Der Ritt zur Hölle

(1975) Seven Devils on Horseback/ I Sette Del Gruppo Selvaggio DUBBED SPAGHETTI WESTERN

Written and directed by Gianni Crea that opens with a young lady, Ms. MacNeal closing her account with the town's bank. Who's intentions was to leave town early to meet her brother Jeff, when one of the members of the Cooper gang over hears this. They then chase the horse she was on steal her gold before killing her. As soon as her brother, Jeff MacNeil (Dean Stratford) finds out about this, he soughts revenge against Cooper (Gordon Mitchell) and his entire gang. With his right hand man, Mr. Foster (Pino Mattei) doing a good job bullying the entire town about it's gold. Once Foster and three of his men was hanging around in the saloon, is when Jeff and his best friend, Tornado (Mario Brega) begin to throw his weight around, warning him that the town he and Cooper thinks he controls is not going to work there anymore. And it was at this point, Jeff hangs around there much more often with his love interest is the brothel, Rosie (Femi Benussi) before he greets family friend, Liz (Mirella Rossi), which as a result of his presense, musters the supposedly scarred sheriff, Perry (Maurizio Tocchi) to take full control of the town.

There is nothing absolutely memorable as there is many fake looking fights so and so gunfights and a not so cheerful ending to boot.

An inferior Western being proceeded in Spaghetti style more than American . It's a disconcerting film with all the ingredients as action , brawls , crossfire , hot pursuits , the typical confrontation between good guys against bad guys and resulting to be entertaining but in low quality . Including brawls and fights , full of bounds , leaps , hits , punches , knock-outs and in Terence Hill/Spencer style . It begins when a women is pursued , chased , raped and killed . Later on , a gunslinger called Jeff McNeal arrives in a little town , he seeks justice and vengeance and becomes involved in an intrigue that deals with several killings . Fast-draw Jeff (Dino Strano or Dean Stratford) results to be brother of the killed woman , and McNeal helped by his partner Tornado (Mario Brega) attempt to find out the real culprit . While , Jeff meets a beautiful Saloon girl , Rosie (Femi Benussi), and falls for her . Then , a new sheriff is appointed and there occurs a string of killings , shootouts and gun-plays carried out by Cooper (Gordon Mitchell) and his nasty hoodlums . At the end , it happens a spectacular attack on town and a predictable gun-down between Jeff and Cooper in Sergio Leone style .

It is an exciting western that packs a story full of violence , thrills , fights , killings , horse pursuits , middling realization , ordinary zooms , and mediocre interpretations abound and at the final happens a moving attack on town . Adding amazing close-ups especially of Gordon Mitchell with his brutal features and steel-blue eyes . Acceptable action sequences with rousing crossfire , spectacular shootouts , poor scenarios and glimmer go riding throughout mountains and cliffs . It stars an ugly and middle-aged starring , Dean Stratford or Dino Strano , who starred some minor Spaghettis . His pal turns out to be Mario Brega as Tornado , a fatty colleague who bears the comical relief and acts in Bud Spencer's similar style , including the ordinary punches, kick-asses , and slaps . Co-stars Femi Benussi , an Eurotrash actress , usual in sexy comedies . The picture allows for periods of humor , -as the comic relief is frequently provided by the hunk Mario Petri - and calm in which to establish characters punctuated by viscerally exciting bursts of action . And here stands out Gordon Mitchell as the baddie Cooper . The bouncing Gordon Mitchell considered to be one of the best Peplum actors along with Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott . He-man Gordon was a hunk "beefcake" who made great number of roman epic films also called ¨Musclemen movies¨ . He was one of a number of bodybuilder and physique model types who followed muscleman Steve Reeves out to Italy in the early 60s and won campy notice playing Herculean characters in those campy Italian sand-and-spear epics . The steel-blue-eyes Mitchell proved a phenomenal hit and revived the "muscleman" genre , the non-Italian-speaking Mitchell headed off to Europe and began appearing in the same type of badly dubbed sandal-and-spear epics . He eventually became part of the "Muscle Beach" crowd and flexed his way into the entertainment field as part of Mae West's musclebound revues, where he toured everywhere from Las Vegas to the Latin Quarter with other "abs"normal actor wannabes such as Mickey Hargitay , Brad Harris and Reg Lewis . Ursus, Maciste , Goliath , Samson , Hércules , Atlas , Rocha ... those Italian Muscle man producers must have had a hard time figuring out what to call the musclebound actors who played all these legendary muscleman heroes . Being other second-class Muscle men players the followings : Dan Vadis , Rock Stevens , Samson Burke , Reg Park , Ed Fury , Richard Harrison , Kirk Morris , Alan Steel or Sergio Ciani and subsequently Lou Ferrigno . Nobody, nevertheless , topped Steve Reeves in popularity , though Gordon Scott , Mark Forest and Gordon Mitchell made him an important competence . Born-American Gordon Mitchell was the second American actor bodybuilder , after Steve Reeves , to be extremely popular in Italy . He starred a lot of Péplum as ¨Giant of Metrópolis¨, ¨Atlas in the land of the cyclops¨, , and Spaghetti as ¨Nevada Kid¨,"Doomsday" , ¨Sartana¨, ¨Zanna Bianca¨, Shangai Joe¨ , ¨Al Oeste Magnifico¨, "I Am Sartana Your Angel of Death" , among others .

At least , the musical score is pretty good , composed by Stelvio Cipriani , adding a catching song at the ending . He has composed over 200 film scores , still continuing his activity . In 1966 he composed his first soundtrack : The Bounty Killer, a film played by Tomas Milian. After the good success, he was asked to compose other soundtracks, among which was A Man, A Horse And A Gun in 1967. Worldwide fame, however, came in 1970, when he composed the score for Anonymous Venetian , this score was a hit all over the world . The motion picture was lousily directed by Gianni Crea . He directed a few films , most of them Spahettis , such as 1973 ¨E Il Terzo Giorno Arrivò Il Corvo¨ , 1972 ¨El Oeste Magnifico¨ , 1971 ¨Se T'Incontro T'Ammazzo¨ and two action/drama movies as ¨Non Sparate Sui Bambini¨ , and ¨Ballata Napulitana¨ or ¨Pe' Sempre¨.