The Price of Power

After the civil war, Willer (Giuliano Gemma) who was 4 years in prison for treason, lives in Texas when president Garfield (Van Johnson) comes to visit the unruly state. Although the president was his judge in the trial years ago, Willer rescues his life from assassins. But there is quite a big conspiracy going on involving sheriff Jefferson (Benito Stefanelli) and the owner of the bank of Texas (Fernando Rey) who blackmails the vice president, so plans for a new attempt to murder the president are made immediately.

Good quality western by Tonino Valerii who shot "Day of Anger" (also with Gemma) the year before and went on to make "My Name Is Nobody" with Henry Fonda and Terence Hill. "The Price of Power" may not be historically accurate (and by the way, the sweet little nothing the saloon dancer is almost wearing comes straight from a 1969 nightclub), and it plays too obviously with the similarities to the JFK assassination case, yet unlike many Italian westerns it rarely drifts away into a bizarre anti-hero fantasy world, the exception being the duel rituals between Willer and Jefferson.