It is a customary example of American Western standard style with two usual genre stars : Edmund Purdom and Frank Latimore , and there appears regular Spanish secondary players of Spaghetti/Paella Western . It contains an intriguing premise to investigate and to discover some rustlers , including twists and red herrings , and results to be moderately entertaining , though drags at times , balancing in ups and downs . Dealing with a little town , where arrives a stranger to make fortune . Jim James (Edmund Purdom) is a mysterious visitor from the East ; when bandits attempt to abduct a wealthy rancher called Thompson (Luis Induni) , he kills the kidnappers . A bit later on , Jim is hired as a foreman to survey the herd and find out the horse robbing . Meanwhile , Jim falls for his beautiful daughter (Maria Silva) , but she has a jealous boyfriend , his cousin Lance (Frank Latimore as land baron's nephew) and things go awry . Shortly after , Jim is at the town saloon , there dances a sex-pot , go-go girl , Kathrin (Laura Granados) , an old flame . Later on , Jim is detained by a stiff-upper-lip sheriff (Antonio Jimenez Escribano) , accused for killing a slashed man . Jim is imprisoned at jail along with a Mexican outlaw (Fernando Sancho) . The gunman teams up with the sympathetic bandit , but then both of whom escape , and Jim carries out a personal revenge in the Valley of the Vultures against Kenton (Lorenzo Robledo) . Later on , it takes place fateful happenings , as they never thought it could happen in their town .
This is an effortless , simple , plain but average Tortilla Western displaying common characters , shootouts , Western action and being enough entertaining . This is a classic Western , pre-Leone style with thrills , noisy action , brawls , gun-fights and some surprises . It is a medium budget Western with fine actors , good technicians , decent production design , though it has a few failures . Acceptable action sequences with rousing crossfire , spectacular shoot'em up and glimmer go riding throughout mountains , rivers and cliffs . The sense of pacing is such interesting that his film can be counted on to move quickly and smoothly . The Spanish Westerns of this era attempt to emulate their American source material that cultivate a distinctive style of their own the way followed by the Italians . The movie gets the usual Western issues such as pursuits , strong facing off , exaggerated baddies and spectacular duels , among them . Edmund Purdom is passable as a cowboy who has secret identity become into a gunman . As nice acting by Edmund Purdom who takes on a band of crooks led by the jealous Lance Thompson & his gang , and he then decides that he wants to get justice for the friendly townsfolk . Edmund Purdom is still at his most agile and deft style and performs his own stunts . Purdom was 41 when he made this movie . Previously , Edmund made his best adventures and swashbucklers and played successes in Hollywood as ¨The student Prince¨, ¨The Egyptian¨, ¨Athena¨, ¨The prodigal¨ , ¨The king's thief¨. It was all downhill for Purdom after this , as he emigrated Italy where starred ¨B¨ films , Sword and Sandals , Spaghettis and minor epics as ¨Herod the Great¨, ¨Nefertiti , queen of Nile¨ , and followed successive flops as ¨Mr Scarface¨, ¨Big Boss¨, ¨Dr. Frankestein castle of freaks¨. And Frank Latimore is cool as a two-fisted as well as nasty card player . Latimore starred during the sixties and seventies several American Western as well as Chorizo or Tortilla Western , such as ¨Zorro¨ and ¨Vendetta of Zorro¨ by Joaquin Roméro Marchent . Charismatic performance for the whole support casting . As secondaries appear several familiar faces from Chorizo/Spaghetti Western such as : Francisco Sanz , Santiago Rivero , Xan Das Bolas , Rafael Hernández , Lorenzo Robledo ,Luis Induni , Miguel De La Riva , Rafael Vaquero , Tomás Blanco , Álvaro De Luna , Antonio Jiménez Escribano , Tito Garcia , Victor Israel and Fernando Sancho , of course . Good production design in Ballesteros studios and creating an excellent scenario with luminous outdoors , rocky landscapes under a glimmer sun and fine sets by expert set designers , though being mostly developed at the little town and exteriors from Calatayud , Zaragoza, Aragón , Casa De Campo , Madrid , and Colmenar Viejo, Madrid .
This exciting Western was decently photographed , -though being marred by an ancient cinematography- by Ricardo Torres , a prestigious cameraman who made ¨Fray Escoba¨, ¨La Mies Es Mucha¨, ¨Vida Por Delante¨, ¨Comicos¨ , and westerns as ¨Sheriff Terrible¨, ¨Vengador California¨ , ¨Bienvenido Padre Murray¨ . Evocative and atmospheric musical score by Daniel Montorio . The motion picture was regularly directed by Ramon Torrado . Ramon was born in 1905 , Galicia, Spain . He was a director and writer , known for directing some vehicles of known Folkloric stars such as Peret in Amor a Todo gas (1969) , Manolo Escobar in Un Beso en Puerto (1966) and Paquita Rico in Malvaloca (1954). The nice craftsman Torrado directed four mediocre Chorizo Westerns such as 1964 La Carga De la Policía Montada , 1964 Relevo a Pistolero and 1963 Bienvenido, Padre Murray and 1965 Los Cuatreros . Rating : 5.5/10
