A small US town close to the border with Mexico is plagued by the activities of the Mexican border bandit "Colonel" Ferrerres (Eduardo Fajardo). The only thing that stands between the exceptionally unwashed and evil man and his gang and the riches the town and the federal bank with its federal gold could provide is a troop of cavalry soldiers under the command of Captain Reeves (Vidal Molina) - at least until the redrawing of the borders between Mexico and the US is finished, at which point the town will become Mexican territory and Ferrerres' playground by default anyway.
The bandit leader is not willing to wait this long, though, and sets in motion a plan to get at the gold a bit earlier. First part of this plan is to slaughter the cavalrymen who are supposed to relieve the current protectors of the town. The military in this part of the world functions in a rather strange way, and so the absence of their relief doesn't hinder the soldiers from leaving their posts. All of them but Captain Reeves, whose job it is to represent the US government and to keep order in town until the new blood arrives - whenever that may be.
Under these circumstances, it's not much of a surprise that Ferrerres' men are killing the good captain quite effortlessly and with a certain amount of sadistic glee.
Nobody could have expected that the newest arrival in town, the professional gambler and gunman Gentleman Jo (Anthony Steffen), is the good Captain's brother, nor could anyone have expected that Jo is as good at posing as his own brother, making friends with the whore with the heart of gold (Silvia Solar), laying ambushes, backstabbing, setting bandits against each other and other special talents useful for the hero of a Spaghetti Western, as he turns out to be when properly motivated by a wish for vengeance.
Giorgio Stegani's Gentleman Killer has a lot in common with the actor playing its hero. Anthony Steffen will hardly be anyone's favorite Spaghetti Western hero, but one wouldn't want to say he's doing a bad job at anything that is required of him. He has the swagger, he has the stare, he knows how to let the small muscles around his eyes do much of his acting and he is convincing in his action scenes. It's not his fault that there are people in the business who are even better at it all, yet still he'll never be remembered as fondly as Van Cleef, Eastwood or Nero.
It is really much the same with the whole film. Stegani's direction is certainly not flashy or very remarkable, but he keeps everything tight, grimy and tense. Not much of what is happening during the course of the movie will be a surprise to anyone, but Jaime Jesus Balcazar's script keeps the "when" and the "how" of the plot open enough to keep the film interesting. I was even surprised by the ending which manages to involve a deus ex machina that is for once neither annoying nor stupid and instead pushes the film in a direction that puts its own anti-Mexican ressentiment into question in an unsubtle yet effective way.
Friends of the gentlemen Nicolai and Morricone (this time around with Nicolai listed as composer and Morricone as conductor and musical director) will be glad to hear that the score is of their usual standard; surely not their best work, yet still sounding pretty damn great to my ears.
Gentleman Killer is definitely no Spaghetti Western masterpiece, not the sort of film I'd recommend to people who just want to get a little taste for the genre or who haven't already seen at least some of the films of the Sergios. It is rather the sort of movie that can keep someone like me in love with a genre even after I've experienced most of its high points and some of its hidden diamonds, a film that provides exactly what one would expect in a genre film and that won't be ashamed of it.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment