Roy Colt & Winchester Jack

Roy Colt and Winchester Jack (1970)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Spaghetti western directed by Mario Bava about two outlaws (Brett Halsey, Charles Southwood) trying to find a treasure. Outside some nice cinematography this film is pretty much a wasted effort for everyone involved, especially the director. I'm a fairly big fan of Bava but this here certainly ranks down at the bottom of his filmography. The film goes for way too many laughs, which is okay if any of them were actually funny. In the end the film is basically a rip of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly as well as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There are a few good moments but not enough to make it worth watching.

Now that this is available in a beautiful letterboxed, subtitled DVD, ROY COLT AND WINCHESTER JACK can be enjoyed by anyone who wants to see it. Is it worth seeing? Well...what you have is basically a lowbrow Eurowestern comedy that belongs on the same shelf with STING OF THE WEST and IT CAN BE DONE AMIGO. The various supporting players are colorful, and there are two strong American leads in the charismatic Brett Halsey and the engaging Charles Southwood. Though hidden under a lot of makeup, Marilu Tolo is as sexy as ever. I've never found Italian western comedies to be that worthwhile (or western comedies in general, BLAZING SADDLES excepted)--for me, most of the best qualities of westerns are lost when they are played for laughs. There are a number of laughs in this film--Halsey and Southwood both play comedy well--but the viewer should be warned that the laughs are on a Bowery Boys/Police Academy-level. I like that kind of comedy, but you may not. The reason this film was reissued is that it was directed by Mario Bava; however, had I seen the film without knowing that, I would never have guessed. Bava scholars can no doubt find similarities, but I would not consider his direction a major element here (see my review of RINGO DEL NEBRASKA, one of Bava's two other westerns). Overall, this is an enjoyable Eurowestern comedy, with excellent and creative production design (now THERE is a Bava quality!) and good performances, but I don't really consider it essential, only for the serious Eurowestern fan or the Brett Halsey fan (of which I'm one).

If this film is judged only on its own merits, without reference to other entirely unrelated entries in the Mario Bava lexicon, it holds its own as light-hearted entertainment. Unlike most Italian comic westerns, this one holds the interest largely due to its three central players' well rendered characters and exploits. The cinematography is also far better than many others in the genre.

Charles Southwood is perfect as the scruffy, irrepressible Jack, in contrast to the stolid, lachrymose-faced Roy (Halsey)and both of them can be relied upon to out-cheat the other when they aren't busy beating the tar out of each other to show their mutual affection. Southwood is really quite outstanding and should have been in a lot more films.

Marilu Tolo is very effective here (much more than she is in most of her roles) as the feisty and very resourceful Indian prostitute who is determined to coerce someone into marrying her, preferably Jack or Roy. Don't miss the sequence when she hooks up with Southwood and forces him at gunpoint to take a bath before becoming a "client." Under protest, Southwood descends to the cellar and has to break the ice on the water before stripping off his smelly long-johns to take the plunge. By the shrunken state of his retracted genitals, the water is cold indeed. The shotgun pointed at him by the comely Tolo probably helped, too. Now there's a touch you would never have seen in an American-made western.

The outlaws Roy Colt (Brett Halsey) and Winchester Jack (Charles Southwood) are frequently fist fighting, disputing who the boss of their gang is. Roy Colt decides to leave the gang and find a honest job; he saves the crippled banker Samuel (Giogio Gargiullo) from a hit man and the old man hires Roy to work with him. Meanwhile Winchester Jack rescues the Indian girl Manila (Marilú Tolo) that is arrested by two bounty hunters; she stays with him, charging to have sex with Winchester. When the bandit Reverend (Teodoro Corrà) finds that Samuel owns a treasure map, he teams up with Winchester Jack and they steal the map from Samuel. But Roy Colt is assigned sheriff by Samuel to chase Reverend and his henchmen and retrieve the treasure. Roy Colt betrays Reverend first and Winchester Jack later, while Manila leaves Winchester Jack to stay with Roy Colt, in a greedy mouse-and cat game of betrayals while hunting the hidden treasure.

The comedy "Roy Colt & Winchester Jack" is a parody of the western movies that is silly most of the times but has at least three hilarious scenes: when Manila asks Winchester Jack to marry her or pay ten dollars to have sex; when the clients sees who is dancing in the cabaret; and when the cuckold Winchester Jack sees Manila with Roy Colt and the cactus forms a pair of horns ("cornuto") in his head. This movie entertains and maybe fans of western genre might like it more than I did. I prefer Mario Bava's works in the horror and thriller genres. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Typical Italian western, made at the time when producers wanted to cash in on the success of Sergio Leone's IL BUONO, IL BRUTTO, IL CATTIVO. Plot about three gunslingers (Halsey, Southwood and Corrà) is clearly a rip-off and nowhere as funny or clever as the Eastwood western; too often it resorts to low-brow comedy. Some typical directorial touches, nice photo-graphy (by Antonio Rinaldi) makes film worth watching for Bava completists. Nice score by Piero Umiliani.