Professionals for a Massacre (1967)

I love this movie so much

Thanks for the memories!

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

During the American Civil War, a trio of criminals are given a reprieve from execution and instead are given a dangerous mission to find a corrupt army general and retrieve the gold he has stolen. A gang of Mexican bandits enter the scene and complicate matters further.I would have to consider this one as a better than average spaghetti western. There's nothing precisely very original about it or anything but it manages to do a thing which is quite rare in these kinds of movies in that is successfully integrates a comic tone into its narrative without being annoying in doing so. Most westerns that attempt to use comedy aren't very successful at it and the spaghetti ones in particular are usually pretty dire, so it was a pleasant surprise to see a movie pull it off well. It's not all japery here though as the story includes a healthy amount of action and even a massacre, so it never forgets to cover its bread and butter elements too. Its well-paced as well with some decent performances, especially from Italian genre film regular George Hilton who appears as an ex-priest who has turned to crime. Nobody would claim that this flick breaks the mould as such but it does what it does with energy and some fun.

After being captured for robbing a bank in Arizona and trying to desert from the Confederate army, 3 outlaws named "Chattanooga Jim" (Edd Byrnes), "Fidel Ramirez" (George Martin) and "Steel Downey" (George Hilton) are given a choice of either facing a firing squad or helping to recover a wagon full of gold that was stolen by a fellow Confederate officer named "Major Lloyd" (Gerard Herter) and his men. Naturally, they decide to cooperate and along with another Confederate officer named ""Lieutenant Logan" (Milo Quesada) they ride out to catch the gold thieves before they can cross into Mexico. Along the way, however, they encounter other obstacles which they must overcome—or die trying. Now, rather than reveal any more of the story I will just say that as far as "Spaghetti Westerns" are concerned this particular movie didn't quite measure up with some of the great ones out there. For starters, the characters lacked depth and some of the scenes seemed a bit outlandish even for the sub-genre mentioned. In essence then, I think most Spaghetti Western fans will probably like it but general audiences may or may not. Slightly below average.

The thoroughly conventional Spaghetti western "Red Blood, Yellow Gold" appropriates the plot of "The Secret Invasion," where criminals received a second chance to prove their mettle, and grafts it onto an American Civil War western about the search for stolen Confederate gold. "Last of the Badmen" director Nando Cicero and a quartet of scenarists, Jaime Jesús Balcázar of "Sartana Does Not Forgive," José Antonio de la Loma of "Seven Magnificent Guns," Enzo Dell'Aquila of "7 Women for the MacGregors," and Roberto Gianviti of "Seven Slaves Against the World" stock this oater with all the usual elements that European westerns have. They inserted a "Fistful of Dollars" type scene where the Southern traitors mow down their own soldiers with a Gatling gun. A similar scene occurred in Gianfranco Parolini's "Adios, Sabata" when the Austrians shot their own men down. Our villain, Confederate Major Lloyd (Gérard Herter of "The Big Gundown") is hopelessly treacherous, and he purloins the gold ingots from his own army. The Confederacy dispatches three thieves with an officer in charge to recover the gold. George Hilton, George Martin, and American actor Edd Byrnes headline this violent but standard-issue sagebrusher. As usual for these gritty horse operas, life is cheap and "Red Blood, Yellow Gold" boasts a double-digit body count. "Tepepa" lenser Francisco Martin captured all the abrasive, larger-than-life, tongue-in-cheek shenanigans on crisp Eastman Color film and his widescreen pictorial compositions add a touch of class to this low-budget western. "Red Blood, Yellow Gold" opens as Yankee troops withdraw hastily from a western town as the Confederates recapture the town. Our three heroes, Steel Downey (George Hilton of "Dead for A Dollar"), Fidel Ramirez (George Martin of "Ballad of Death Valley"), and Chattanooga Jim (Edd Byrnes of "Payment in Blood"), don't waste any time once they enter town. They make straight away to the local bank and Steel blows the vault with dynamite. Later, they steal a wagon of munitions and sell them for gold to Union troops. Unfortunately for the Union troops, they don't know that Steel has booby-trapped the wagon. No sooner do the Union soldiers ride away with the cargo of rifles and bullets than it blows up and kills them all. No sooner have our unscrupulous heroes celebrated their triumph over the enemy than their own people arrest and sentence them to perish in front of a firing squad. Piously, Steel prays aloud as the soldiers prepare to shoot them. "Omnipotent and merciful God, perhaps we don't deserve much," he observes, "But if you would give us a small sign of your benevolence." The typical Spaghetti western resembles a melodrama because the Europeans liked to spring reversals and surprises on audiences. Despite the ill-feeling held toward these thieves, bald-headed, cigar-puffing Confederate General Sibley spares their lives. One of Sibley's most trusted adjutants, Major Lloyd, has hijacked a wagon load of gold and he has struck out for Mexico with it. "As soldiers, you're just common thieves," Sibley points out, "but as thieves, you can honorably serve the cause of the South." Lieutenant Logan (Milo Quesada of "Captain Apache") doesn't think much of Sibley's plans, but he agrees to ride with the three thieves. Sibley inventories the useful characteristics of each man. He knows that Steel is a defrocked priest who had a tendency to use dynamite against those who blasphemed against the Lord. Chattanooga Jim earned his nickname because he robbed a Chattanooga bank all alone. Jim explains the robbery was hardly daring because security at the bank was no negligible. Meanwhile, Fidel is an expert horse thief. Our heroes ride out and visit a saloon where they slug it out with a group of Mexicans. Afterward, they set out on horseback and find a farm where a cow is crying because it hasn't been milked. While Fidel checks out the stable, Steel and Chattanooga inspect the house and find dead, blood-splattered corpses littering the premises. The men have been shot to dead and their clothes have been removed. They find evidence that Major Lloyd and his renegades are the killers. No sooner have they established this fact than the daughter of the family, Annie (Mónica Randall of "Red Sun") rides into the ranch with a rifle. She is appalled at the sight of the dead bodies and accuses our heroes of the massacre. They bind and gag her and set off to cut off Major Lloyd as his men and he ride into a canyon. Naturally, Steel devises a plan to trap them with his explosives. Reluctantly, our heroes have brought along Annie and she causes no end of trouble. First, she cuts her ropes. Second, she alerts Major Lloyd about the impending danger of entering the pass. Annie warns them they will be murdered, until Fidel shoots one of Lloyd's men. Annie recognizes the killer's clothes as her dead father's apparel. Steel, Fidel, and Chattanooga entrust Annie to Lieutenant Logan's care and circle behind Lloyd. Logan explains to Annie she had better start helping them thwart Lloyd if she wants to survive. "Red Blood, Yellow Gold" grows more complicated. A Mexican bandit, Pietro Primero (José Bódalo of "Django"), and his peasant army steal the gold from Lloyd. While Pietro and his people celebrate their good fortune, our heroes find the ingots about the same time as Lloyd and his men. A donnybrook ensues between them and somebody accidentally shoots their gun. Pietro's men come out slinging lead. Eventually, our heroes recover the gold from Pietro. They wind up blowing up Lloyd and his gunmen and later Pietro. Just as they are about to ride off into the sunset, General Sibley and the Confederate cavalry appear and take the gold off their hands. Sibley wants them out of the territory pronto. He takes the gold to Mexico. At the exchange, as a last minute reversal, our heroes reappear in sombreros and hijack the gold from the Mexicans. "Red Blood, Yellow Gold" qualifies as shallow but entertaining tale.

Dynamite-loving ex-priest George Hilton, Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, and Mexican horse thief/whisperer George Martin both fight for and steal from the Confederacy. About to be executed for their thieving ways, they're given a reprieve in order to track down a renegade officer who killed some of his fellow soldiers and made off with a wagon full of gold and a Gattling gun.A fast-paced, rowdy adventure, this above average Italian western is a load of fun, especially George Hilton's character, who gleefully mixes piousness with his passion for blowing things (and people!) up. Hilton is truly a spaghetti western treasure!Things stay pretty light-hearted throughout, with a good mixture of tongue-in-cheek comedy, plot-twists, and great action sequences. I don't know about everyone else, but I thought it was pretty cool!It is claimed that one of the producers on this was a young Sylvester Stallone, a claim that seems a bit fishy. You never can tell though. If he did, he should have acted in it too. It sure would have been neat to see him before he was a star, shooting a six-gun in the Spanish desert!