A Pistol for Ringo ( Una Pistola per Ringo ) ( Ballad of Death Valley )

Writer & director Duccio Tessari, who c0-scripted Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars," helmed this entertaining, above-average spaghetti western, "A Pistol for Ringo," starring Roman-born actor Giuliano Gemma--billed here as Montgomery Wood--as the eponymous hero with perennial villain Fernando Sancho as his treacherous adversary. For the record, the profligate Sancho appeared in over 230 movies and basically played the same slimy Mexican outlaw in 35 westerns. Tessari penned a number of other Italian oaters including "Seven Guns for the MacGregors," "Return of Ringo" and "A Train for Durango." Tessari also worked on the Italian peplum--muscle man movies--before he embarked on these trigger happy westerns, most notably co-writing Sergio Leone's "The Colossus of Rhodes." In "A Pistol for Ringo," Tessari imitates American westerns more than his native variety. Gemma is a clean-cut, good-looking, well-dressed gunfighter who is too fast on the draw for his own good. At least twice in this lively horse opera, he guns down opponents in self-defense. The way that Ringo handles a six-gun, however, it comes pretty close to murder. Moreover, Ringo is a wise-cracking gringo with a comeback line for everything. Indeed, the dialogue by Tessari and co-scenarist Alfonso Balcázar, who also knew his way around continental westerns with writing credits on "Nevada Clint," "Five Giants from Texas," and "$100-Thousand Dollars for Ringo," crackles with humor and imagination. Simply said, nothing about this hostage crisis western set in the arid Southwest that co-stars George Eastman, another Italian who made his share of spaghettis, is half-baked. Ennio Morricone composed the beautiful orchestral score and Morricone's magical music is far above what this violent western could have hoped for, especially the lyrical title tune about the wily protagonist.

The first time that we lay eyes on our hero, Ringo (Giuliano Gemma of "Day of Anger"), he is playing hop-scotch with a bunch of children in a village. Word has arrived that Ringo has been cleared of murder charges in the shooting death of another gunman, but the Benson brothers decide to make him pay for their brother's death. No sooner have they challenged Ringo--who is also known as 'Angel Face'--than he whips his six-shooter out of his waistband and blows all four of them away without wasting a shot. Indeed, like Clint Eastwood in "A Fistful of Dollars," Ringo doesn't wait for them to draw and only one of the Benson's clears leather with his revolver before he is shot dead. The sheriff (George Eastman of "Ben and Charlie") arrests Ringo and puts him in jail where our hero demands a glass of milk. Later, Ringo pours out liquor on the floor when he doesn't get his trademark glass of milk.

Meanwhile, Sancho (Fernando Sancho of "Mission Phantom") rides across the border alone only to be confronted by a couple of U.S. Cavalrymen who tell him to turn around and ride back across the Rio Grande. Sancho feigns ignorance and removes his sombrero in humility while the soldiers chew him out. Little to the troopers know that Sancho has taken his large hat off to hid his hand pulling his pistol out. He guns them down and his gang joins him in the border town where they shoot it up and rob the bank. During the hold-up, Sancho catches a bullet in the shoulder. The sheriff forms a posse to follow them and the villains hightail it out of town and ride to a sprawling ranch near the border. They take the owner, Major Clyde (Antonio Casas of "The Texican"), his pretty daughter Ruby (Lorella De Luca of "The Swindle"), and their servants and ranch hands hostage.

After the posse lays siege to them at the ranch, one character points out how impregnable the ranch is. "The walls are high and thick. You'd need a company of cavalry to attack it. Half of the soldiers would be killed in the charge." Nevertheless, the stalwart sheriff informs Sancho that his men and he are cornered in the ranch and there is no escape for them. The murderous Sancho responds, "Meanwhile, in case it takes you a while to make up your mind, we'll send out two dead men a day, one at dawn and one at sunset, first the ranch hands and last of all, the girl and her father." At the same time, the townspeople send for the U.S. Cavalry. They know Sancho by his reputation: "His favorite sport is shooting unarmed men, preferably in the back." Another posse man observes, "The only sure method to handling them is to slaughter them like cattle." The sheriff is bothered by Sancho's ultimatum. Particularly, the sheriff worries because Ruby is the love of his life and he doesn't want anything that might jeopardize her life. "If we could get a man inside the ranch," he opines, "we could help them to escape." Reluctantly, he approaches free-wheeling Ringo with a scheme that would see Ringo turned loose. Initially, Ringo is reluctant to help them. "Don't look for trouble," he points out, "It'll come by itself." Nevertheless, after the sheriff clears Ringo of the shooting death of the Benson brothers and the citizens grudgingly agree to 30 per cent as a reward for our hero, he agrees to help them. However, to establish his credentials as a villain, he has the sheriff and his posse pepper the air with bullets as he rides hell-bent-for-leather to the ranch. Once Ringo shows up, he operates on Sancho and removes the bullet. Ringo tells them about his predicament as well as their predicament and demands 40 per cent of the loot in exchange for getting them out of the ranch.

"A Pistol for Ringo" is head and hands above most generic spaghetti westerns. Director Duccio Tessari keeps things popping. Gemma is perfectly cast as the agile Ringo. The rugged Spanish scenery is gorgeous and the formulaic plot provides a couple of surprises.

The biggest complaint about this DVD is that the people who made it put it in what I classify as 'semi-letterbox' format. The top and bottom of the film is clearly visible so that it looks like 1.85.1, but in reality, "A Pistol for Ringo" was a 2.35.1 western, so why didn't they go the extra mile and give us the entire picture instead of clipping it? The print quality is razor-sharp and clear.

One of the very first hit Spaghetti Westerns, directed by a co-scripter of A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. The very likeable and attractive Giuliano Gemma stars as Ringo ("Angel Face", as he is nicknamed), a milk-drinking pretty-boy that also happens to be a ruthless mercenary.

Gemma is sprung from prison to help the sherriff capture a band of bandits holed up, with hostages, at a nearby ranch. Much time is spent on the setup and planning of various raids by each side, and on the drama between two women (one hostage, one bandit) and the men that fancy them. Ringo eventually connives and conspires his way through the story and eventually produces the desired result, netting himself a nice payday in the process.

I liked the great contradiction of the Ringo character: so nice and handsome, polite, well-dressed... yet also a deadly pistol shot, a wisecracking sarcastic SOB, a cutthroat negotiator. Gemma is gifted at bringing the laconic, edgy charm this character needs to come alive. He is great at acting with his body, whether in dramatic scenes that show his cockiness, or the slam-bang stunts that require his full athleticism.

As for Sancho, the head bandit, played by Fernando Sancho, I don't get it. Sancho (the actor) is renowned for his great charisma and charm as a thug in dozens of Western features, but he has never won me over. Yes, he is usually poorly dubbed in a cartoonish voice, he can't help that; it's his wildly flailing reactions to every punch, every gunshot... he strikes me as a big, floppy, rowdy buffoon that is incapable of any dramatic subtlety. Sancho (the character) here shows himself to be undisciplined, hot-tempered, dumb, not at all like the ringleader of a successful gang. A poor performance by (in my opinion) a poor actor.

The picture features fine widescreen photography, and also a nice score (with dramtic stings at appropriate moments) by the great Ennio Morricone. The color schemes of the sets and costumes are, however, a little gaudy and stagy, not the usually grime-and-grease look one associates from this genre; it makes the film feel a little more "Hollywood" than other Italo-westerns.

This is, overall, a good early-cycle Spaghetti. A little slow and stagy, maybe, but enjoyable. Gemma's performance is the best thing about the pic. 6/10 stars.