ironhorse_iv Being a huge fan of Spaghetti Westerns, I found this movie to be very entertaining with its action, characters, and music. The movie is somewhat hard to find, due to the movie being often re-copy and dubbed in many languages, so the movie has been known to go under many titles, throughout the years. In the US, the film is known as Gentleman Killer or Gentleman Joe. There been known to be copies of the movie reissues under the title Shamango or the weird odd title Django-The list of deaths in the luggage as well. Honestly, I have no idea, where did they get the last title, because there is no luggage and the main character looks and acts way different than the Italian Django's been known for. Directed by Giorgio Stegani (credit as George Finley in English version), the movie is about a border-town call Douglas that been the subject of heated political turmoil between the US & Mexico due to land claims. The conflict gets worst when a Mexican bandit and self-made Colonel, Ferreras (Eduardo Fajardo) starts killing as many US soldiers as he can. Despite their claims that they represent Mexico, the bandits are trying to find a way into the large amount of gold that's kept secure within the local bank. The only men who can stop him, is brothers, Gentleman Joe Reeves (Anthony Steffen), a local gambler, and the local cavalry captain, Clay Reeves (Mariano Vidal Molina). The plot isn't anything new. It's typical in Spaghetti Western fare. I like the idea of the vengeful hero adopting the disguise of his dead comrade. It's pretty haunting to have a victim of a crime, hunt down his killers. Remind me, a lot of 1976's God's Gun. Without spoiling it, the twist ending in the end, was pretty interesting, but lack lusting. The sense of pacing is that it moves quickly, but there are some slow-areas in the middle of nothing happening. The editing is out of whacked in a few scenes, as it jump around, or seem to be missing a few small frames. I have to say, the movie jump from night to day, in a heart-beat that can be annoying. Way too much anachronisms in the lighting department. Just watch the jailbreak scene to get what I'm talking about. Great production design creating an excellent believable Western scenario. The acting in the movie is pretty watchable, but there are some that play their part, way over the top. Eduardo Fajardo makes this movie for me. Not only is he evil enough to be taken serious as a menace, but he gives good reasons to be evil. The English dubbing is alright, but there are small nitpicks of the mouths still talking with no words, coming out in certain scenes. The movie was lot violent than the normal death count of Spaghetti Westerns of the day, but nothing too disturbing. After all, the movie has little to no blood, and the film is full of one-shot kills, and over dramatic deaths that kinda makes it look silly. Odd way of torture, being forced to drink bottles of whiskey. By far, the best thing about this movie is the well conducted soundtrack by musician Bruno Nicolai. After all, he was supervised by the great Ennio Morricone known for his works in Siergo Leone' Dollars trilogy. The music by Bruno, really set the mood of the film, and jump starts the action scenes. It's amazing to listen to. The movie is in the public domain, so don't be surprise to see many badly done copies of this. Depending on the video transfer, you might find the DVDs ranging from great, mediocre to not so great. Some are so grainy, and discolored, it's not watchable. Since the original copy was made for widescreen, if you watch the movie in a standard format. The images on screen might look squashed or small on full-screen TV's or monitors. However, try to watch it in widescreen if you can. If you can't find the movie in DVD, it's often can be found on the internet. Overall: Gentleman Killer is rather standard, but a lot better than a lot of Spaghetti Westerns out there. It's a must watch for any Spaghetti Western fan.

ma-cortes A Spanish-Italian co-production full of action , exaggerated characters , shootouts and lots of violence . A good example of Latino western genre mostly filmed in Spain . This is a co-production Spanish-Italian with a varied cast formed by actors of diverse countries . This meaty Western contains interesting plot , violence , shoot'em up and is quite entertaining , though drags at times , balancing in ups and downs . This moving Spaghetti packs noisy action , thrills , drama with surprising final . For money, for pleasure, for revenge, he doesn't care why he kills or how . Gentleman Jo ( Anthony Steffen) a cocky and brilliantly dressed card-player arrives in a little town called Douglas dominated by villain Ferreras ( Eduardo Fajardo ) and his underlings (Benito Stefanelli , Jose Guardiola , Luis Barboo) . The townspeople implore the only remaining cavalry , Captain Reed ( Mariano Vidal Molina) , to protect them from the Mexican outlaws . Reed warns both sides that he is still in command until to solve the dispute about Douglas town if it belongs Mexican territory , either US nation . Then card-shaper Jo hears his brother the Union captain Clay Reeves ( Mariano Vidal Molina ) was murdered by Ferreras' hoodlums . Knowning his brother has been killed he heads to encounter his brother's assassin. Jo goes out to avenge his brother battling murderous and executes a single-handedly revenge , as he slashes , shoots, ravage and kills each person involved in the killing . As Jo seeks vengeance against Ferreras and is only helped by a Saloon-girl ( Silvia Solar ) who is caught and hung . While the Ferreras' hoodlums kill , mistreat and harass townspeople . Gentleman Jo is trapped and receives violent punches, kicks , and is ultimately set in firing squad .Offbeat Chorizo-Spaghetti Western co-produced by Spain and Italy and follows the Sergio Leone wake and it is proceeded in violent style . The film packs violence , shootouts , high body-count and it's fast moving and quite entertaining . It's a thrilling western with breathtaking confrontation between the protagonist Anthony Steffen against the heartless Eduardo Fajardo and his underlings . Anthony Steffen is fine, he ravages the screen , hit and run and kills but is finally detained and strongly tortured . This movie is a lot of fun to watch. It's an acceptable story with a touch of peculiarity, some particular characters, and an amazing music score . The picture is a tale of justice and revenge, as a man returns home , a border little town and looks for vendetta against the brother's killers. The basic plot is typical spaghetti western fare, but what makes this movie stand out is its style . This is an exciting film, plenty action , thrills, fights , gun-down and breathtaking outdoors from Spain and interior filmed in Elios Studios, Rome , Italy . Acceptable action sequences with rousing attacks and spectacularly realistic shootouts. Charismatic performance for whole casting . The notorious Spaghetti actor , Anthony Steffen is good in his usual tough role . Fantastic performance by the always great Eduardo Fajardo as the slimy, menacing outlaw make up for , here in his ordinary role as bandit and in a cruelly baddie character , he is terrific, and bears a hysterical and mocking aspect , subsequently he would play similar characters . Appears as secondaries the habitual in Spanish/Italian Western such as Benito Stefanelli , Jose Guardiola , Luis Barboo, and many others. There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing some shoot'em up or stunts every few minutes. There is a very odd implementation of shots in the camera work during some particular scenes as the film approaches its climax , as in the final gunfights and the twisted conclusion . The movie gets the usual Western issues, such as avengers antiheroes , violent facing off , exaggerated baddies, soundtrack with Morricone influence , among them . The sense of pacing is such that his film can be counted on to move quickly and smoothly . Good production design creating an excellent scenario with luminous outdoors, dirty and rocky landscapes under a glimmer sun and fine sets . The musician Bruno Nicolai composes a nice soundtrack , well conducted , and supervised by Ennio Morricone , this turns out to be one of the most memorable parts of the movie; as it's full of enjoyable sounds and haunting musical background . The opening and ending songs are two of my favorites, and are of those unforgettable tunes that will play in your mind over and over long after the movie is realized. The soundtrack contributes tremendously to the atmosphere of the film, including an emotive leitmotif, the music score is perhaps the best part of this film . Striking cinematography by Francisco Marin. Interior scenes filmed in Spluges De Llobregat , Barcelona outskirts and outdoor sequences with barren exteriors filmed in Spanish places located on Fraga (Huesca) , replacing Almeria . ¨Fraga¨ resulted to be the location where were shot lots of Western produced and directed by Catalan people as Alfonso Balcazar , J.J. Balcazar , Jose Antonio De La Loma , Juan Bosch, Ignacio F. Iquino and Julio Buchs , among others , because Almeria was too far and the landscapes bear remarkable resemblance . This motion picture is well produced by Alfonso Balcazar , originally written by his brother Juan Jose Balcazar and being professionally directed by Giorgio Stegani . The flick is professionally directed by Giorgo Stegani or George Finley , though with no originality . He's is an expert writer of Giallo and Western as ¨Blood of a silver dollar¨ and ¨ Beyond the law ¨ and occasionally Western director as ¨Adios Gringo¨ , ¨Beyond the law ¨ and this one . Rating : 6 . Acceptable and passable Western that will appeal to Spahetti fans .

zardoz-13 The premise of "Gentleman Killer" qualifies as a first of its kind. The United States and Mexican authorities are in the process of trying to iron out a boundary dispute to determine on which side of the border an American town named Douglas lays. Director Giorgio Stegani, who also helmed two other Italian westerns "Adios, Gringo" (1965) and "Beyond the Law"(1968), and his writers Jaime Jesús Balcázar and Melchiade Coletti never explain what prompted the border dispute, so we have to accept this situation as a given. Meanwhile, as with all Spaghetti westerns, Stegani and his scenarist pile up a high body count between the hero and the villain."Gentleman Killer" establishes its primary villain during its first few minutes as a homicidal, cold-blooded, Mexican bandit chieftain who shoots an unarmed soldier in the back repeatedly and laughs insanely as his unfortunate victim drops dead. Colonel Ferreres (Eduardo Fajardo of "The Mercenary") guns down the last surviving soldier in a troop of U.S. Cavalry on its way to Douglas as replacements for the departing regiment. Later, in Douglas, as the U.S. Cavalry rides out, Ferreres and his men lounge in chairs and watch them leave. Meanwhile, the citizens of Douglas implore the only remaining cavalry officer, Captain Reed, to protect them from the bandits. Reed warns both sides that he is still in charge until the dispute is resolved and he will lock up any violators until such time as he must leave. Secretly, the townspeople with their leader Morrison decide to transport all of their money to El Paso. Shortly there afterward, Gentleman Joe (Antonio De Teffe, aka Anthony Steffen of "Stranger's Gundown"), makes his timely appearance in Douglas. He arrives impeccably clad in a beige suit and cape with a white Stetson driving a horse and buggy. Essentially, Joe qualifies as a well-tailored and manicured Lee Van Cleef Sabata type of character, except Gentleman Joe isn't as omnipotent as Sabata. Although he holds the upper hand for the first two-thirds of this shoot'em up in his game of one-upmanship with Ferreres, Joe winds up receiving the same kind of brutal treatment accorded to the Man With No Name in Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars." Anyway, he proves his ability with a gun in the saloon when some of Ferreres' men try to bully him. This is when Captain Reed walks in and Joe reveals that one of Ferreres' men, who has been calling Joe a cardsharp, is instead the cardsharp himself. Ferreres allows Reed to arrest his amigo and put him in charge. Joe accompanies Reed to the sheriff's office and we learn that the captain is Joe's brother. It seems that Joe was expelled from West Point Military Academy for gambling, while his brother graduated with honors. Neither Reed nor his father, a general, at a nearby cavalry fort, have a high opinion of Joe. Ferreres doesn't wait long until breaks his henchman out of jail and they murder Reed. Joe finds Reed more dead than alive. He decides to create havoc in Ferreres and his men by masquerading as Reed and ambushing several of the Mexican's gunmen. Later, Ferreres and his gunmen attack the wagon train transporting all the money in Douglas to El Paso. The bandits massacre everybody and Joe learns too late to save anything. Consequently, Joe sets out to divide and conqueror Ferreres' large force of killers. He steals the gold back from Ferreres and plants it on one of Ferreres' hotheaded gunmen, Bud. Ferreres and his men shoot it out with Bud and kill all his men. Ferreres and his men capture Joe, beat the daylights out of him, and pour bottles of liquor down his throat. When they are finished with him, they confine him to a cellar, but he escapes with the help of a woman. In the last scene, Joe tries to kill Ferreres but he loses his gun and Ferreres is about to kill him when the Mexican cavalry ride into Douglas. As it turns out, Mexico has won the boundary dispute and they claim Douglas as their town. No sooner has the Mexican commander revealed this outcome than his troops ventilate Ferreres like a sieve. The chief weakness is the lackluster ending. The hero is anything but heroic. "Gentleman Killer" doesn't pander to audience expectation but provides an ending that seems more diplomatic than dramatic. Certainly, had this been an American film, you can bet that the ruling would have been in favor of the United States. "Gentleman Joe" starts out well but concludes on an off-beat, more realistic note.

unbrokenmetal Shamango (a.k.a. "Joe" depending on which dubbed version you watch) comes into a town where Mexican bandits try to control. He seems to be a weakling everybody's making fun of, but gets really mean after a few insults. Doesn't sound new, because there is nothing new. But: this a perfect little genre movie, no disappointments, well worth spending 90 minutes of your precious time on. The actors Anthony Steffen as Shamango and Eduardo Fajardo as the Mexican colonel (with an evil grin that makes crocodiles give up their job) are doing well, so is Bruno Nicolai with his powerful music and cameraman Francisco Marin with his sinister pictures.