I quattro pistoleri di Santa Trinità

FOUR PISTOLS FOR TRINITY is a cheap spaghetti western largely set in and around a single building where a bunch of mysterious characters are holed up, some of them with sinister purposes. The background is all about land grabbing and arms trafficking, and at times it feels more like a mystery than a western although the stock shoot-outs are included to keep audiences involved.

Watching it nowadays you can't help but be reminded of Tarantino's HATEFUL EIGHT, which itself was a flawed film but at least one that was better made and had more potential than this occasionally lifeless effort. The problem with FOUR PISTOLS FOR TRINITY is the lack of characterisation which means you don't really care what happens to any of those involved. Peter Lee Lawrence was well acquainted with the spaghetti western genre but his character here is a bore and the likes of Ida Galli and Raf Baldassarre are wasted. It's not the worst film ever made but you can do so much better in this genre.

This is a shoestring budget spaghetti western by experienced screen-writer and director Giorgio Cristallini . Average Spaghetti full of fury , thrills , emotion , and portentous duels . This so-so Western that owes a considerable debt to Leone deals with Sarah Baldwin (Daniela Giordano) who finds her family being killed by nasty cutthroats who are looking for some valuable documents . She escapes and being chased by a posse of bandits (Raf Baldassarre, among others) . Then , an ex-soldier and journalist called George (Peter Lee Lawrence) along with a Marshal named Thomas (Philippe Hersent) save her from the outlaws . Soon after , they go to an inn called ¨Paradero De Papa Martínez¨ , a lodging-house where there are various peculiar roles , such as the old station-master , Mr. Martínez , his wife Adeline Martinez (Valeria Fabrizi) , her Mexican lover (Daniele Vargas) , a beautiful Indian woman , Ana , (Antonella Murgia) , a dwarf (Salvatore Furnari) and highly suspicious guests . Later on , the events go wrong when several bandits arrive at the station . As a bunch of rogues hides at the station because they are arms trafficking with the Indians on the one hand and acquiring documents concerning the ownership of a goldmine on the other . At Papa Martinez' inn occur strange happenings and there arrive mysterious characters such as Quinn Paradine (Umberto Raho) , and George's old flame named Julia (Ida Galli as Evelyn Stewart) .

This is just an average Macaroni Western filled with intrigue , crossfire , go riding , gunrunning and Indian attacks , though mostly developing indoors scenarios . It is an Italian made western that came to the big screen when the top time of the genre was falling down . In fact , the late sixties and 'seventies' is not the best time to find out good spaghetti westerns . But this one is not so bad , it drags at times , balancing in ups and downs ; turning out to be entertaining enough . It's a simple but otherwise earnest little story of a group of rogues hides at a station , there meet a valiant young -Peter Lee Lawrence- and a veteran sheriff -Philippe Hersent- that find themselves in the middle of a fight between member of the violent bunch for a document concerning a gold mine . The movie contains typical particularities Spaghetti , as is full of fury , sadism , bloodbaths , and close-ups of grime-encrusted faces . Surprisingly, "Four Gunmen of the Holy Trinity" does not follow the typical paths of the European western wave around 1969 . It lacks both the sarcasm and the Eastwood type of antihero . Instead , this movie is almost entirely set in a lonely stagecoach station in a desert , thus this "indoors western" has much in common with a theatre play . Early deceased Peter Lee Lawrence gives a subdued performance but adequate to his character , a two-fisted but upright gun-shooter . The notorious Spaghetti/Paella actor , Peter Lee Lawrence is good in his usual brave role , here playing a tough young become into a terrible avenger when his friend is wrongly murdered . His role is well performed , he plays as a relentless gunslinger using his rifle with short cannons , a violent young who seeks justice , an usual plot in Spaghetti western . Blond German youth Peter Lee Lawrence, who made his uncredited debut in Sergio Leone "For A Few Dollars More" (1965), was the hero in many Spaghetti Westerns. His short cinematographic history can be enclosed in nine years of Italo-Spain co-productions such as "More Dollars for the MacGregors" , ¨Winchester justice¨,"Pistol for a Hundred Coffins", ¨The man who killed Billy the Kid¨ , ¨Fury of Johnny Kid¨ and several others . Furthermore , a largely secondary cast plenty with Italian secondaries , all of them ordinary in Pepperone western such as Raf Baldassarre , Daniele Vargas , Philippe Hersent , Umberto Raho , and the regular dwarf in various Westerns and Peplum called Salvatore Furnari . In addition , four wonderful Eurotrash actresses : Valeria Fabrizi , Daniela Giordano , Antonella Murgia and Evelyn Stewart or Ida Galli .

Incoherent and inappropriate musical score by Roberto Pregadio , including some jazzy melodies . And adding a catching song sung by Valeria Fabrizi , though dubbed . Worn-out and faded cinematography by Alessandro D'Eva , adding inadequate exteriors shot in unsuitable Italian landscapes . The motion picture was middlingly directed by Giorgio Cristallini , including a lot of flaws , gaps and failures . Giorgio wrote , directed and was Second Unit Director or Assistant Director of various films , especially Peplum ("Cleopatra's Legion" , "Hercules and the Captive Women" ¨Goliath and the Dragon¨) , Mafia movie ("Seagulls Fly Low") and Western ("You're Jinxed, Friend You've Met Sacramento" , "I Quattro Pistoleri Di Santa Trinità" or "Four Gunmen of the Holy Trinity" . Rating : 4.5/10 . Mediocre .