Gatling Gun (1968)

Richard Gatling (Ennio Balbo) has invented a new secret weapon, the machine gun. When Gatling is kidnapped along with his gun, the authorities blame Chris Tanner (Robert Woods). Tanner is one of the only ones that knew about the gun and that was not killed during the abduction. Luckily for Tanner, Pinkerton (Tom Felleghy) believes that he is not responsible. He covertly arranges for Tanner to be released from prison under another convict's name so that he can find out who is really behind the dastardly plot. During his investigations, Tanner finds out that half-breed Tarpas (John Ireland) has something to do with the crime. Tarpas is hoping to make $2 million dollars by getting $1 million for the return of Gatling to the Union and another $1 million from the Confederates for delivery of the gun. Tanner must not only stop this crook, but find out who the brains are behind this operation.

Alternate Titles: Damned Hot Day Of Fire, Machine Gun Killers, Quel Caldo Maledetto Giorno Di Fuoco

Available: Netflix, Amazon

Revenge Of A Gunfighter (1968)

This great film directed by Sergio Corbucci, stars Franco Nero as Sergei Kowalski, a mercenary Polish immigrant who is loyal to no one but the yellow of gold. He is hired by the Garcia brothers to ensure that a shipment of silver makes it from their mines to the United States. Unfortunately, when Sergei gets to the silver mine, he finds all the owner's men hanged by a group of Mexican peasants headed by Paco Roman (Tony Musante). With that job now obsolete, Sergei hires himself out to Paco to help escape the troops that have come to annihilate him and his band of rebels. The guerrillas then continue to "liberate" other Mexican towns in the name of the revolution even though they don't really know what they are doing. Inevitably, they must continue to hire the Pole to help them get through each scrape with the law. 

Not only do the revolutionaries have to dodge the gendarmes, but they are also being pursued by the ruthless dandy, Curly (Jack Palance). Curly is hunting down Sergei at first because he heard about the silver shipment. But after a confrontation with the opportunist and his band of Mexican guerrillas in which they literally take the shirt from off his back, the villain will stop at nothing to get Kowalski and Paco Roman.

Alternate Titles: Il Mercenario, The Mercenary, A Professional Gun

Available: Netflix, Amazon

A Taste Of Death (1968)

A gang of cattle rustlers, lead by their blond leader Scaife (Bruno Corazzari) , bring their herd of cows to a small town asking if they can stay a few days because of the weather. Although suspicious, the town sheriff Ramson lets the men stay.

The sheriff recognizes Dan (John Ireland), one of the rustlers. Seems that Dan and the sheriff are old friends. Dan is also the father of Tony (Andrea Giordana), the sheriff's adopted son. He tells the sheriff that he should leave town. Scaife and his gang are bad and do not intend to leave but to take over the town. The sheriff tries to get the townsfolk to fight back, but they are apathetic and walk away. When Scaife and the sheriff have a showdown, the sheriff is shot and killed.

Scaife makes the villagers his slaves by forcing the men to work making a corral for the cattle. Tony sneaks away and with Dan's help, prepares to fight the scoundrels. Inspired by Tony, the villagers finally rebel and start killing the rustlers. Eventually Scaife and Dan face off. Dan shoots Scaife but as he approaches the rustler, Scaife pulls out his gun and shoots Dan. Tony arrives just as Dan dies never finding out that Dan is his father.

Alternate Titles: Quanto Costa Morire, Cost Of Dying

Available: Amazon

Today It's Me...Tomorrow You!

Spaghetti Westerns are hard to keep track of title-wise. Of course there are the original Italian-language titles, but after that a film could have multiple titles with differences from countries, video releases, DVD releases or even theatrical releases. Being a huge fan of the Eurowestern, I've had to find the best way to keep track of what I've seen. So my bible and the last word on titles is Spaghetti Westerns: the Good, the Bad And the Violent, a comprehensive filmography of 558 European western films.

Oggi a me...domani a te! follows one of the standard revenge plots common to the spaghetti western. A man is released from prison for a crime he did not commit. Once free, he hunts down the man who put him there. Our hero Kiowa has an additional reason for vengeance, the villain has also killed his wife.

This particular film moved a bit slow for my liking. Kiowa spends half the movie gathering his band of gunfighters without much gun-play action at all. Once the rag-tag band of men are together, they find and eliminate the banditos rather tamely & methodically. In a nut-shell, not much happens.

This film is notable for being written by a young Dario Argento and starring (in one of his first westerns) Bud Spencer, who would later team up with Terence Hill to form a long-lasting buddy-film duo.

Check out trailer here.