Sette Dollari Sul Rosso / Seven Dollars to Kill
March 16, 1966
Bandits kill the wife of Johnny Ashley. They also take his young son, Jerry. Now Johnny vows revenge. Mostly he just spends his time in the wilderness, doing random acts of goodness. Time passes, and half-breed Jerry is all grown up. He's gotten mean too. The gang has come into some gold, and they intend to split up with their booty.
'How do you carry that child? He's not a sack of potatoes.'
Johnny does not talk about his revenge. He does his revenge. (Well, whenever he gets around to it.) This is a simple revenge picture, with estranged father and son who have to form a bond for the first time. The best thing about this one is the mountain scenery in the first half, which makes a pleasant treat for the eyes, even in a bad Youtube transfer. In the second half, we move onto a standard western town. I dig the bleakness of the ending. It gets an extra half star for that ending. When it comes to family business, we're all just rolling in the mud.
Get me an Eastwood type. Get me a John Phillip Law type. Get me an Emilo Fernandez type. Now we can make a movie. Bronzed up Steffen is wooden as it gets, but he's not afraid to get nasty, breaking into a bandit's cave lair and blowing him away. Miali is possibly even more wooden. On the other hand, Sancho is a lot of fun as the fat bad guy. Elisa Montes sings a song about 'Wishville.' Wishville was also referenced in the director's 1000 Dollari Sul Nero (1966.) We're all half-breeds if you think about it. (I rather suspect that I have no breeding at all.) The ability to shoot locks saves you on the expense of keys. Of all the ways to go, I would not want to fall and hit my head on a rock. Our hero is named John Ashley, but this one never appeared in a single Beach Party movie. (Hey, one of our female characters does kind of look like Annette!) Sombrero, mustache, and ammo belt. That's the look I want to emulate. There's a little bit more greenery of forest than you see in most spaghetti westerns. Stock footage of a western town is cut in, and even on Youtube, the quality difference is apparent. Pawing a bar wench is what a bandit does. Look, if a bar wench doesn't wear a low-cut blouse, I question the entire basis of reality. (Her hair is right out of the 1960s though.) The ability to roll down stairs and shoot bad guys at the same time is something else. Poor Jerry is shooting his guns in the street.
'Oro!'
Alberto Cardone also directed 20,000 Dollari Sul 7. (That's considerably more expensive than this movie.) Anthony Steffen was in An Angel for Satan (1966.) Elisa Montes was in Captain Apache (1971.) Fernado Sancho was in La Resa Del Conti (1967.) Roberto Miali also appeared as the dumb-mute brother in 1000 Dollari Sul Nero (1966.) Loredana Nusciak was in Django (1966.)
*** / *****
