Relevo para un pistolero (1964) ⭐ 5.2 | Western

It is an ordinary example of American Western style with two usual genre stars : Luis Davila and Alex Nicol , and there appears ordinary Spanish secondary players of Spaghetti/Chorizo Western . Dealing with a little town called Blackstone , where arrives to make fortune a mysterious visitor from the East , named Edwin Jackson (Luis Dávila) , he asks for help an old friend of his deceased father , Relámpago Harris (Alex Nicol) . Relámpago was a tough pistolero who was detained when he attempted a bank robbing ; he is , nowadays , an upright , retired and decent man . Then , Jackson opens a cutlery and clothes merchandise shop in which he has a lot of costumers among townsfolk . When Jackson is at the town saloon , called Paradise (where dances the sex-pot go-go girls : Esperanza Roy and Laura Granados) , there shows up the famous bandit Jack Dillon (José Guardiola) who humiliates and mistreats Edwin . Shortly after , Edwin receives advises from the ex-gunslinger Relámpago and he becomes a tough gunfighter , surpassing his teacher . The gunman teams up with the old veteran , but then Edwin carries out a personal vendetta . Later on , it takes place fateful happenings , as they never thought it could happen in their town . As Edwin falls for a beautiful Mexican girl (Silvia Solar) , but she has a jealousy boyfriend (Rogelio Madrid) and things go awry .

This is an effortless , simple , plain but average Tortilla Western displaying psychological characters-in deep , shootouts , Western action and being enough entertaining . This is a classic Western , pre-Leone style with thrills , noisy action , gun-fights and some surprises . It is a medium budget Western with fine actors , good technicians , acceptable production design , though it has a few failures . The sense of pacing is such interesting that his film can be counted on to move quickly and smoothly . The Spanish Westerns of this era attempt to emulate their American source material that cultivate a distinctive style of their own the way followed by the Italians . The movie gets the usual Western issues , as avengers antiheroes , strong facing off , exaggerated baddies and spectacular duels , among them . Luis Davila is good as a simple-minded shopkeeper become into a gunman . As sympathetic acting by Luis Dávila who takes on a band of crooks led by Dillon & his gang , and he then decides that he wants to get justice for the friendly townsfolk and the exploited Mexican people . Dávila played several Euro Spy and thrillers as ¨Marc Mato¨, ¨Hello Glen Ward , house Dick¨ , ¨Razzia , ¨Paranoia¨ ; Adventure movie as ¨Normand sword¨, ¨The Sherwood archer¨, ¨Tigres Mompracen¨ and various Westerns as ¨Pancho Villa¨ , ¨Dinamite Jim¨, ¨Matalo¡¨. And Alex Nicol is cool as two-fisted as well as retired gunslinger . Alex Nicol starred during the sixties and seventies several American Western as well as Chorizo or Paella Western such as this ¨Relevo para Pistolero¨, ¨Gunfighters of Casa Grande ¨ and "The Savage Guns" or ¨Tierra Brutal¨, the latter considered to be the first Spaghetti . Good production design creating an excellent scenario with luminous outdoors , rocky landscapes under a glimmer sun and fine sets by expert set designers , though being mostly developed at the little town . As secondaries appear several familiar faces from Chorizo/Spaghetti Western such as : Francisco Sanz , Alfonso Rojas , Xan Das Bolas , Rafael Albaicín , Rafael Hernández , Lorenzo Robledo , Aldo Sambrell , Tito Garcia as a blacksmith and José Guardiola as a ruthless outlaw . And other Spanish actors playing in all kinds of genres as Esperanza Roy , Rogelio Madrid , José Sepúlveda and Antonio Jiménez Escribano .

This exciting Western was decently photographed , -though being marred by an ancient old and black cinematography- by Ricardo Torres , a prestigious cameraman who made ¨Fray Escoba¨, ¨La Mies Es Mucha¨, ¨Vida Por Delante¨, ¨Comicos¨ , and westerns as ¨Sheriff Terrible¨, ¨Vengador California , ¨Bienvenido Padre Murray¨ , among others . Being filmed on location in Colmenar Viejo , Manzanares Del Real , Ciempozuelos , and La Pedriza , Madrid . Evocative and atmospheric musical score by Daniel Montorio . The motion picture was regularly directed by Ramon Torrado . Ramon was born in 1905 , Galicia, Spain. He was a director and writer, known for directing some vehicles of known Folkloric stars such as Peret in Amor a Todo gas (1969) , Manolo Escobar in Un Beso en Puerto (1966) and Paquito Rico in Malvaloca (1954). The nice craftsman Torrado directed four mediocre Chorizo Westerns such as 1965 Los Cuatreros , 1964 La Carga De la Policía Montada , 1964 Relevo a Pistolero and 1963 Bienvenido, Padre Murray . Rating : 5.5/10

• ma-cortes
• May 23, 2017
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