I'm catching up on old westerns lately. And I must admit I haven't seen many good ones. The John Wayne-"classic" THE SEARCHERS was a real disappointment for example. But this movie is by far the worst I have ever seen in the western-genre. The story is set against the background of the Civil War. Two "buddies" return home with a large amount of stolen money, when they are being caught. One of them(Gazzolo) escapes from the "yankees"(with the money). The other one(Hunter) gets locked away for 5 years. When he is released, he finds out that his "friend" is now the richest and most feared/hated man around. He is also to blame for the death of Hunter's wife. Our hero seeks for revenge, but he stands alone...
The movie is very very bad: the first half might work as a parody, but this is denied by a boring and predictable second half. The acting is really bad, especially by the leads: Hunter is awful as the hero(look out for the scene in which he screams for revenge)and Gazzolo doesn't get much to do either. The only actor I knew in this "film" was Henry Silva and his role(leader of Gazzolo's men) is, to say the least, dynamic, but pointless at the same time. Silva gives an awkward, but often amusing performance. The other performances range (surprisingly) from mediocre to rather good, with Machiavelli as a Catherine Zeta-Jones-lookalike from years ago. Most of the dialogue is dubbed too which can easily be noticed. The music however has some nice moments, but all in all it's by far not enough to cover up for the rest.
If you want a really bad comic(?) western, you might want to see this. Just don't pay any dollari for it. 3/10
