This Italian/Spanish co-production paints an ironic , cynic portrayal of a group of fun characters formed by a quartet of soldiers-of-fortune . After committing a hold-up , Sam Madison (Stelvio Rosi as Stan Cooper) is about to be hanged . His brother Dean Madison (Mark Damon) contacts a previous expert in explosives , the veteran André (Alfredo Mayo) and his gorgeous niece Agnes (the Eurotrash Goddess Rosalba Neri). Uncle and niece result to be two tricky poker players who execute a lot of messes and tricks against their contenders . The three put on a plan to make a bank robbery , just in time to disrupt Sam's hanging , and free him , too . In turn , the four sympathetic protagonists are contracted by a Mexican Revolutionary called Felipe , (Luis Marín) , a blind man interested in carrying out a heist against the nasty General El Supremo (Giancarlo Badessi who played in the famous ¨Calígula¨ movie as Claudius ) , that's why he can't do it alone and he hires to help him . As a valuable treasure is kept by the military dictator at a strongly armed fortress . The task will be dangerous and extremely difficult , but their schemes are executed at whatever risk .
It is an exciting Spaghetti Western containing noisy action , thrills , shootouts , horse pursuits and turns out to be an acceptable Western and entertaining enough . This ¨Zapata¨ picture is set during the Mexican Revolution but ignores the wealth of the authentic history and becomes yet another action/adventure/humor Western and this passable production delivers what it should . It is a decent Western with comedy , tongue-in-cheek , action and plenty of shot'em up , gun-play and some moments results to be quite entertaining . The picture is finely starred by Mark Damon along with Stan Vance , both of whom are fighting each other for whatever reason . At the beginning his career , Damon starred as an extra for American films , and , subsequently , performing secondary roles . Mark , then emigrated Italy and he once reportedly missed out on a role in a Franco Nero western because his height made Franco Nero look too short . As he performed several Pasta Westerns , such as "Un Treno Per Durango" , "Cry for Revenge" , ¨Requiescant¨, ¨Johnny Yuma¨, ¨Johnny Oro¨ . Soon moved into other film genres playing good guys , bad guys , and good-bad guys and interpreting adventure movies as "Lions of St. Petersburg" , ¨Normand sword¨, and "Long Live Robin Hood" ; these parts often exploited his athletic physique by having him remove his shirt . Co-starred by Stelvio Rosi , nicknamed under pseudonym Stan Cooper who also interpreted some Westerns and adventures . Support cast is pretty good such as Alfredo Mayo as the Frenchman who formerly played a lot of classic Spanish movies , Luis Marin as a blind Mexican who wants to get his mitts on a crooks' gold and other Spanish actors as Francisco Sanz and Adolfo Thous .
Emotive as well as thrilling musical score by Luis Enriquez Bacalov , this soundtrack is one of the best parts of the film , plenty of catching and attractive sounds . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Cecilio Paniagua . The motion picture titled ¨The great treasure hunt¨ was well directed by Tonino Ricci , at his best . The recently deceased Tonino was an uneven filmmaker who began his career as an Second Unit Director or Assistant Director and writer, being his first film this "The Liberators" , or ¨Dedo En La Llaga¨, or original title "Il Dito Nella Piaga" . Ricci was a craftsman who directed all kinds genres , as Terror : ¨Panic¨ ; Giallo : "Cross Current" ; Western : "The Great Treasure Hunt" ,"Robin Hood , Arrows , Beans and Karate" , "Bad Kids of the West" ; Adventures : ¨Buck¨,¨Buck and the magic bracelet¨ , "White Fang to the Rescue" , ¨Robin Hood¨ , ¨Thor Il Conquistatore¨, "Raiders of the Magic Ivory" , ¨Bermudas : The cave of sharks¨ ; Action : ¨Rage¨, ¨Rush¨ , ¨Day of the sharks¨ , "Days of Hell" ; Sci-Fi : "Encounters in the Deep" and Mafia film : "The Big Family"
