Un cercueil pour le shériff

Sheriff Joe Logan (Anthony Steffen) goes on an undercover mission to find the murderer of his wife. Under the guise of 'Texas Joe', he becomes a member of the bandits who held up her stagecoach. Lupe (Armando Calvo) is the leader and accepts Logan after a special contest. Murdock (Eduardo Fajardo) doesn't trust the new guy and keeps an eye on him. Wilson (George Rigaud, misspelled as 'Rigaut' in the movie credits) is the only one who knows the real identity of Texas Joe, but Lupe is planning an attack on his ranch...

Simple, straight-forward revenge movie, nothing extraordinary, but it delivers perfectly what a genre fan expects. Director Mario Caiano, passed away in 2015, and composer Francesco De Masi were always reliable contributors. Shot in 1965, re-using some locations from "A Fistful of Dollars", this is a rather early Italian western following the big success of that movie. It doesn't feel tired yet, but has some relentless energy and good pace.

The setting is an area in the Wild West terrorised by a violent outlaw gang who have the corrupt sheriff in their back pocket. Into this enters a mysterious loner who takes it upon himself to protect the people against these criminals by joining the gang and infiltrating them from within.

From the above synopsis it should be clear to any seasoned fans of spaghetti westerns that A Coffin for the Sheriff (great title, pretty irrelevant though) is a film with some very familiar plot elements seen in many other entries in the sub-genre. But in fairness, this is a pretty early entry in the Italian western cycle of movies and so these clichés weren't quite as cemented in as they were going to be by the end of the 60's. This one was helmed by Mario Caiano who, like most of his Italian contemporaries, made a number of films in the different popular genres of the given year; the best of the one's I have seen is his impressive Agatha Christie styled giallo Eye in the Labyrinth (1972). With this one, it's really more a case of business as usual, as opposed to an entry that brings anything new to the table. It is one of the sub-sets of spaghetti westerns that fall under the revenge-themed bracket and I thought it essentially delivered its goods in an effective and entertaining enough manner. The star of the show is Anthony Steffen, who seemed to specialise in roles such as this one; he is a fairly limited actor in many ways but fits the persona of spaghetti western anti-hero pretty well it has to be said.

Ultimately, this one is more of the same but more of the same is okay sometimes and it's perfectly acceptable when it's based around an original formula which is so dependable to begin with.

Una bara per lo sceriffo (AKA: A Coffin for the Sheriff/Lone and Angry Man/Tomb for the Sheriff) is directed by Mario Caiano and written by David Moreno and Guido Malatesta. It stars Anthony Steffen, Eduardo Fajardo, Fulvia Franco, George Rigaud and Armando Calvo. Music is by Francesco De Masi and cinematography by Julio Ortas.

In the grand scheme of things as regards Pasta Westerns, Mario Caiano's Oater is strictly routine. The plot is the basic lone gunman out for revenge theme, where in the weathered scuzzy frontage of Anthony Steffen, it involves the infiltration into a gang of scum-bags to get said revenge.

It's atypical of the genre around this time, it's a picture more concerned with raising the pulse rather than making any sort of thematic statements. There's no great style to praise, the dubbing is poor, the fight choreography weak, while all the foxy women on show are given short shrift big time. However, the action is never far away, thus ensuring the pic is never ever dull.

Steffen makes for a cool dude under pressure, the actor would make a telling contribution to the genre with director Caiano, and he's given a number of scenes to hone his gruff rough and tough persona. The villains, fronted by an excitable Lupe Rojo (Calvo) and a maniacal Murdoch (Fajardo) are great fun. There's a great score from De Masi to help things along, and a super title song warbled by Peter Tevis lands in the ears and stays there. Hell! There's even a comedy old geezer doing his best Moore Marriott impression to keep us perky.

It's clichéd, it doesn't utilise the locales or the Widescreen format and it is scared to deviate away from the Spag Western film making 101 play book. Yet sometimes for genre fans this sort of fare is enough for a good time to be had, and so it proves. 6.5/10

This film essentially takes place somewhere in the American Southwest with a marauding gang of bandits, led by a man named "Lupe Rojo" (Armando Calvo), terrorizing the surrounding area. Eventually, his crimes become so frequent that a bounty is put on his head for $5000-dead or alive. The scene then shifts to the small town of Richmond with a mysterious man by the name of "Shenandoah" (Anthony Steffen) walking into the local saloon with a fistful of dollars and being invited to play poker with some of Lupe Rojo's thugs. Naturally, considering the caliber of men he is dealing with, a fight breaks out with Shenandoah managing to fend for himself quite nicely. Having now proven his mettle, Shenandoah further ingratiates himself with the outlaws by saving one of them during a bank holdup a little while later and is subsequently allowed to join them at their secret hideout. What these bandits don't realize, however, is that Shenandoah has his own reasons for joining this gang and money is of no real importance to him. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this movie was produced during a time when the Spaghetti Westerns were first coming into prominence and as a result it pretty much laid down a template which was followed by other films of this sort. As a result, the plot may seem a bit standardized for this movie through no fault of its own. Be that as it may, while I don't consider this film to be one of the best in this particular sub-genre, it passed the time fairly well and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Spaghetti Westerns would go on to become one of Italy's main exports, but A Coffin for the Sheriff was released while the genre was still in it's infancy, and before Sergio Leone had chance to complete his legendary Dollars trilogy, and it's a rather good little film that is worth seeking out for Spaghetti Western fans. The film is directed by Mario Caiano, who would go on to direct a number of entries in this genre; this film being one of his first. I've not seen a lot from this director, but his Giallo 'Eye in the Labyrinth' was decent and he directed the excellent 'Night of the Doomed' in the same year as this film. The title makes no sense, but anyway we focus on a mystery man who calls himself 'Shenandoah'. He turns up in town one day and bumps into a gang of local thugs in a bar. He gets challenged to a poker game and ends up loosing - though this doesn't concern him too much since all the dollar bills he's carrying are fakes. The game is interrupted when some other bandits attempt to rob the town's bank, and it soon becomes apparent that there's more to the stranger when he lends a hand to an injured robber...

The sound is always an important part of a Spaghetti Western, and this one features both the good and bad elements. On the plus side, we have an excellent Western score that while not rivalling the work by the great Ennio Morricone, is still good enough and fits the film well. On the negative side, however, we get 'treated' to some of the worst dubbing I've heard in a Western - it's not good at all! Cult star Anthony Steffen takes the lead role and does a good job of playing the gritty Western hero. Steffen would go on to take the lead in a number of Westerns (including a handful of Django flicks) and it's not surprising since he looks the part and plays it well. The rest of the cast is more than adequate, though as is often the case; the main focus here is put squarely on the lead player. I can't say that this is one of the very best Spaghetti Westerns that I've seen, although in fairness the standard has been set rather high by a number of films in this genre. The film is quite hard to come by, but I would certainly recommend that Spaghetti Western fans give it a look as it is a film worth seeing.