User reviews

It is a thrilling western that packs a story full of violence , fights , killings and subsequent suspense , so-so dramatic pace , twists and slick direction . A little boy is kidnapped by nasty outlaw band whose leader turns out to be the vicious cutthroat nicknamed ¨El Cachal¨ (Fernando Sancho) , a known Mexican thief . Then , Cachal and his henchmen (Jose Luis Martin , Espartaco Conversi) butcher the child's family with the exception of his dad . Later on , the father called Johnny Ashley (Anthony Steffen) returns home and looks for his son . Many years later , one time grown-up the kid's become into a killer gunslinger , the feared Jerry (Roberto Miali) , and his adopting father results to be the ominous bandit ¨El Cachal .

Decent Maccaroni/Chorizo Western dealing with a deadly confrontation , including interesting elements of Greek tragedy , though it has some flaws and gaps , too . This violent Spaghetti results to be an oater plenty of action , thrills , gun-play , in a word : emotion . Besides , it contains effective action sequences as when there takes place the final attack on the town or the exciting ending gun-down between father and son . It's a medium budget film with passable actors , technicians, production values and ordinary results . Here there are ritual shootouts among gunslingers confronting each other in some quick-draw duels in the accepted Western movie fashion . It follows the Sergio Leone wake , including close-up , zooms , choreographic duels and no being proceeded in American style . Acceptable action sequences with rousing crossfire and spectacularly bloody shootouts . Charismatic performance for the whole casting . The notorious Spaghetti actor , Anthony Steffen is good in his usual tough role . Enjoyable and sympathetic performance by the always great Fernando Sancho . In the film appears ordinary Tortilla/Spaghetti Western actors , such as : José Luis Martin , Elisa Montes , Spartaco Conversi , Franco Fantasia and Loredana Nusciack of ¨Django¨ .

The picture displays a resounding and appropriate musical score by Francesco De Massi who composes one of the his best Western soundtracks . And colorful and glimmer cinematography by Jose F. Aguayo who photographed various Buñuel films . Being filmed on location in Hoyo Manzanares del Real , Colmenar Viejo and La Pedriza , Madrid , Spain and El Lacio , Rome , Italy . This Chorizo-Spaghetti Western mostly produced by Italy and important Spanish participation , being decently shot by the Italian professional Albert Cardone . Albert was a prestigious assistant director to popular films as ¨Ben Hur¨, ¨Purple noon¨, ¨Cagliostro¨ , ¨Carmen¨ , ¨Don Camilo¨ , ¨Return of Don Camilo¨. And shot some films , most of them entertaining Westerns such as : ¨¨ Blood at Sundown¨ , ¨Kidnapping¨ , ¨Il Lungo Giorno Del Massacro¨ , ¨20.000 Dollari Sul¨ , ¨L'ira Di Dio¨ and starred by usual genre stars as Brett Halsey , Gianni Garco , Peter Martell , Wayde Preston , Fernando Sancho and Anthony Steffen . Rating : Acceptable and passable 5.5/10 . Only for Spaghetti Western aficionados .

At the very beginning of the film, there is a little prologue that is all written in Italian--and so I had no idea whether or not this was important. I saw the film on a disc that included: 7 Dollars on Red / Apocalypse Joe / Bounty Killer / Minnesota Clay. Perhaps if there are other versions out there that they will have captioning for the portion. As for the rest of the film, like most Italian westerns we get here in the States, it's dubbed.

"Seven Dollars on the Red" begins with a group of bandits slaughtering a household. A young boy is left unharmed and the bandit leader decides to adopt the kid. Little does the bandit know that the boy's father was not home and vows to do everything he can to find the boy. But, everything is not good enough and years pass--and the nice kid slowly evolves into a vicious jerk just like his foster dad.

If you are looking for an Italian film of the quality of a Sergio Leone or even a Sergio Carbucci film, then keep looking. This one is actually a bit funny, since the guns didn't even use blanks--and the actors had to pretend that the guns were firing something. However, the gun sounds were added later and it comes off as kind of funny seeing the men jerking the guns even though nothing is coming out (even a blank will appear out of the barrel the same as a normal bullet). Plus, they also seemed to have tried to save money by eliminating blood--making the bullet-riddled bodies oddly clean and without bullet holes. The film also has only fair music--nothing particularly haunting or memorable about the tunes. The bottom line is that the Italians made hundreds of westerns--some good, some bad and some ugly. I'd rank this among the ugly--kind of cheap but reasonably entertaining if you are looking for just a time-passer.

Fernanda Sancho and his legions of guffawing sidekicks rob and kill Anthony Steffan's wife, and steal his son to be brought up as a red-headed bandido. Steffan makes it his life mission to track them down, which takes an awfully long time...

Decades, it seems. By this time Anthony's son has grown up to be a full on chuckling, card dealing, people killing jerk of the highest order (just like his adopted dad Sancho). Can Steffan rehabilitate his son and reunite them in time for coffee and fainting or are they going to be squaring off against each other, as they do in these films? This one kind of meanders all over the place in the middle, as we follow Steffan around doing stuff in an indestructible way, but then we see him taking a kicking off some bad guys, and then we sidestep into a romantic interlude with his son and this girl (or is it?). It's not quite the most exciting Spaghetti Western I've watched, although it is made well enough.

It's hard to imagine Fernando Sancho wasn't like that in real life. Somebody find out and get back to me.

A cowboy( Anthony Steffen)seeks for years the evil bandit (Fernando Sancho) who murdered his wife and kidnapped her newborn son. When he finally manages to find him, he attains the vengeance he has longed for and ends with him, but his son will be against him as the bandit raises the child as his own son, ensuring that the final showdown has the added angst ridden element of father facing son.

Seven Dollars on the Red boasts a competent cast and a memorable soundtrack, and though a little unremarkable and slightly muddled its strong plot helps overcome this. Steffen is very good in the lead, and so is a dead-eyed Roberto Miali and a radiant Elisa Montes - they play the stolen son and his doomed love interest. It presents a hand-to-hand fight in the barn which is an eye opener, and it ends with a rain soaked showdown with father vs son. The last twenty minutes are quite tense and emotional. Not a bad spaghetti western.

There is little good about this movie, in fact I would have to be tied down to my chair and forced to waitch it again.

The acting including the lead, is woeful to say the least!.

Sets move at times and the script writer/s must have gotten their knowledge of the wild West from a penny western book. (old Western comic like books of the 50's).

It's hard to describe the sound of gun fire in this movie, but it's unlike any gun ever fired, including the flintlock.

As for fist fightng, we'll the acting is so poor, that you can see punches thrown, but clearly missed by 12 to 18 inches.

When someone is hit or shot, they seem to stay upright for a week before screaming and hitting the ground.

All I can say is Clint Eastwood saved the spaghetti westerns for sure, if this is typical of those produced at the time.

Simply Dreadful.