I suppose this
has to be termed a Blaxploitation Spaghetti Western. Not a lot of those though
there were other Westerns that featured black actors. Two of the stars here
had already been in a few of them ; Jim Brown in Rio Conchos, 100 Rifles
and El Condor while Fred Williamson had starred and produced his trilogy
of Western films with the word "Nigger" in the title. Meant to shock though
the titles were changed when shown on TV. What makes this a Spaghetti Western
is the addition of Lee Van Cleef who was in plenty of them but primarily
that the director is Antonio Margheriti going under the name Andrew Dawson.
Margheriti was a top Italian genre filmmaker who had covered them all from
Peplum to Giallo. Vengeance and The Stranger and the Gunfighter (with Van
Cleef and Lo Lieh) were two of his Westerns. He must have enjoyed the idea
of a martial artist in the old West as he adds Jim Kelly here.
Brown, Williamson and Kelly had just appeared
together in the fun action film, Three the Hard Way, and later were in One
Down, Two to Go. Brown and Williamson in particular have great chemistry
together and Kelly is like their younger brother. This is loaded with gun
fights, some kung fu and a few scary stunts directed by Hal Needham. In one
scene, four horsemen go over a nearly sheer cliff and the riders and horses
take quite a long tumble. Hopefully, they got it in one take. I don't recall
a claim that no animals were hurt in filming. I hope not.
Dana Andrews and Brown have just delivered
a cattle herd and been paid off. Andrews though has a weak ticker and knows
he hasn't long, so he makes Brown promise to deliver the money to his wife
in Mexico. $86,000. Enough to make every killer and scuzzball in the West
chase after him. Williamson is a card cheat with snakes handy for diversions
and he too goes after Brown. So does the bounty hunter Van Cleef and the
sheriff, Barry Sullivan. And many others. Williamson promises to help Brown
get to the border and then all bets are off. The beginning of a great friendship.
On the way they save a female (Catherine Spaak) who is being gang raped -
and her friend, a mute Indian (Kelly) comes along. This was filmed in the
Canary Islands, I had no idea it looked just like our West. Good Western
that rarely slows down.
