Ruthless Colt of the Gringo Review
La Venganza de Clark Harrison / La Spietata Colt del Gringo - Database Page
A paella/spaghetti adventure directed by José Luis Madrid, a man who was mainly active as a producer and a screenwriter, but also directed a handful of movies, among them three westerns, the other two being the very obscure Tumba para un forajido (*1) and the better known Who Killed Johnny R.? His westerns – including this one - belong to the lower echelons of the genre.
The premise is simple: a young man named Clark Harrison (Sol Lester in some versions) is framed for a crime – a robbery ending in murder - he did not commit. Why? Because his own fiancée, the saloon girl Cora, testified against him! After spending five years in prison, he wants to clear his name and find the real culprits. The judge had always doubts about his guilt and when the local lawman is killed in yet another robbery, he appoints Harrison as the new sheriff. In the meantime our hero has fallen in love with Lois, the lovely daughter of the man who was shot during the fatal robbery. She despises him, but is willing to give him a chance to prove his innocence …
This may sound like a serviceable script for a straightforward action western, but in fact the movie suffers from a rather zigzagging storyline. It soon becomes clear that Cora was forced to testify against Clark by a man called Holloway, who is madly in love with her and was involved in the crime, but it’s also clear that Holloway was in league with a criminal masterminded who concocted the whole thing. The script tries to create some tension about the identity of this person, but in spite of all complications and insinuations, few will be surprised when his identity is revealed. And there’s so much talk that the film becomes tedious, even with a running time of no more than 79 minutes (*2).
It’s a predominantly Spanish production, shot entirely on Spanish soil (*3), but the lead actor is Italian and no other than Enzo G. Castellari is mentioned as assistant director. The film features several rough fistfights and I’m quite sure that Enzo was responsible for them: they’re all characterized by his trademark robustness. The gunplay looks a bit chaotic, except for the well-handed final shootout in the town street (which becomes a four-way shootout with a surprising outcome); it’s also the only scene that has some real spaghetti western atmosphere. After a short-lived career in cinema, Italian actor Luigi Giuliano turned to modelling and apparently became an associate of the great Giorgio Armani (*4). He must have been better in fashion than in acting. Genre fans will recognize several familiar faces among the supporting actors like Cesar Ojinaga, Gustavo Re and Carlos Otero; the latter has a fairly interesting role as a scheming saloon owner who likes to quote Homer’s Odyssea (always nice to have a literate character in a spaghetti western). There are also two leading ladies; Germana Mercedes Monteverdi has the most interesting part as the ambiguous Cora, who finally redeems herself by saving the life of the man she once sent to jail.
Notes:
- (1) It was shot in black & white (!) and has a running time of no more than 73 minutes; apparently it was only distributed in Spain and Italy, see: Marco Giusti, Dizionario del western all’italiana
- (2) The database mentions a running time of 95 minutes but most people who have seen the movie mention a running time of 79 minutes; this running time is also mentioned by Marco Giusti, so I suppose it’s the length of the Italian print. The Spanish version I saw ran for only 75 minutes.
- (3) A Spanish opload on You Tube states that the town scenes were shot in the western town of Esplugas City; the indoor scenes were filmed in the IFI Studios and the outdoor scenes near Heusca (in the region of Aragon); the Castello de Montjuich in Barcelona served as the state prison.
- (4) I first thought this could only be a case of a mistaken identity, both the names 'Luigi' and 'Giuliani' are common names in Italy, but several Italian articles on the Net confirmed that the actor indeed became a model and an associate of Armani.
- See also the French Wikipedia page of the actor: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Giuliani
Dir: José Luis Madrid - Cast: Luigi Giuliani (Clark Harrison/Sol Lester), Germana Monteverdi Mercedes (Cora), Marta Padovan (Lois), Carlos Otero (Bliss), Cesar Ojinaga (Holloway), Gaspar ‘Indio’ Gonzalez (Coleman), Gustavo Re (Judge) – Music: Enrique Escobar, Federico Martines Tudo (Spanish version), Francesco De Masi (Italian version).
