La malle de San Antonio

(1968) A Pistol for 100 Coffins/ Una pistola per cento bare DUBBED SPAGHETTI WESTERN

It opens with recruit confederate soldier, Jim Slate (Peter Lee Lawrence) refusing to fire a gun because he says his religion prevents him to do so. So he's then sentenced to a prison camp of hard labor. And just when the civil war was over, he is then let go and upon his arrival to his family home, he then discovers his mom and dad both killed and murdered, motivating him to seek retribution to those responsible. And because he has no experience into using a colt, he then asks his friend, Cassidy to train him to use one before he gives him the names of the four men responsible. The first three men Jim killed was no problem, but the fourth one by the name of Corbett (Piero Lulli) after stopping by to a different town called Galveston, Texas who are in desperate for a new sheriff. Jim later finds out that Corbett is the current leader of some ruthless outlaws who raided the town's bank, assuming there was going to be $200,000 waiting for them, and they were disappointed that the town never received that money, which leaves the question how did Corbett and his gang of outlaws ever find out about that money in the first place unless the gang themselves got themselves an informer. At first Jim was reluctant to be the town's sheriff but as soon as he found out Corbett was the leader of the gang it forced him by the hand to accept the job with the help of reinforcements of the community, including the town mayor (Julio Peña), the undertaker name Ben (Franco Pesce) and a preacher named Douglas (John Ireland) along with many others.

I like the unique spin of this movie such as the revelation that the Corbett character was a leader of the gang of outlaws, as well as that there could be a possibility of a fifth person involved in the murder of Jim's parents. But had this movie received a bigger budget, it may have covered up some of the inconsistencies regarding the plot. Therefore, you can only appreciate what is shown so far and hope a much higher rebooted version can be made in the future.

Despite some inconsistencies and mistakes in the screenwriting, this one was quite entertaining.

The cinematography and the acting were very good. John Ireland was one of the iconic actors of the 1950s and 1960s, and Peter Lee Lawrence had some memorable roles as well.

I also liked the score by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino.

There were some errors in the screenwriting: Jim Slade had never used a handgun before he recently bought the one he outdrew several experienced gunfighters such as Douglas? Not really credible. And two people who were apparently shot dead by Douglas reappear late in the movie.

But overall it was an enjoyable movie, one I'll watch again sometime in the future.

Jailed for his religious objection to violence, Peter Lee Lawrence is released from prison at war's end, to find his parents murdered by a gang of thieves. Reversing his stance on killing (though not drinking!), he seeks vengeance, eventually taking a job in Galveston, protecting a cash shipment from the last and hardest of the bunch.

From horror director Umberto Lenzi, this is a typically colorful, though somewhat routine Italian western, with some good double and triple-crosses, as well as a few oddball touches, like a jail full of giggling loonies from a burned-out asylum, escaping and wreaking havoc on the town!

Though not terribly memorable, A Gun For A Hundred Graves (another great title) is decent enough entertainment for spaghetti western aficionados who want to see all the genre has to offer. John Ireland, who plays a quick-draw preacher, is always worth watching. There's also some pretty good Morricone-like musical themes.

This western is the type of movie you might see from Something Weird Video or on MST3K. That's not meant to be a put-down (if it was I'd be putting down 2/3 of my movie collection). I really enjoyed this film.

The movie is directed by Umberto Lenzi, who is better known for his Euro-horror movies. The horror influence is clearly evident here when an escaped band of drooling lunatics runs around grunting and killing everyone in sight. It's a real hoot to see spaghetti western regular Eduardo Fajardo playing the part of a giggling homicidal idiot. This alone makes it worthwhile to seek out this film.

John Ireland is great as the gunslinging preacher, and Piero Lulli makes a great villain as usual. The acting from the rest of the cast is not exactly top-notch, but that just adds to the flavor of this film. It's quite funny in parts (perhaps unintentionally but one can never be sure).

There are also some really funny lines in the movie, which I will not spoil by mentioning here. The way everyone overreacts to the fact that the hero likes to drink water is especially hilarious.

I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys both spaghetti westerns and strange, funny cult movies.

Normally, because of my love for the spaghetti western genre, I can accept any shortcomings that can be found in the movies. But with "A Gun For One Hundred Graves", there were so many that at times I found the movie tough going. I saw the complete version, but even then there were times when linking footage and even entire scenes of explanation seemed to be missing! What makes it further odd is that there's material that could have easily been edited out without harming the narrative, from the band of lunatics to the hero's Jehovah Witness beliefs. The cast does its best with the material, with John Ireland giving the best performance. But the movie so feels like it was made up as it was going along, that I can only recommend this to die hard spaghetti western fans, and even they find the experience hard to sit through.