keenan Wynn, Erika Blanc, Folco Lulli, Linda Sini, Rik Battaglia

More info: IMDb


Plot:  Mexican land-owner Gutierrez offers to save Chad Stark from hanging if Stark will agree to find and return Gutierrez' runaway son, Fidel.



My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably not.

This Spaghetti Western's not too bad.   At times it feels like a weaker re-telling of the excellent THE BIG GUNDOWN (1966)...too much so.   There's plenty of action and there's lots of role-reversals between Chad (Kelly) and his target, Fidel (Moroni).  I was really excited to watch this because of Keenan Wynn but his voice was dubbed by a familiar dubbing actor.  The guy's voice works but if you know what Wynn sounds like then you can't help but be disappointed.  The story is pretty good with lots of different situation encountered by our two leads.  The ending was probably the best part.  Much of the movie has a light-hearted tone brought on by Fidel but the last 15 or so minutes get deadly serious and film plays out nicely.  I wouldn't have minded an even darker ending but I'm satisfied as it is.  The Timeless DVD presents this film in anamorphic widescreen with a dirty, but good looking print.  It probably would've looked a little better if it weren't for this film sharing a single-sided disc with three other Spaghetti Westerns.  It's better than nothing and I am grateful for having more Spags on my shelf.  You can pick up the DVD pretty cheap, making it worth the while for fans of the genre.

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