All'ombra di una colt

This 1965 Italian western has many familiar faces among the cast; all do a good job, particularly Conrado Sanmartin as the elder pistolero, Duke, who forbids his friend Steve Blane from courting his daughter. Complications ensue, and eventually Duke and Steve are face to face on the main street of Providence (the same town Clint Eastwood cleaned up in A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS). Most of the fun in this one is picking out the locations and identifying stock performers like Franco Ressel and Jose Calvo. Aldo Sanbrell shows up early as a bandido, and Tito Garcia is cast as the barkeep with a full head of hair for a change. The action is good, with the stuntmen earning their keep by crashing off of roofs and through remadas, and Blane's horse gives probably the best performance in the history of equine acting. Nico Fidenco's score is outstanding, although the vocal over the titles are a bit off-putting. The titles themselves are particularly flamboyant for a spaghetti, luridly painted cartoons that flirt with a fine art look. Overall I liked this one, I think seeing it in a nice widescreen print helped a lot.

I knew nothing about this spaghetti western before putting the disc into my DVD player, but that's how I often like my mind to be before watching entries in this genre - I hope to be pleasantly surprised. While I didn't find this movie to be a forgotten classic, it did deliver enough to satisfy me. Certainly, the movie has its share of flaws. The plot unfolds in a fairly slow fashion, even though the running time is only seventy eight minutes long. The central figure is kind of dumb at times, enough to make him unsympathetic at times. And the movie is so low key at times that you will wish that there was more excitement in the middle section. However, the low key direction does build some genuine atmosphere here and there. The atmosphere is also aided by a sometimes eerie musical score. And while the movie could have used more action, it compensates by a really great and lengthy action sequence in the last part. I think there's enough here to satisfy fans of Euro westerns. Oh, and for fun, see if you can spot the time in the movie where you can see the shadows of the camera and the film crew jutting into the frame :-)

Western town decorations like in "A Fistful of Dollars" and "For a Few Dollars More", very beautiful horses and Nico Fidenco's very beautiful music, in the spirit of Ennio Morricone but different, original. But the story is a bit stupid, two men, good friends, come into conflict because one of them loves the other's daughter and they almost kill themselves for it. Many villains around, as in most spaghetti westerns, hungry for money and fertile land, killing people until they are killed in turn by the two male friends, but who are separated by the daughter conflict. My opinion is that the three authors of the script, Giovanni Grimaldi (as Gianni Grimaldi, who is also the director of the film), Aldo Barni and Aldo Luxardo found inspiration in "A Fistful of Dollars" made a year before, there are too many similar things. The actor José Calvo, Silvanito from "A Fistful of Dollars" is here in "In a Colt's Shadow" the sheriff. Steve (the character played by Stephen Forsyth), has a white horse that is the greatest asset of the whole movie, a beautiful, smart, very well trained horse.

A young pistolero leaves his wounded partner and runs off with the man's daughter to get married. Attempting to settle down outside a very crooked town, he's soon forced to defend his new spread against vicious land-grabbers and himself from his angry father-in-law.

A short and colorful spaghetti western, there's a lot of fun to be had here. However, the main character is pretty naive for an ultra-cool hired gun!

Heroes are appropriately heroic and villains appropriately villainous. The Morricone-like score isn't bad either, all making this pretty watchable for casual viewers and spaghetti western fans alike.

Once again, bankable stars are nonexistent, relegating this to near obscurity, though a few familiar European faces show up, most notably the late Aldo Sambrell, who appeared in nearly every one of the era's great Italian westerns.

Two professional gunfighters separate after they complete a job in a small Mexican town where they rid it of the Ramirez gang. Steve married Duke's daughter and tries to settle down to a peaceful life on a ranch outside a town controlled by Jackson and Burns.

In a Colt's Shadow straddles comfortably between the traditional American western and the Spaghetti, and ticks all the boxes to make a good western - location, action, story and music is very good. Loved the Mexican flavour. Helga Line is hot. She's Duke's gal but fancies Steve and creates problems. The naughty minx. Franco Ressel as the villain Jackson is at his slimy best. The plot is smooth, the gunplay just as slick. Only one gripe Stephen Forsythe is stiff as a board and charismatic as a water trough.