La sfida dei MacKenna

Flat adaptation of usual Spaghetti themes with a few missing ingredients . Run-of-the-prairie horse opera has an American drifter named Jones (John Ireland) becomes involved in a deadly family dispute . A powerful Mexican rancher called Don Diego (Roberto Camardiel) orders his son (Robert Woods) and henchman (Mariano Vidal Molina) the killing of his daughter's boyfriend . Jones/John Ireland stumbles upon danger and intrigue when he enters a mysterious town and he also earns the wrath of the father when he finds the hanged body and buries it . Don Diego is a stiff-upper-lip father who tyrannically dominates his children . Jones attempts to bring order and justice but his enemies are intent on killing him . Meanwhile , Barbara (Daniela Giordano) , owner's daughter , tries to revenge those responsible for his sweetheart's death.

Maccaroni/Paella western with habitual elements such as noisy action , chases , thrills , saloon brawls , poker game , go riding , shootouts and some evocative images about a hanging tree . Adding a particular relationship between father/Roberto Camardiel and son/Robert Woods , but the complications that arise are handled crudely and abruptly while the final involves a redemption of the main starring . The technical crudeness and rare histrionics in this movie , -including brutal hanging and point-blank shots- , mingle to create a bizarre and fascinating surreality . What is most interesting about the euro-westerns made in Italy and Spain in 1960s and 70s are the creative and idiosyncratic ways that the directors came up with to deal with short budgets and limited resources . Given the peculiar economics of the Italian/Spanish industry there was a great deal of freedom for how to make satisfying movies for an ample export audience . Unfortunately, many of the 400-500 films made during this cycle were poorly made . The offspring of ¨Fistful of Dollars¨ , ¨For a fistful of dollars more¨ and ¨The Good , Bad , and the Ugly¨ was fruitful but in low quality . In fact , this ¨La Sfida Dei MacKenna" , "A Dollar and a Grave" , or "Challenge of the McKennas¨ is a modest b-western that brings to mind the lesser Randolph Scott , Joel McCrea or Audie Murphy vehicles of the 1950s but with American secondaries as Ireland and Woods as stand-in . This is why there is still a devoted cult audience for this attractive , weird , and often unpredictable genre . This one turns to be an acceptable Pasta/Tortilla Western with two USA stars and a lot of ordinary support players . It stars John Ireland , an American second-class actor who played several Westerns , as American as European . Here he gives a decent acting as an ex-Evangelist priest who killed his wife and lover , he is an upsetting as well as pacifist man who is gone to take his guns . As Ireland performed US Westerns as ¨Arizona Bushwackers¨, ¨Gunfight at OK Corral¨, ¨The gunslinger¨, ¨Little Big Horn¨, ¨Return of Jesse James¨, ¨Doolins of Oklahoma¨ , ¨I shot Jesse James¨ and Spaghetti Westerns as ¨Odio Per Odio¨ (Domenico Paolella) , ¨Tutto Per Tutto¨ (Umberto Lenzi) , ¨The Machine Gun¨ (Paolo Bianchini) , and ¨Jeremias' Women¨ (Ramón Fernández) . While co-starring Robert Woods played several Spaghetti Westerns as ¨A colt for 4 candles¨ (Ignacio Iquino) , ¨La Spacconata¨ (Al Bradley) , ¨Pistoleros of Arizona¨ (Alfonso Balcázar) , ¨Sette Pistole Per MacGregor¨ (Franco Giraldi) and ¨Quel Caldo Maledetto Giorno Di Fuoco¨ along with John Ireland . In the film appears customary actors from Spaghetti or Paella Western as Roberto Camardiel , Daniela Giordano , Giovanni Cianfriglia as Ken Wood , Nando Poggi , Sergio Mendizábal , Mariano Vidal Molina and Annabella Incontrera Saloon girl . This WAI contains an atmospheric and functional cinematography by Francisco Sanchez , though being extremely necessary a perfect remastering . Shot in Lazio , Rome surroundings where in the 60s and 70s were made lots of Spaghetti Westerns . The movie is visually static both in terms of the camera setups and editing while the soundtrack brings to mind the best euro-westerns . Pretty good Spaghetti sounds with imaginative and appropriate musical score by Francesco De Massi.

This ¨Western alla'italiana¨, or ¨Tortilla¨ or ¨Gazpacho¨ Western was efficiently produced by José Frade/Atlantida Films and professionally made by León Klimovsky , under pseudonym Henry Mankiewicz , but it has a number of flaws and gaps , being strictly a Western fodder . His first one was a comical Western titled ¨Torrejon City¨ starred by Tony Leblanc , the second was ¨Alambradas De Violencia¨ or ¨A few dollars for Django¨ with Anthony Steffen . León subsequently directed other westerns , most of them pretty mediocre , such as ¨Reverendo Colt¨ , ¨One dollar , one tomb¨ , ¨Fuera De Ley¨ , ¨Hand up dead man¨ , ¨Quinto fighting pound¨ , among others . León was a craftsman who directed all kinds of genres , as Warlike : ¨June 44 attack force Normandy¨ , ¨A bullet for Rommel¨ , ¨Bridge over Elba¨ , being expert on terror genre , usually with his fetish actor , Paul Naschy , as ¨Night of Walpurgis¨ , ¨Revolt of dead ones¨ , ¨The Devil possessed¨, ¨A dragonfly for each dead¨ , ¨Orgy of the vampire¨, ¨The saga of the Draculas¨, ¨Marshall of hell¨ , and ¨Doctor Jekill versus Wolfman¨. Rating : 5,5/10 , passable but not a enough to save it from overall dullness.

"La sfida dei MacKenna" (1970), also known as "Challenge of McKenna" and "Badlands Drifter", is a Spaghetti Western directed by León Klimovsky. The story is thus: an ex-preacher, now a drifter (played by John Ireland) gets into a deadly dispute with powerful Mexican rancher Don Diego (Roberto Camardiel). This is quite a bizarre Western for its genre: there is little action (most of which is well-staged, apart from the anti-climatic final confrontation) and has a lot of Catholic symbolism (the dramatic and striking first scene for example, where a man is hung on a cross against the skyline). The acting, for this wordy movie is excellent: Ireland, while too old for the part is believable and moving as a man who has lost his faith and Robert Woods as Chris, son of Diego, is in one of his best roles. The film is well-served by Klimovsky's direction and the screenplay is strange but riveting. Only one thing blot's this film, and that is the romantic sub-plot that is totally redundant and unnecessary. However, apart from that, this is an unusual Spaghetti Western well-worth seeing.

John Ireland heads an excellent cast which is aided by a very good script. Ireland is the "badlands drifter" who inadvertently stumbles into a complex web of twisted family dynamics.

Even at the end of the film it is not entirely clear why the Mexican patriarch played by spaghetti western veteran ROBERTO CAMARDIEL resents his son CHRIS (ROBERT WOODS) so much that he sets him on a path that must surely lead to tragedy.

CAMARDIEL's behaviour towards his only daughter Barbara (DANIELA GIORDANO) is much more understandable: she stood up to him, and attempted to run away with her lover. It is this situation that IRELAND's character stumbles into, setting off a chain of events that finally lead him to take action, but show him to be horribly emotionally crippled by his past life.

Tom Weisser incorrectly describes the film as "Basically, it's the story of a drifter who gets caught up in a range war between two powerful ranchers".

True, there are two powerful ranchers but the younger joins forces with CHRIS, to advance his own romantic interest in his sister Barbara.

Weisser also writes off director LEON KLIMOVKSY "static type of "zoom and pan" film-making," but I found nothing distracting or annoying in either the film's direction or camera work. The score for this 1969 film is by another veteran of the genre FRANCESCO DE MASI.

On the Spaghetti Western Scales of Justice I would rate this 7.5/10. This is just one of a handful of westerns where the actions of an overbearing Mexican rancher/landowner are pivotal to the story, eg. A BULLET FOR SANDOVAL comes immediately to mind.