Kill Them All and Come Back Alone

Confederate secret-agent Chuck Conners assembles a group of master thieves and cutthroats in order to steal a large shipment of Union gold. His orders are then to kill them all and come back alone with the gold, a task that isn't so easy for him to do.

Typical of director Enzo G. Castellari, Kill Them All And Come Back Alone is pretty light-hearted, with tons of humorous moments and wall-to-wall action, staying true to the winning formula he's perfected over his career and across genres. (Watch the real Inglorious Bastards.)

The ever smooth Chuck Conners is also in fine form here, his first of only a few spaghetti western appearances. He should have stuck around a little longer and made a few more!

Helping Chuck out is a great cast of familiar European faces, including Spanish actor Leo Anchóriz, who was also quite memorable opposite George Hilton in A Bullet For Sandoval.

More people should definitely check this out!

This is a Testosterone driven movie, if I ever saw one. Normally in westerns, the hero would have a love interest or at least a few saloon dancers will appear to provide a bit of eye candy. "Ammazzali tutti e torna solo", though, has absolutely no female person in the cast. It is just a bunch of rogues fighting for a few boxes of gold, and that's all there is of a story. Constant action and violence keeps you on the edge of your seat, it's a tremendous roller-coaster ride. Tall Chuck Connors walks through this happy massacre with a broad smile to show white teeth, while Frank Wolff plays his most dangerous opponent and a bunch of familiar genre actors like Ken Wood, Leo Anchoriz and Alberto dell'Acqua take care of guns, dynamite, knives and anything else that makes holes in people. Kind of fun, but on the other hand not all movies need to be like this for my taste.

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!

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.

In 1864, mercenary Clyde McKay leads a squad of determined daredevils tasked with a dangerous mission by Captain Lynch of the Confederate high command: to infiltrate and raid a Unionist army fortress where a million dollars in gold has been hidden in boxes of dynamite.

A single Colt bullet could send the whole treasure sky high but for these scoundrels - Lynch the killer, Deker the dynamite specialist, Hoagy the hit man, Blade the knife expert, the vicious Kid and Bogard with his brute strength - nothing is impossible. Only madmen could pull off such a job, piercing the enemy lines at the only river crossing and creating a diversion for the garrison where the arsenal is situated.

But before long the betrayals begin as the men attempt to double cross each other in order to take the money for themselves in this bloodthirsty Civil War tale of revenge.

The plot and characters are straightforward and simple to the point of being cartoonish - which it is meant to be. A hard-boiled collection of scoundrels, each with their own lethal skill, plan a daring heist of a hoard of gold from a desert fortress during the Civil War. And as expected, Double crosses crop up, well they captured and learn that the mastermind backing the heist is playing both ends against the middle. There's not much depth in the story nor has it any subtlety or suspense - it's just non-stop action, stunts, gunplay, combat, heroic last stands and betrayal. The stunt work is amazing, the action set pieces are well thought out and the terrain of Almeria in Spain are as cruel as the double crosses. Chuck Connors fits the SW mould really well - pity he didn't do much more. The rest of the cast is good. Having said that, the morally bankrupt and greedy characters can be shallow, nihilistic, and there's no one to root for, unlike in traditional westerns of the 40's and 50's.