Ciakmull, le bâtard de Dodge City

Wow! I wasn't expecting much from this little known movie. I think it comparable to any of the spaghetti westerns and I must have watched nearly all of them now. After breaking out from a lunatic asylum 4 inmates band together. Chuck Mool has no recollection of his past prior to the asylum and the rest follow him on his quest to discover his true identity. Things don't go smoothly for the foursome but their friendship is strong. Excellent characters and acting, great story..but I don't want to give away the ending.

Starting with the very first scene, this flawed masterpiece of pastaland gunslingin' grabs your attention and keeps it locked in until the final, intricately choreographed shootout.

When some bank robbers set fire to the local nut-house to create a diversion, four inmates manage to escape and take in on the run. One is an amnesiac who is searching for his identity and in the process the four find themselves on the trail of the bank robbers. The trail leads to a town where Chuck Mool's family is located, but who are they? And why is everyone in town deathly afraid of him?

The plot outline may not sound like much but this top-notch spag is excellently made with great camerawork, a well written script, exciting, intricately choreographed action and hell, even the costumes and sets are done with style.

It's not just plot that makes a classic spag, but character bits, atmosphere and action, and this one's got it in spades. One of the more amusing character moments is when Eastman finds Strode in the local church cheerfully playing the organ and singing hymns while an exhausted preacher, in fear of his life, is madly pumping the instrument.

From blazing infernos and barroom brawls to cat n' mouse gunfights in dark cemeteries this one is a winner from the first frame. Too bad nobody seems to know about it.

A band of tough gunslingers carry out a diversionary heavy fire set-up in a State Mental Prison as part of their scheme to rob a gold shipment in a bank of Dodge City . Meanwhile , four convicts escape together from a madhouse , these are the followings inmates : One of them is a young called Chuck Mool played by Leonard Mann , Woody Strode as Woody , Pietro Martellanza (as Peter Martell) as Silver and George Eastman (as Luca Montefiori and screenwriter , though uncredited) as Hondo . One of the escaped reveals his name , Chuck Mool , ¨a man without past¨ , as he hasn't records . Without memory , he gone back from a dark past and the three other convicts with reputation for being fast-guns help him to getaway and to find back bits of his existence . As the gang being pursued and chased by a sheriff (Enzo Fiermonte) and bounty hunters , they are detained but they get escaped . Later on , some tracks lead them in a small town that turns out to be the Chuck Mool's hometown , a location dominated by violent gangs and nasty gunfighters . In that place there are dangerous bands and two warring families led by Udo family and Joe Caldwell (Helmuth Schneider) family and their sons and hoodlums . Chuck is reintroduced to his family but things go wrong . There he learns that has been paid to avenge against nasty villainous , as he has to kill a wealthy owner , but then to be aware he results to be his father .

This exciting Spaghetti contains noisy action , thrills , riding pursuits , shootouts , brawls at saloon in Hill/Spencer style , and turns out to be a passable Western and entertaining enough . There is a breathtaking final showdown between the protagonist , his friends and their enemies , as well as a dramatic result when things come to a tragic denouement . The picture is starred by Leonard Mann as the young man who has lost his memory , an amnesiac who hopes to find out who he is and where he comes from . Mann is good in his usual two-fisted role , he starred two classy Pasta western : ¨Gunmen of Ave Maria¨ and ¨Vengeance Is a Dish Eaten Cold¨. Other colleagues who escaped from prison are the followings convicts : George Eastman or Luigi Montefiori as his partner . Luigi starred as an extra but Italian westerns soon followed , usually under the pseudonym "George Eastman" . He once reportedly missed out on a role in a Franco Nero western because his height made Franco Nero look too short . As he performed several Pasta Westerns , such as : ¨Django Taciturno¨, "Django Sees Red" , ¨Keoma¨ , "Humpty Dumpty Gang" , "The Unholy Four" , and "The Three Musketeers of the West". Never quite "typed" , Luigi played some of them as main actor , others as secondary player . Soon moved into other film genres playing good guys , bad guys, and good-bad guys . These parts often exploited his athletic physique by having him remove his shirt, perhaps most memorably in Lina Wertmüller's Belle Starr (1968) . And the American Woody Strode who starred the John Ford classic , ¨Sergeant Rutledge¨ , and other Spaghettis as ¨Boot Hill¨ , ¨Shalako¨ , ¨The deserter¨ , ¨Keoma¨, among others . And Peter Martell who starred a lot of Spaghetti , such as : ¨Two Brothers, One Death¨ , ¨Two crosses in Condor Pass¨ , ¨Long day of massacre¨ , "His Name Was Pot... But They Called Him Allegria" and ¨Forgotten Pistolero" along with Leonard Mann . Charismatic acting for the whole support cast . Secondary cast is plenty of familiar faces from Spaghetti Western , such as : Luciano Rossi , Enzo Fiermonte , Remo De Angelis, Roberto Del'Aqua , Romano Puppo and the beautiful Evelyn Stewart or Ida Galli .

Emotive as well as thrilling musical score by Riz Ortalani , this soundtrack is one of the best parts of the film , plenty of catching and attractive sounds , including an attractive leitmotif . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Mario Montuori . The motion picture was well directed by Barboni . Barboni was a good professional , a nice craftsman who directed various films of all kinds of genres . He began working as a prestigious cameraman who turned to filmmaking and creating the super hit ¨Tritiny is my name¨ , following ¨Trinity is still my name¨ and a third sequel : The troublemakers¨ , besides other Terence Hill , Bud Spencer vehicles .

E.B. Clucher is the pseudonym of Enzio Carboni. He is the director responsible for the Trinity westerns featuring Terence Hill. This spaghetti western is a notch above most of the Italian run of the mill flicks. It has a decent plot that does away with the pitfalls of most ordinary revenge westerns. The characters that befriend Ciakmull are a bunch of escaped looneys and their antics heighten the entertainment value a lot. The silly duel myth is kept alive here but when the bullets start flying the spectators are treated to spectacular and inspired camerawork. In genre films it is always nice to be treated to a familiar face to give the product some, often much needed, touch of class. In this film that honor lies with John Ford regular Woody Strode. This excellent athlete turned actor plays a simple but loyal and brave buddy to the bewildered hero. One cannot say there is one single original idea in this spaghetti gunfest, but when served up hot and spicy like this it's sheer pleasure to watch.

Amnesiac Leonard Mann escapes from a sanitarium with fellow inmates Woody Strode, George Eastman, and Peter Martell. The four make their way to a town where Mann's father and angry brother are feuding with vicious rivals that try to use him and his state of amnesia for their own benefit.

This re-teaming of Mann and Martell (after The Forgotten Pistolero) has an intriguing premise and a slew of familiar faces, but takes way too much time for things to heat up. Everyone involved has definitely done better.

That being said, this isn't bad. The four leads have great chemistry and keep things fairly interesting. The direction by E.B. Clutcher (best known for They Call Me Trinity and it's sequel) is adequate enough and the final thirty minutes fairly good.

The actress that plays Mann's love interest here, previously played his mother!