O Amargo Sabor da Vingança

A man known as "Desperaaadooo" to his enemies and the singer of the title song, or simply Steve (Andrea Giordana, "Quella sporca storia nel west") to his friends, tries to make money outside the law at the end of the civil war. He stops at nothing, even stealing it from a blind man seems not to trouble him. Nevertheless, when that old man is killed, Desperado decides to avenge his death. Not only the presence of Piero Lulli (plays the blind man) reminds me of "Se sei vivo, spara". Just like Questi's masterpiece, "El Desperado" - directed by "Django", "Texas Addio" and "Preparati la bara" screenplay co-writer Rossetti - picks up the subject of everyone's obsessive greed that leads to self-destruction as well as moral decomposition. Even priests and judges can not be trusted in this movie. It's a dirty world, so the long torture/murder scene in the mud is apt. Regarding the tavern brawl scene in the middle of the movie, it is by no means a standard genre scene! Steve requires that fight so he can kill one of his enemies unnoticed, it is a deliberate part of his revenge plan! Also, there are little touches like the piano player beating up somebody who by mistake hit a chord on his instrument. Very well directed, thus it is a pity it remained Rossetti's only western.

This gritty spaghetti western is not bad at all, mostly due to the interesting, believable performance of Chip Gorman. He's a handsome man, with lots of charisma, and his acting is better than average.

The performances are all fairly good, especially Rosemarie Dexter, as the desperado's love interest.

Piero Lulli was very convincing as the blind man, and Aldo Berti was amusing as the man who keeps assuming identities.

The story kept me guessing, most of the way through, interested to find out how it would end, and the surprise ending had me fooled.

Gorman has the smoldering looks and charisma to play both bad guys, and good guys. I will have to look for more of his films.

It's too bad Franco Rossetti didn't make more westerns; this is his only oater and it's a pretty good spaghetti western. I liked Chip Corman (Andrea Giordana) as Steve, El Desperado, who spends much of his screen time in a Confederate soldier uniform masquerading as a blind man's returning son. He's not, of course, he's really after a stash of gold the blind man has been saving, hidden in a ghost town that's right out of Django, all mud and muck. Pretty soon though a gang shows up to waylay a Confederate payroll that's rolling through the town. The only negatives are the unavoidable fistfight/barroom brawl and a scene where Desperado gets kicked around in the mud which goes on too long. The finale is great and makes up for quite a bit of the typical spaghetti hi-jinx which leaves non-fans of the genre cold. If you like pasta you'll dig this almost unknown gem. Just released by Wild East, this has a good widescreen transfer and looks great!

"The Dirty Outlaws" 1967 R 1h 43m Original title: El desperado AKA: Big Ripoff Release in the U. S. in 1971 It's a paella and spaghetti western.

It's actually a pretty good yarn, with half decent acting. But, let's not carried away with these 8/10 ratings. I mean, you put this above the Eastwood spaghetti movies? Really? The dubbing alone drags this one down to a 7. LOL The acting isn't terrible, but it isn't really all that good either. The directing is typical of spaghetti westerns. If fact I think spaghetti westerns were a way of laughing at American westerns.

All in all, I liked this movie. There is believeable tension between the characters, and there is sexual tension between Steve, Katy, and Lucy. But, it's not a fairy tale ending for the girls.

The Bushwacker 12/28/2021.