Mon nom est Pécos

A Mexican is walking through the desert, arrives at a well and drinks a bit of water. A gunman sells him a pistol for 20 dollars. He buys the pistol and shoots the gunman. "My name is Pecos", he tells him belatedly. Pecos rides into a small town called Houston (!) and informs the grave digger there will be a lot of work for him soon. Then he challenges a bunch of bandits for a barrel of gold and personal vengeance.

It's a cheap production, but done with a lot of style, clearly following the "Fistful of Dollars" ideas about a mysterious stranger cleaning up a town. We get to know very little about Pecos' past, but that is intentionally done. Everything from the music to the camera work feels right, the actors are giving good performances, it's a thoroughly enjoyable picture even if nothing new under the sun.

It was perhaps inevitable that with the success of "A Fistful Of Dollars" a few years earlier, other Italian filmmakers would not only make their own spaghetti westerns, but some of them would copy the film that started the whole spaghetti western craze, this film being one of those attempts. I won't bother to list the similarities this film has to the earlier film, but I will list some of the differences. This movie looks like it had a somewhat higher budget, since there are more speaking roles and a wider range of locations. However, things are somewhat more cruder in this movie, from the violent sequences to the style of direction (though there are a few striking images here and there.) Also, there are a few dull spots. Still, spaghetti western fans will probably eat this up, even if they find a lot of the movie to be familiar. The movie apparently had a good number of fans at the time, since a sequel came out the following year, which I will watch and review should I ever come across it.

Acceptable Spaghetti about usual theme : a mercilees vengeance . It deals with a Mexican Man, Robert Woods , he often answers My name is Pecos . The tough Pecos takes on a nasty gand led by villainous Klane : Pier Paolo Capponi , the latter is looking for a lot of of money from a robbery and along the way he is terrorizing the local population.

Run-of-the-mill Pasta with thrills , betrayals , violence and lots of shootouts. Stars the ordinary Spaghetti antihero Robert Woods who performed several Westerns . This movie along with its sequel made RobertWoods as Pecos , internationally famous in the third World countries, similar to Franco Nero as Django, Gianni Garco as Sartana and Lee Van Cleef as Sabata . Adding other important success in his long career in Spaghetti Western as Seven Guns for the MacGregors , Black Jack, The Challenged McKenna , El Puro, Machine Gun Killers . There are various peculiar roles as a suspect undertaker : Umberto Raho, a coward saloon keeper and the extremely nasty bandit : Pier Paolo Capponi , alongside his band perfomed by a number of familiar faces as George Eastman , Peter Carsten , Massimo Righi , Peter Martel , Sal Borgese , among others .

It contains an attractive musical score in Morricone style by Coroliano Gori , including catching songs . As well as adequate cinematography by Franco Villa , showing rocky outdoors from Lacio , Rome , Italy . The picture was professionally directed by Maurizio Lucidi who also made the sequel : Pecos Clean Up 1967 also starred by Robert Woods , both of them were two big boxffice hits in Italy and other European countries . Lucidi was a good artisan who made all kinds of genres . As he directed Peplum : Hercules the avenger , Thrillers : The Man from organization , The Designated Victim , Probabilita Zero and Westerns as My name is Pecos , Pecos Clean Up, Halleluja for Django , Saddle tramps . Rating : 6/10 . The flick will appeal to Spaghetti aficionados .

Mexican drifter Robert Woods returns to his hometown to find trouble in the form of a vicious group of cutthroats who have taken it for their own, a gang that Woods seems to have taken a real disliking to, or perhaps he's encountered before.

There's very little story here, just mainly a series of violent and not very imaginative encounters between Woods and the nasty, racist gang of killers, or the killers and various townspeople.

Though somewhat interesting in the lead role, Woods is pretty wooden. It's not really his fault though. His character is as cardboard as any I've seen playing the main protagonist in a spaghetti western. It's hard to believe this was popular enough to spawn a sequel.

The theme song is pretty nifty though

The print is clean and clear, with abundant detail. Compared to other DVD and blu ray editions.

There is an Italian language option with English subtitles

The only usual cast adds to this film's appeal: at least five of the eight principal villains have interesting pedigrees (eg. Pier Paolo Capponi; Peter Carsten; MassimoRighi aka Max Dean), and George Eastman), but let's not forget Umberto Raho, best remembered as the ill fated husband in "The bird with the crystal plumage". He is memorable as the vulture like undertaker in this 1966 western. Fans of the spaghetti western genre will surely recognize Sal Borghese, who was featured in all three Sabata films if I remember correctly.

The woman working in the saloon must surely be one of the most beautiful to appear in a spaghetti western.

By today's standards the film is slow going and seems an uncomfortable mix of traditional Hollywood efforts and the newer Euro mix but it is definitely entertaining. You can see why Pecos the Mexican upstart appealed to Third World audiences. Perhaps if Tomas Milian had played the role, the film. Isn't have found a wider North American/cult audience.

There is a part 2 - with infinitely more humour.

Thanks for reading.