Kill Them All and Come Back Alone

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.

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

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.

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.

Kill them all and come back alone Is what happens when you take a lot of people with Circus experience and tell them to do a westerns.

It's a movie with an interesting setup the characters feel like something from a more goofy Western movie but the setup makes it a bit more gruesome, but it just never really pay it off in my opinion.

It's just not one of those western willing to go dark enough with what the premise.

Every character is flat, there's not really much to them. The Characters are very flat. They don't really have interesting dialogue. What they look like is what they are. And the Main guy has no charisma in my opinion. He has a face and smile. That is that

The fights on one hand, I kind of impressive because of the acrobatics involved, but on the others the punches are so fake that it is laughable.

The music is also very generic Western. The English dub doesn't standout, but at least is no audio pops.

The movie is not bad. It was not irritating to watch, but there's just so much that didn't catch me at all. It's just a forgetable the Western.