Un shérif à abattre

After proving himself quite resourceful during an attempted robbery of a gold shipment, newly appointed sheriff Giuliano Gemma finds himself framed for murder by ruthless cattle-rustlers that want someone a little more friendly in his place. Escaping jail, he fights the rustlers and the new sheriff to clear his name.

Wanted is pretty straight-forward and unpretentious and star Gemma is one of the great spaghetti western stars. There's also some good pulp-western atmosphere, with none of the silly humor and gimmicks that seemed to take over the genre in the years following this one's release.

On the other hand, there really isn't anything new here this time around and although it's decent enough entertainment, it's ultimately not very memorable.

This is a good S.W. plenty of action , shootouts , thrills and fist-play . Maccarroni Western starred by habitual actors , such as Giuliano Gemma , German Cobos and Teresa Gimpera . It deals with a local Marshall called Gary Ryan (Giuliano Gemma) living in a small town is falsely accused by nasty enemies : Frank Lloyd (Serge Marquand) and the Mayor Gold (Daniele Vargas) , being wrongly convicted for a murder and forced to flee . Gary is relentlessly pursued by henchmen but he gets rid of his contenders one by one and tries to demonstrate his innocence.

Spaghetti Western is filled with action , thrills , horse riding , brawls and crossfire . This is a decent Spaghetti starred by Giuliano Gemma , a hero wrongly accused who escapes to seek revenge on the men who framed him . This Western is a superior outing because it displays thrills , emotion , shoot'em up , brawls , intrigue , riding pursuits and many other things . There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing some shots or stunts every few minutes . The picture is a tale of justice and revenge with an interesting plot , as a sheriff carries out a hard mission to discover a twisted intrigue about forgery and cattle rustlers . Along the way he is detained , imprisoned , beaten , tortured and later on , he flees and seeks vendetta . The basic plot is typical spaghetti western fare , but what makes this movie stand out is its style . Giuliano steals the show as a merciless revenger , executing thespian skills , bounds and leaps , twists and shooting and throughly enjoys himself . Recently deceased Giuliano Gemma is very fine in his ordinary role as a gunfighter who seeks vengeance against his eternal enemies , Serge Marquand and Daniele Vargas , and their hoodlums . Giuliano Gemma , along with Anthony Steffen and Gianni Garco , resulted to be one of the greatest stars of the Spaghetti genre . Gemma in his beginning worked as a stunt-man , practiced many sports in his life, boxing , gymnastics, such as is well proved at the movie . Then the director, Duccio Tessari, gave him the first role as protagonist in the film " The Titani" and the first spaghetti western films where he often worked under the name of Montgomery Wood , playing Western as ¨A pistol for Ringo¨, ¨The return of Ringo¨ and others as ¨Adios Gringo¨, ¨Arizona Colt¨, ¨The price of power¨ , ¨Day of anger¨ and later ¨California¨. However, his first big opportunity came with the important Italian director, Luchino Visconti in ¨El Gatopardo¨ this was followed by important roles in "Angelica" , ¨Tenebre¨ , ¨Young Lions¨ and ¨The master touch¨. Then he played his most significant roles in ¨Il Deserto Dei Tartari¨ and ¨Il Prefetto Di Ferro¨ . While co-starring German Cobos played a lot of Paella/Chorizo or Tortilla Western filmed in Spain such as : ¨Hombre De La Diligencia¨ by Jose Maria Elorrieta¨, ¨Fuerte Perdido¨, ¨Valor De Cobarde¨ by Leon Klimowsky , ¨Secret of Captain O'Hara¨ by Arturo Ruiz Del Castillo , ¨Blood calls to Blood¨ by Luigi Capuano and ¨Reverendo Colt¨ by Klimowsky ; furthermore , he starred several Peplum and thrillers .

In the movie appears usual Western support actors as Spanish people : Teresa Gimpera , Salvador Arriaga , German Cobos , as well as Italian players : Gia Sandri , Nello Pazzafini , Benito Stefanelli , Spartaco Conversi , Umberto Raho , Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia , Andrea Fantasia , Fortunato Arena and Riccardo Pizzuti who is regular in Terence Hill-Spencer films . The musician Gianni Ferrio composes a nice Spaghetti soundtrack , well conducted and splendid leitmotif ; it's full of enjoyable sounds and emotive score , including catching songs . Atmospheric as well as evocative cinematography by Antonio ¨Tony¨ Secchi who also photographed other Westerns , such as : ¨Bullet for the General¨, "One Silver Dollar" and "The Hills Run Red" ; being shot on location in Lazio Rome , and , of course , Almeria, Spain . In addition , filmed in studios : Cinecittà Studios , Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy . The flick was professionally directed by Giorgo Ferroni , an expert on Peplum . As he directed ¨The war of Troy¨ with Steve Reeves ,¨Hercules against Molock¨ and ¨Il Colosso Di Roma¨ with Gordon Scott . He also directed Western as "Fort Yuma Gold" , "Blood for a Silver Dollar" , Wartime as ¨Battle of El Alamein¨ and Terror in acceptable results as ¨ Mill of the stone woman¨ and "Night of the Devils" .

Giuliano Gemma was par excellence the action film Italian actor.He had plenty of go and French users do remember his part of Nicolas Calembredaine in the "Angélique" saga;but he was also featured in peplums ("I Titani"), exotic adventures ("Sheherazade") and mainly spaghetti westerns,often credited as Montgomery Wood;he became more ambitious in the seventies with such works as Comencini's "Delitto D'Amore" and Zurlini 's "Il Deserto Dei Tartari" .

But a character actor he is not;he is better at other things and he is pretty good (and credible) as a sheriff;the villain is successfully portrayed by French Serge Marquand.The subject is borrowed from too many American westerns of the two precedent decades ,but it's made with care,with a good cinematography using the wide screen tastefully .The screenwriters display a good sense of humor: the priest,scaring the dumb Mexicans (it may pass for racism ) with Jehovah's wrath which will strike them if they don't repent.The blacksmith's trick is really a good idea the cattle thieves could take up.And the "wanted" word ,sung every ten minutes when the hero becomes the wrong man ,is typically European.

This is an action-packed movie,with never a dull moment;it does not mark a milestone in western history,but it's good Entertainment.

Director Giorgio Ferroni did this one at same year as Fort Yuma Gold, I liked this one better, although I think they both are pretty lousy. But there's a nice action-scene in the beginning, which is still not much. Sadly the film is also too long 'bout 100min(75min would be better). There's actually some plot in this one, so fans of the genre(real fans only)might wanna check out, if you just find it.

Meanwhile was at his best phase in Spaghetti genre Giuliano Gemma wasn't concerned about the quality of those Euro western, as the specific picture a kind of routine offering over cattle rustling, a whole town on greedy hands of the powerful man oppressing yours frightened neighbors cattle ranchers when their heard disappears without a trace.

In this environment appears Giuliano Gemma, even his bright presence wasn't enough to leverage this usual premise, still has a young gorgeous girl as opposite to the main star, nonetheless some colorful characters improve a little bit, as the funny Padre Carmelo show up with amusing lines, also the gambler Martin Heywood, apart that just an average Spaghetti, Gemma should be choose a better screenplay,

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 1990 / How many: 2 / Source: VHS-Youtube / Rating: 6.