El Puro, la rançon est pour toi

"La taglia è tua... l'uomo l'ammazzo io" (1969), more commonly known as "El Puro", is a Spaghetti Western directed by Edoardo Mulargia. The plot is straightforward: the once infamous gunfighter "El Puro" (played by Robert Woods) is now a drunkard hunted by bandits for the $10,000 reward on his head. This looks to have been cheap to make, with limited interiors which are used quite a lot. But these sets look fairly realistic as they are filthy and grubby which gives in an authentic touch of the West. The camera-work by Antonio L. Ballesteros is mainly devoid of style, apart from a few crash-zooms. The editing is rough and hasty, with more than a few jarring cuts. The direction is more spirited, with a well staged gunfight and an excellently handled climax and manages to make some of the more slower scenes interesting enough at least to watch instead of skipping them and getting to the highlights. The acting is good in places, even if Robert Woods performance as "El Puro" is slightly disappointing after seeing his great role in "Black Jack" (1968), but Mario Brega, Marc Fiorini (as Ashborn Hamilton Jr.) and Maurizio Bonuglia acquit themselves well to there roles as the villains of the picture. All in all, you should enjoy it if you are a fan of the genre.

A bunch of cutthroats : Mario Brega , Aldo Berti , Marc Fiorini, Gianni and Bonuglia set out in pursuit a wanted gunfighter : Robert Woods , wanted alive or dead , 10.000 dollar reward on his head . This wanted gunslinger results to be a tired drunk , but after the death a loved person he searches for revenge against the nasty killers .

This is a Pasta/Chorizo Western co-produced by Italy and Spain , containing thrills , crossfire and violent confrontation , though excessive dialogue mostly set in interiors . Here stands out the final gun-play with the respective confrontation between good guys and bad guys . Stars Robert Wood as the drunkard pistolero who is roused to action for seeking a relentless vengeance . Robert Woods gives a best acting than his other previous roles, because of he plays a complex character , an alcoholic who is really fed up with his dark and sinister past . Woods played a lot of Spaghetti Westerns , some of them passable , others lousy ones , as follows : "A Dollar and a Grave" , "Gatlin Gun" , "Black Jack" , "Colt in the Hand of the Devil", "The Belle Star Story" , "My Name is Pecos", "Pecos Cleans Up" and the best : "Seven Guns for the MacGregors" . Along with Robert Woods in the movie appears three gorgeous Eurotrash beauties : Rosalba Neri, Lina Seagram and Mariangela Giordano , as well as some familiar faces appearing in a number of Westerns.

Nice cinematography by cameraman Antonio L Ballesteros , being recently and adequately remastered , shot on location in Fraga , Huesca, Aragon , Catalunya, Spain and Tirrenia Studios , Tuscany Italy . Special mention for the splendid musical score by expert musician Alessandro Alessandroni , composing enjoyable sounds in Ennio Morricone style . The motion picture was decently directed by Edoardo Mulargia. He wrote and directed several Spaghetti Westerns , such as : "W Django" , "Django Dispara" , "Cmango", "Shango" , "Ve Con Dios Gringo" and most of them starred by Anthony Steffen, Ivan Rassimov and Robert Woods . Rating : 6.5/10. Acceptable and passable Western that will appeal to Spaghetti aficionados . In fact , it's considered a cult movie for many Pasta aficionados.

there's a reason this western has remained unknown and obscure. and the reason is that it stinks. uninspired, uninteresting, and unmemorable, this is a loooooooong slow trudge to nowhere. the 90 minutes feel twice as long. i kept expecting something to happen that will validate my patience, but zip. zilch. nada. not much violence or action, no nudity, no memorable acting, no characters to buoy your interest. and your kid brother can write this kinda plot after watching a marathon session of old Hollywood B westerns. i wrote this review, so that you can benefit from my suffering and save your time.

in case i didn't make it clear enough, AVOID IT! shoo, clear off...unless you're a masochist or a hard-core Western collector who must have every genre entry in his collection.

rating: 2/10 (for a couple of beautiful faces in the cast, and some cinematography. and the 3 people who gave this film a '10' each are clearly sadistic jokers!)