Pochi dollari per Django

"A Few Dollars for Django" is an okay spaghetti western. The story is fine and the cast all do a passable job. Spaghetti westerns can be hit or miss but they do make a very interesting genre. "A Few Dollars for Django" does the genre right but it isn't that memorable. It's an okay way to spent a hot July afternoon.

A bounty killer (Anthony Steffen aka Antonio De Teffè) gets caught in a cattle war, when he is searching for the last member of a gang of robbers in a small Montana town, where the twin brother (Frank Wolff) of the bandit lives.

This is one of the countless westerns baring The Django handle - and it's an unofficial one. Anthony Steffen is called Regan, and he's at his usual tough guy best. His hard edged performances are great. It's has the usual shootouts with a loaded plot, however it's a run of the mill SW- not bad but not great either. Story and style is more attuned to the typical Hollywood western than the spaghetti westerns.

This is said to be Enzo Castellari's debut film and it's for that reason I tracked it down. Sadly, it doesn't quite become a great film, but does have it's saving graces.

There's a town in Montana where ranchers and farmers are having a land dispute which about to become all out war, and while on his way there bounty hunter Regan (Antony Steffen) happens across the murdered body of the town's sheriff. Adopting his persona, Steffen breezes into a town that has got a whole heap of warring factions going on...and he's caught right in the middle.

On one side are the farmers, reluctantly led by Frank Wolff, who believes he can settle the business peacefully. Frank's problems are plentiful - his daughter is getting harrassed in town by ranchers, his land is being threatened by ranchers, the farmers want to go to war and there's the slight problem that Frank may well be a hunted criminal with a bounty on his head who is impersonating his own twin brother. That's what Steffen thinks is going on, but then he's impersonating a sheriff so it's a case of pot calling the kettle black.

The head of the ranchers just wants to wipe the farmers off the face of the Earth and get on with, so he brings in some outlaws who reckon that the fake Frank might be the real Frank too, and after a lot of talky bits, we do get an all out gun battle at the end, but is it too little too late?

Possibly. The film is almost devoid of Enzo's patented crazy camera angles, so the dramatic scenes (where Steffen falls in love with Frank's daughter, and there's a lot of talk about taking land, people threatening each other, that sort of thing) drag on a bit, but then there's a good chemistry between Steffen and Wolff, because you're not quite sure if Frank is impersonating his own brother, or if he is, whether or not he's a reformed character or still a violent outlaw.

Things do kick into gear when the action arrives. Maybe it just took a film or two to realise where his strengths lay.

Enzo himself turns up as a gunman who gets a cap popped in his ass. I wouldn't put this anywhere near the top of a 'must-see' list.

Spaghetti and Tortilla Western , co-produced between Spain and Italy and starred by two ordinary Spaghetti actors as the Italian Anthony Steffen and American Frank Wolff and dealing with a confrontation between cattlemen and homesteaders. This is not an actual Django outing , it's a Spaghetti with Chorizo Western crammed with action , shootouts and lots of violence . The film follows the American Western models but also in Spaghetti style . An Italian-Spanish co-production with outdoor sequences filmed in Colmenar Viejo , La Pedriza and Manzanares Del Real , Madrid . It's a medium budget film with usual actors , good technicians, passable production values and acceptable results . 1877 year , Reagan (Anthony Steffen) is a bounty hunter hired by the National Mining Company to recover $ 100,000 stolen by the gang of Jim Norton . Norton and his band are wanted ¨Dead or Alive¨ . After killing three of them , his investigations lead him to Mile City , a cattle town in Montana, land primarily for grazing , there lives Jim's twin brother, the peaceful Trevor (Frank Wolff who a few years later committed suicide) with a niece (Gloria Osuna) , and in which, after posing as a sheriff , he is in the midst of the war between the settlers with their cattle fences and cattlemen led by a nasty baron land (Alfonso Rojas who played thirty five Spaghetti) who advocate for open range needed to feed their cows . Gunmen were hired for a time to keep submitted the settle men and their barbed wire . Meantime the rowdy, free-spending cowboys attracted saloon keepers, gamblers , brothels and all types of frontier riff-raff , the town became notorious for its lawlessness but the new but impostor sheriff puts peace and order .

It appears as director the Spanish/Argentinean Leon Klimovsky , but actually, for the most part of its filming by the disagreements arising with Klimovsky was realized by Enzo G. Castellari, which this film was his directorial debut in a sub-genre that became one of its greatest representatives . In fact if you compare the beginning of "7 Winchester for a massacre" which would direct the next year and the end this one seem to be similar direction . It's full of action , exaggerated characters, shootouts and loads of violence . ¨Alambradas de Violencia¨ or ¨Pochi Dollari per Django¨ is an exciting western with breathtaking showdown between the protagonist a bounty hunter gunfighter , Anthony Steffen , and a band's leader , Alfonso Rojas , and his hoodlums as Ennio Girolami . Anthony Steffen is fine , he ravages the screen, kills , shoots , hits and runs . There is plenty of thrills and action in the movie , guaranteeing some shoot'em up or stunts every few minutes . The film blends violence , high body-count and it's fast moving and quite entertaining . Nice score by Carlo Savina , including an enjoyable leitmotif and catching song . There is a very odd implementation of shots in the camera work during some particular scenes as the film approaches its climax , as in the ending gunfights and the customary showdown conclusion .

This Western all'Italiana was produced by Marino Girolami , father of Enzo G. Castellari and Ennio Girolami, being middlingly directed by Leon Klimovsky . Leon was a craftsman who directed all kind of genres , as Terror for Paul Naschy (Marshall of hell, Rebellion of dead one , Orgy of vampires , Werewolf shadow, Dr Jekill vs. the werewolf) , Warlike (June 44 attack force Normandy , A bullet for Rommel , Bridge over Elba) and Western (Badland drifter , Reverend Colt , Torrejon city , Death knows no time , Two thousand dollars for Coyote , A dollar for Sartana) . Rating: 5 ; regular but entertaining .

The first Django sequel has very little Django in it. While the main character is mostly called Regan, he is sometimes credited as Regan/Django due to the movie's title, and the fact that the actor plays Django in many sequels. But this film is much worse than the first, because it is very cliche and there's very little interesting about it. Regan/Django lacks the cool yet intense personality he donned in the first film back when he was played by Franco Nero. It's not a terrible film, but it pales in comparison to the original and there just isn't anything memorable about it.

The film takes a standard western plot in a very boring and uninteresting direction. There are hints of entertaining moments, but they are sadly overcome by the overall mediocrity of the movie. Not worth watching unless you are a fan of Django.