Los desesperados

Gazpacho with Spaghetti Western co-produced between Spain and Italy , though this time with production mostly Spanish and plenty of violence , crossfire and elements of Greek tragedy . A Confederation corporal named John Warner (George Hilton) deserts his unit at the night before a major battle during American Civil War (1861-1865) , after receiving an important message from Sandoval's son . John along with other rebels (Albert De Mendoza, Antonio Pica) escape ; later on , unites to bunch a motley band of characters (Jose Luis Martin , Leo Anchoriz , Gustavo Rojo) . Meanwhile John heads across the border to Mexico to marry his pregnant girlfriend before she gives birth . Her father named Pedro Sandoval (the recently deceased Ernest Borgnine) had forbidden their marriage, but the corporal is determined to marry her . Circumstances change when John Warner learns a surprise and he becomes into an outlaw who vows vendetta on everyone involved in his misfortune .

Director Julio Buchs achieved in "A bullet for Sandoval" possibly his best work of a modest career , with some memorable scenes and good camera movement as the initial prologue and first part in which we see the death-stricken the main star, furthermore the ending duel in ¨Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid¨ style and that makes only can say that this movie seemed to be a true surprise . The story is wrapped in an aura of sadness , a tragic event on the metamorphosis of Warner , a good man turned into a crazed psychopath . Worthwhile watching for a demonstration of the deep hating among two protagonists . It will lead a tragic ending , which is underlined by the idea of fatality, the inability to change his own fate . It's an exciting western with breathtaking showdown between the main star Hilton and the enemy Ernest Borgnine and his hoodlums . Uruguay-born George Hilton is fine as the hero / villain of this thrilling story . Hilton is fine, he ravages the screen, he jumps, shoots , bounds and leaps, hit and run , and finally kills . His performance is astonishing , above average to level of these films . George Hilton as the suffering and avenger gunslinger , in possibly her most important role that was able to defend in a Spaghetti . During this process , the protagonist John results to be a character initially positive , but he will degenerate to become a bloody and despicable gunman without feelings and inability to love . While Ernest Borgnine in a top-notch performance , is a rich , arrogant, overbearing and vindictive Mexican rancher unable to admit the affair between his daughter and a miserable foreman who has dishonored him and he will be victim of its own code of honor . Alberto De Mendoza is the tough but likable outlaw partner and although he doesn't reaches the level of Hilton , is also quite restrained , with some looks that say it all . Many other familiar faces from Chorizo/Spaghetti , there appears ordinary secondaries in Spanish/Italian Western such as Jose Luis Martin as a nasty rapist , Leo Anchoriz as a Friar Tuck-alike , Manuel De Blas , Luis Barboo , Lorenzo Robledo , George Rigaud , Alfonso Rojas , Dan Van Husen , Tito Garcia and several others. A special mention I want to highlight is the soundtrack of the film, Gianni Ferrio creates melodies that manage to finish to give the story a point even more dramatic and disturbing, making the images gain strength with the chords , a high-level work similarly the great composers of the genre . Acceptable photography by Francisco Sempere , though being necessary a right remastering , filmed on location in Las Rozas , Madrid , Lucainena de Las Torres, Andalucia, and of course , Almeria . The movie was produced by Atlantida Films/Jose Frade productions that financed several Western during the 60s and early 70s such as ¨Cuatreros¨ , ¨Mestizo¨ , ¨Challenge of McKenna¨ , ¨The mercenary¨ , ¨Los Compañeros¨, ¨twenty dollars for seven¨ and ¨Saddle tramps¨ , among others.

The motion picture was pretty well directed by Julio Buchs who also wrote the script along with Federico De Urrutia ; sometimes it is falsely claimed the movie was co-directed by Lucio Fulci, but this is not true, actor George Hilton has stated so in many interviews . Julio Buchs was an expert on thriller as he proved in ¨Salario De Crimen¨, ¨Alta tension¨ and ¨Trumpets of Apocalypse¨ and Spaghetti such as ¨Los Desesperados¨, ¨I'll kill him and return alone¨ also titled ¨El Hombre Mató Billy Kid¨ and ¨Mestizo¨ or ¨Django does not forgive¨ . Along with ¨A bullet for Sandoval¨ the Buchs's best film was ¨Encrucijada Una Monja¨ with Rosanna Schiaffino playing a similar character to ¨Audrey Hepburn's The nun's story¨ ; both of them were well directed by Julio until his early death at 46 years old .

Anybody who is into spaghettis should watch this film. The plot is about a woman that dies after giving birth to the son of her lover (George Hilton), a soldier away on duty. The father of the woman (Ernest Borgnine), hates Hilton and blames him for her death. The hatred the men have for eachother consumes them both and they spend the film stalking eachother, until they finally settle the account at the end, with one of the best and climatic endings I have ever seen in any movie.

For a start, the acting in this spag, is better than 90% of the spags I have seen. The atmosphere is dripping with a sense of fate and destiny...a sort of weird nihilism between the two men. The cinematography is gorgeous and the film moves from scene to scene very smoothly...making it easy to watch.

The ending is an unusual one for a spaghetti. Its simply brilliant.

Bullet for Sandoval, A (1969)

*** (out of 4)

Interesting Spaghetti Western takes place during the Civil War when a soldier (George Hilton) gets word that his pregnant girlfriend is dying. By the time he reaches the house she has died and her jealous father (Ernest Borgnine) makes him leave with their newborn son. Without the resources to take care of the child, it dies and soon the soldier sets out for revenge. This film has a great revenge story going for it but by the time it ended I was pretty mad at the movie because it could have been so much better. The film has several subplots and none of them are as interesting as the revenge story so these subplots get in the way and in the end they really pull the film back some. The film's main story is still good enough to make this worth watching as it features some great action sequences as well as two good performances by the leads. Hilton is very good in his mainly silent role and Borgnine delivers a maniac style performance. The ending is very strange and bizarre but it works well with the film even though the revenge takes a few different turns.

Confederate soldier George Hilton abandons his post in order to go and marry the expectant mother of his child, the daughter of wealthy Spanish landowner Don Pedro Sandoval (Ernest Borgnine), before it's too late. Captured, he escapes and arrives in time to find the baby's mother having already died in child-birth.

Her angry father sends the wanted Hilton and the baby out into the darkness where he gathers together a group of misfits to wreak vengeance on all who refused to help his son, especially Sandoval.

One memorable scene has Hilton attacking a petty fearful man who previously denied the starving infant milk, drowning him in a bucket of it.

A good Spanish/Italian co-production, the first half of A Bullet For Sandoval is so strong in terms of character development and emotions that the rest of the movie suffers by comparison.

Still, it's definitely worth watching and one of the best European westerns, with good performances by Hilton and Borgnine and a great climax in a bullfighting arena.

This one is really bleak and nihilistic, so watch out for that. Set during the American Civil War, we have Confederate soldier George Hilton having to go AWOL in order to save the honour of a woman who has just borne his child. George has several problems, however, one being that the army aren't too lenient on deserters, and his lady's father, Sandoval (a very loud Borgnine, just the way we like him!), really hates his guts and wants nothing to do with him. Plus, he gets caught and sentenced to death in pretty short order.

Killing his captor and heading south with a couple of mates, George finds that the town his fiance lives in is suffering from an outbreak of cholera, his missus has just died, and Sandoval has just dumped the kid on him and banished him. Further still, George finds that his kid is starving to death, but no one will feed him as they think the kid has cholera. The kid dies, and George turns to the dark side and starts murdering everyone who turned him away. Is this a Western or an Adam Sandler film?

George gets himself a gang of bandits while on the other side of things Sandoval keeps getting madder and madder and madder to the point where he denies he even had a daughter in the first place (although in secret he's shattered inside that she's gone - nicely performed by Borgnine). Both men are gearing up for a confrontation that they cannot avoid, as both of them have lost their souls...

We all like Ernest Borgnine, right? You can't go wrong with him here, as a stubborn but honourable man consumed by grief. George Hilton too does a nice turn as the loved up soldier turned blank-eyed killer and it's the fact that both characters have more depth that carries the film. Neither of them are particular evil men, but through circumstance they are both turned into monsters.

Good film. Loved the custard-pie fight at the end!

Wait...no...that didn't happen.