Finished Civil War and after fighting in the south side, Brian (Gianni Garco) returns home with his wife. One night they are visited by four Confederate soldiers who, after raping and killing his wife and to Brian for dead from a gunshot, burn the house and run. But Daniel (Ivan Rassimov under pseudonym Sean Todd) appears just at the right time to save Brian . Blinded by revenge, Brian loses all confidence in the law and gradually becomes a deranged outlaw . Daniel is the another protagonist of this film . He's the one , saving the life of Brian , makes rush events , showing that not always a good action produces good results .Nevertheless , both are really the same side of the coin , and Daniel knows the same thing is happening to Brian could happen to him . Menwhile , Julie (Elisa Montes) falls for Brian , a girl who tells himself that he loves and the minute is shamelessly neglected , thereby nailing nails his own coffin . Being accused of having protected him for not stopping him , Daniel doesn't hesitate to prosecute to hell Brian . They take the path to Mexico with his pursuer harassing them until a final fight .
Director Mario Siciliano achieved in "The Southern Avenger" possibly his best work of a modest career , with some memorable scenes and good camera movement as the initial prologue in which we see the death of the wife , the ending duel and that makes only can say that this movie seemed to be a true surprise . The story is wrapped in an aura of sadness , a tragic event on the metamorphosis of Brian, a good man turned into a crazed psychopath . Worthwhile watching for a demonstration of the strange relationship between Gianni Garco and Sean Todd . Gianni Garko is fine as the hero / villain of the story . His performance is astonishing , above average to level of these films . Ivan Rassimov is the tough but upright law-man and although he doesn't reaches the level of Garko , is also quite restrained , with some looks that say it all . Elisa Montes is the suffering Julie, in possibly her most important role that was able to defend in a Spaghetti . Many other familiar faces from Spaghetti , there appears ordinary secondaries in Spanish/Italian Western such as Frank Braña , Jose Jaspe , Luis Barboo , Julio Peña , Lorenzo Robledo ,Luis Induni , Miguel Del Castillo , and Luciano Pigozzi nicknamed the Italian Peter Lorre and several others. A special mention I want to highlight is the soundtrack of the film, Manuel Parada creates melodies that manage to finish to give the story a point even more dramatic and disturbing, making the images gain strength with the chords , a high-level work similarly the great composers of the genre. Acceptable photography by Santini filmed on location in Madrid , Las Rozas , Guadix and Rome .
The motion picture was produced by Eduardo Manzanos Brochero who started producing ¨Il Coyote¨ and ¨The Jiusticia De Coyote¨ by Joaquin Romero Marchent with Abel Salazar and Gloria Marin . After that , he produced with his company Copercines ¨Vengeance of Zorro¨ and ¨L'Ombra Di Zorro¨ (1962) by Joaquin Marchent with Frank Latimore . Eduardo Manzanos built a Western town in Hoyo De Manzanares (Madrid) with sets by Cubero and Jose Luis Galicia , today sadly disappeared , called ¨Golden City¨ where filmed several Western as ¨Welcome Padre Murray¨ , ¨Brandy¨ , various Zorros and this one . He produced various films for Marchent brothers as Joaquin Romero Marchent : ¨Cabalgando Hacia Muerte¨ , ¨Three good men¨; and Rafael Marchent : ¨Quien Grita vengeance¨, ¨Two crosses in Danger Pass¨ ; and for Italian directors as ¨Sabor Odio¨ by Umberto Lenzi¨ , ¨Winchester 1 between 1000¨ by Primo Zeglio , ¨At the end of the rainbow¨ by Aldo Florio and this ¨Taste for vengeance¨ also titled ¨vigliacchi non pregano" or "Cowards Don't Pray" (literal English title) professionally directed by Mario Siciliano . Mario realized all kind of genres as Wartime (Seven red berets , Overrun) ,Terror (Evil eye) , Adventure (Lions of St Petersburg , Wild geese attack) , Erotic and Western (Alleluja and Sartana strike again ; Trinity and Sartana are coming) . Rating . Acceptable and passable .
