Ringo and His Golden Pistol (1966)

Very well executed

Strong and Moving!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

At the beginning, we watch Johnny Oro (Mark Damon, dressed up in a jet black and tight costume with just a hint of gold at the right spots, and introduced by the riveting lyrics 'Non importava dell' amore / a Johnny Orooooooooooooo') riding into town and killing off a few Mexican bandits walking out of a church wedding - but sparing the youngest one ... Big mistake; he's back soon enough, along with some Indians (a rare appearance in Spaghetti westerns!), to take Johnny out - and the whole town of Coldstone as well. A lot of dead bodies there at the end of the movie, as the Indians are shot in dozens, body piles everywhere, they even start using their dead ones as shields. In the end, the whole town is literally blown to hell.Johnny is characterized as the type who is on the side of justice only to see get the gold (reason given: he was born in a gold mine); full of himself, he is having a good time ridiculing and shooting his enemies and cashing in the money, and one cannot help but smiling along with him. Johnny has the kiddo feel to him, and he never gets serious right until the end of the movie - even after the bad guy shoots his love interest right in the face at close range (off screen). It's THE role for Mark Damon, who can get pretty tedious if cast as a serious character: The fun he is having while performing Johnny's gleeful pranks is highly contagious.Contrasting Johnny's character is the sheriff, played by Ettore Manni, a principled man well beyond reason himself, with a son and a wife to boot. The two of them play off well enough against each other.Plenty of violence from the bad guys (including a drunk Indian). Shady owner of the saloon and 'businessman' (he deals in weapons) Andrea Aureli does some highly enjoyable sleazy acting and ends up with an ax right in the middle of his bald patch. Figure that! After all it is only 1966.Those violent bits help to remind that director Corbucci did 'Django' with Franco Nero the very same year, so very different in tone. If 'Django' is the tragedy, this one is the satyr play.All in all, the movie stays light-hearted throughout, and you can have yourself a few fine laughs and enjoy a wild ride in the pasta west.

Corbucci's fourth Spaghetti Western is likable enough, but it's still a long way from the baroque style of his subsequent example in the genre - DJANGO (1966) - much less the ultra-bleak outlook of his masterpiece, THE GREAT SILENCE (1968). Besides, star Mark Damon - made up here to look like the long-lost brother of Bob Dylan's Alias character in Sam Peckinpah's PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID (1973)! - lacks the screen presence of Franco Nero, let alone the intelligence of Jean-Louis Trintignant! He still has fond memories of the film, however, since he mentioned it during the Italian B-movie retrospective at the 2004 Venice Film Festival (which my brother and I attended)!Apart from presenting an unusual - and perhaps unlikely - alliance against the cowboys by Mexicans and Indians, the film has a healthy sense of humor: after he's insulted in a bar, Damon orders the protracted preparation of a concoction made up of some ungodly ingredients - only to then throw it in the face of his opponent!; later, facing up to three bad men without his coveted golden pistol, he blows them all away by unceremoniously throwing a bomb in their midst!; sheriff Ettore Manni's jail has a frequent customer (to the point where he has come to consider it his home!) in a pint-sized old man - told by the former that he can't stay any longer, the latter commits "wilful damage to public property" by breaking the jail's windows as soon as he exits and, turning himself in immediately, he is thus able to keep his place in jail! The film manages to end with a bang: Damon blowing up the main street of the town (it seems that's all we ever get to see from it in any Western!) - followed by a memorable showdown (involving Damon's gold-plated paraphernalia). Carlo Savina's title tune is catchy, too: the film was originally called JOHNNY ORO and, therefore, has no relation to the two earlier "Ringo" titles made by director Duccio Tessari and starring Giuliano Gemma!

Well I think this really isn't so much worse than Sergio Leone's best movies. Music is really great and i am sure Ennio Morricone would gladly sign under it. There are many themes and very nice "mandolin and trumpet" combinations. Yes it's true synchronized sound is somewhat funny but it doesn't spoil the authentic filling. There is some serious acting present by nearly all main characters. I decided to check more of Corbucci's work if i can find it somewhere. Is this movie was shot in Italy or America? A must see movie for all spaghetti fans.

Just when we thought cowboy movies had gone belly up, along came this operatic horse opera with a black outfit hero with a droopy mustache and a gilded side arm who goes about offing the clean cut family for the price on their heads - well they were murdering bandidos but still!All the energy and flamboyance that the plodding dollars films lacked and concepts that belonged in Italianate literature. Mark Damon stopping off between Roger Corman and being a corporate heavy was something new in movie heroes and, after blowing up the town, there he was facing an adversary who tells him "Smile at me Ringo, for I am death." How long had this been going on?