Kill Them All and Come Back Alone

I always reckoned Chuck Connors just came along ten years too late to be a "Tarzan". He has precious little acting ability but would have been great rolling around in a loin cloth, or swinging through the trees with a knife between his teeth. Well, to be fair to that image - it's sort of what he ends up doing here in this very routine spaghetti western. He is "Clyde" who is charged with pinching an huge gold consignment being held by the Yankee army during the American civil war. Allied with half a dozen pretty disparate cutthroats and an even more duplicitous union captain "Lynch" (Frank Wolff) we now follow their escapades as betrayal begets betrayal and killings become routine as they search for the loot. It's all very cheap, cheerful and predictable - and Connors must have a jaw made of wrought iron. Francesco De Masi is no Ennio Morricone so we haven't even a quirky or original score to rely on to help this as it limps along to a denouement that matters not. The production - especially the editing - is really basic, but it might have worked better had the cast, dialogue and story been a bit more robust. As it is, though, well it just passes the time, that's all.

Chuck Connors stars in KILL THEM ALL AND COME BACK ALONE!, not to be confused with GO KILL AND COME BACK by the same director. He's assigned, along with his hand-picked team, to make off with a huge sum of Yankee dollars from an impregnable fort, to thwart the Union buying weapons to defeat the south, Connors' employers. Among his team, the usual: a knife thrower, dynamite expert, the Kid, the strongman. Along for the ride is the Captain (Frank Wolff) who dreamed up the whole scheme. The expected treachery occurs and when the dust settles not too many of the characters are still around to divvy up the loot. Connors is very good in this, although he's not, as one of the prints in the poster gallery boast THE SUPREME American ACTION STAR! Most of the team is played by stuntmen like Ken Wood and Alberto Dell'Acqua and seeing them leap and tumble is part of the fun. Nicely produced, with sweeping panoramas of the Spanish countryside, and with a great score by Francesco de Masi, this one is a lot of fun. The Wild East version is widescreen and in English for the first time, and has an interview with Ken Wood that reveals many interesting facts about the Italian cinema of the 60s and 70s.

Hey - this is an Italian World War 2 movie plot! A bunch of guys, having fulfilled a training exercise, are then sent behind enemy lines to steal a bunch of gold, with at least one traitor in their midst? That sounds like Five For Hell, or one of those other films they show all the time on the telly! This is a Western however -someone's cheating! Enzo's no fool, however. He knows his film is about as in tune with reality as a plastic kangaroo doing Hamlet, so he does what he does best: fills the film with wall-to-wall action and forgets about supper! And it works! Chuck Connors is the cheeseball leader of our crew who has to infiltrate Yankee territory and steal gold that is mixed with dynamite. Frank Wolff is the snidey Confederate Captain who wants the gold for himself (and also seems to be a Yankee Captain as well?). Plus, Connors has about half a dozen men who seems loyal but most of which try to rip him off too.

When not trying to kill or rip off each other these guys are taking on the USA army, and winning! One of them is a strong man, another has a freakin rocket launcher! Will any of them remain loyal or will the drink cause us to pass out before we find out the truth? Filled with Enzo's hyperactive camera work, ridiculous POV work, and constant explosions, this is another worthy Enzo film for your collection! I'm drunk!

If you like cheese the chance is great that you watched one of the movies of Enzo G. Castellari without knowing or remembering his name - like every good Italian director in the 60s up to the 80s he directed a lot of different movies in different genres - be it war, horror, adventure, sci-fi, or some Spaghetti western. A broader audience outside of Italy may know such "gems" like Striker or The New Barbarians among a few others. Ammazzali tutti e torna solo (Kill Them All and Come Back Alone) is one of this contributions to the Western genre and a fun one: a solid production, some well known faces of B-movies of that era and a lot of shooting and killing. The story is a kind of commando movie set in the time of the Civil War in the USA spiced up with some humor and cool guys on the loose and we witness maybe the first panzerfaust ever in action. For sure not to be taken seriously, this one is a fun and entertaining piece for the right kind of audience: nothing more and nothing less. In my youth I loved such kind of movies a lot. Good.

Glorious "Spaghetti Western" made shortly after "The Good The Bad And The Ugly", which utilized some of the G. B. & U. sets and props. The movie has a grand scope which takes full advantage of the Spanish desert location shooting. There is not a single female in the film, so it gets right down to business, with no romantic distractions. Basically the plot revolves around Chuck Conners assembling a band of particularly skilled baddies, to help him steal Union gold coins for the Confederate high command, represented by Frank Wolfe. Never before have just seven men defeated almost an entire Union Army, until finally the band of cutthroats begin turning against each other. The film is not perfect. It is perhaps a bit too long. There is too much redundant slaughter of soldiers. The acrobatics and stunt work, while impressive, often seems out of place. Nevertheless, this should be considered as one of the best non Leone : Spaghetti Westerns." MERK