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.
