Johnny Yuma

One of the more satisfying Western all'italiana, Johnny Yuma has the freshness of many WAI made during the heyday of the genre and is highly recommended for fans of the genre or offbeat, intelligent cinema.

Johnny Yuma is, in most respects, not terribly original, but this actually does not count against it. The success of a genre film depends on how well it meets the audience's expectations as well as provides surprising variations on these expected elements. Earlier, pleasing experiences are recreated but with subtle (or major) twist that provide continuing interest. The quality of the execution is also, obviously, important. A tired retread will be less successful than a sincere attempt to entertain or move the audience.

Given these criteria, Johnny Yuma succeeds. There are numerous reprises of elements from earlier films. The setting is the brutal, twisted semi-feudal twilight world of shared by many of the best "Gothic family" westerns made 1964-1968 such as Tempo di massacre (1966). The plot is a combination of the basic Fistful of Dollars (1964) plot and the Ringo films, a fact not surprising as screenwriter Fendiando di Leo was involved in both. Di Leo was one of the best screenwriters in the popular cinema coming out of Cinecitta in the 1960s-70s and his work helped provide much of the thematic continuities and coherency to the genre (Along with a couple of other personalities in a few distinct circles of actors, directors, and screenwriters). In the FOD plot, the protagonist arrives in town, stirs up a tense situation, then undergoes a near-death followed by a resurrection (in some films, like Quella sporca storia nel west (1968) it is quite literally a crucifixion). The Catholic undertone to the narrative and the symbolism is intriguing, especially given the implicit populist/explicit socialist leanings of the filmmakers and their films. The Ringo plot, developed more fully by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi in a series of films starring Guliano Gemma, a egoistic protagonist chooses the interest of a community over his own through the medium of a relationship with a member of that community (with a healthy dash ironic uncertainty).

The relationship between Carradine and Johnny is clearly based on that of Manco/Mortimer from a Fistful of Dollar (1965). The two scene of the exchange of the gun belts provides a clever dialog and understanding between the two. Numerous films, including Da uomo a uomo (1968) or even El Chuncho, quién sabe? (1967), use this relationship between an older and younger man (father/son, older/younger brother, Anglo adviser/adversary and peasant revolutionary) as a central dynamic to the plot.

Additionally, there is the focus on deception and misdirection, mazes and mirrors, that recur throughout the best early WAI. The canons and pueblos of Almeria become literal mazes through which protagonist and antagonist play shifting games of cat and mouse.

What distinguishes Johnny Yuma from other WAI is the quality of director Romolo Guerriri's use of visual/psychological space together arrangement with the script's intelligent mechanisms to forward the plot. Dialogue was never very important to the WAI and often absurdly unintelligible (thought there are exceptions, such as the cynical commentaries in Django (1966) or Faccia a faccia (1967).

Psychological depth of character is created almost entirely through iconic imagery, it's juxtapositions, and it's description of the overall narrative situation. See how the presence of the deadly Samantha is felt during the beating scene – watching from the roof or from the background of the action. Or how Johnny strips Samantha and Pedro of their security and confidence in their power through his stealthy invasions of their ranch, hotel, even bedroom (this, again, is a theme from FOD). Finally, note how there is a focus on the search for information. Like many elements, this is borrowed from FOD which was ultimately based on the hard-boiled mystery novel Red Harvest. It is through incidental contacts, wanted posters, overheard conversations, glances out of windows, watches left in the dust, or mistaken identities and movements through the ripples created by the actions of Pedro and Samantha within this surreal and absurd reality that the narrative tacks forward to it's conclusion.

The movie was notable in it's time for what were perceived of as excesses in violence. Of course, these films were hardly more violent than many American westerns. What was different was the psychological intensity of the violence and the causes to which it was attributed, which is to say that it was not the violence but it's meaning that had changed. Johnny Yuma is distinct and interesting in it's use and portrayal of violence and this is another interesting aspect of the film.

What I personally find most interesting about most of this genre is the link it provides to the anonymous, nameless audiences in Italy and Spain to whom these recurrent narratives held some significance and interest. The artifact may have no intrinsic worth in and of itself – some flint debitage from a prehistoric site, a shard of cruse pottery, or a moldering piece of leather and rusted metal – but it is reference to some nameless presence, lives, that were significant simply because they existed. While Johnny Yuma has intrinsic worth, much of it's interest for me derives from this connection and mystery.

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Johnny Yuma sure is smug. I think that's what might put people off this film a bit (cos it sure ain't Rosalba Neri). Johnny's just inherited a ranch from his uncle, who's just died from sudden bullet to the back of the head, courtesy of Neri and her brother. They know Yuma's on his way, so they arrange for an ageing gunslinger to come and do the business on Yuma too.

Yuma's lightning fast with a pistol, however, and blasts his way through enough bad guys to populate a small African country. His got a Mexican sidekick too, and I was fairly surprised at the sudden change in tone halfway through the film, as both Yuma and his sidekick play the film for laughs, so when the bad guys start doing stuff like executing Mexican folk for no reason and at one point beating a child to death (!), I was thinking that perhaps they were making up this film as they went along. They also give Yuma a good beating at one point too, but it only temporarily takes that stupid smug grin off his face.

Rosalba Neri, as usual, is lush and great. She manipulates every man in the film, including Yuma (who thinks he's got her sussed out, but he's wrong). She's the best thing about the film and greatly helps where actor Mark Damon (Yuma) just yucks it up at every given opportunity. This is an overly violent western that's well worth a watch, especially the epic gun fight at the end and the way over the top killing of one of the bad guys – a bit of a jaw dropper, that bit.

The likeable mark Damon stars in this ok western that is mildly entertaining, especially in the latter half, however, I found it quite plodding at times with too much emphasis on comedy with the side kick, which distracts from an interesting storyline. Still, it has some good shootouts, and the voluptuous and deadly Rosalba Neri steals every scene she is in. The title song is good, reminds of that John Leyton song ( Johnny remember me).

After some difficulty, Johnny Yuma arrives at his ailing uncle's ranch to take over day to day operations, only to find out that the old man has been murdered by his beautiful gold-digger wife and the woman's vicious brother.

Good production values, a likable performance by Mark Damon, and a breezy action packed script combine to make this an entertaining, if not exceptionally deep, above average addition to the spaghetti western genre.

Co-star Rosalba Neri is one of the hottest European babes ever to grace the screen. Here she's absolutely perfect as the cold-hearted user (and abuser) of weak men.

Damon and Neri appeared together in at least one other picture, The Devil's Wedding Night, a pretty good horror movie that's of particular interest for those of you that want to see what's underneath Rosalba's dresses.

This is one of several of American actor Mark Damon's European ventures; he worked in various genres (such as historical epics and horror films) but also did a number of Spaghetti Westerns – including Sergio Corbucci's light-hearted RINGO AND HIS GOLDEN PISTOL(1966; originally bearing the similar title JOHNNY ORO) and the politicized KILL AND PRAY (1967), where he actually played the villain; even so, I don't feel he exudes the ruggedness which is part and parcel of this stylized subgenre!

Despite interesting credentials (incidentally, the widescreen German print on the budget DVD I rented omits the opening titles completely…so that the sequence where they ought to be merely shows Johnny Yuma wandering aimlessly on his horse!) – director Guerrieri, co-scriptwriter Fernando Di Leo – this is a minor genre effort, hindered more than anything else by a not very compelling plot line (drifter Damon battles sultry aunt Rosalba Neri and her gunman lover Lawrence Dobkin for an inheritance); unsurprisingly, the latter ends up befriending the hero and is ultimately himself deceived by the femme fatale.

The film is undecided whether it wants to be serious or approach the genre with tongue-in-cheek (hinted at by the presence of a greedy Mexican bum who aids Damon throughout) – though sentimentality over the murder of a child who has harbored the wounded hero (as often happens in this type of film, the latter receives a thorough beating only to re-emerge a stronger person for the finale) suggests something deeper may have been intended. The Mexican pueblo in which the tale unfolds supplies the requisite Western atmosphere, but also proves the ideal setting for the climactic gunfight. The score by Nora Orlando isn't bad and, yet, the lyrics to the title song seem to have been hastily scribbled down – having little to do with the action proper of the film!