Man From Nowhere (1966)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Better Late Then Never

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Five minutes into this film, the Man from Nowhere reveals himself to be from Arizona, rendering the title meaningless, and thus begins yet another Italian-style Western. It's a corker!Our hero is Arizona Colt, and he's a smug as Johnny Yuma. He's also slightly sinister too, or at least I thought so. He cheats at cards with innocent folks, and will only find Rosalba Neri's killer if he can get to shag her sister! Did I say Rosalba Neri? I sure did! She's in this one too, but she gets murdered fairly early, because she's the attractive, sexually liberated one (plus she has dark hair, which makes her evil, or something). I'm getting ahead of myself, however. This one involves Gordo, a bandit whose recruitment method involves massacring loads of prison guards, breaking out all the prisoners, and giving them the option of joining his gang or being shot! He's planning on robbing a town of all it's gold, but he didn't count on Arizona Colt not joining his gang and having no intention of getting shot. Indeed, Arizona proves to be a bit of pest as he's always where Gordo doesn't want him to be (although he doesn't stop either the town being robbed or Rosalba Neri being killed as he's in the saloon having a pint). On the morally shaky promise of getting it on with Neri's blonde, and therefore virginal sister, Colt sets out to bring Gordo to justice, but instead ends up getting shot full of holes. This sets the film up for the big gunfight and a very cool head to head battle between Arizona and Gordo in an undertakers.Although the film seems to follow the same plot as about 400 other Italian Westerns, this one's pretty fast paced and has a lot of shootouts (the town seems to have an endless supply of men to take on Gordo's gang). There's also plenty of that Italian quirkiness, when Colt spells out 'no' in dead bodies as a message to Gordo, and if you like Westerns where the bad guys laugh for minutes at a time for no reason whatsoever, then this is the film for you.

I really enjoy spaghetti westerns, so obviously I have seen a lot of examples of the genre. Though I haven't seen every spaghetti western made, I have seen enough so that I can say with confidence that "Arizona Colt" (a.k.a. "Man From Nowhere") is below average. I wouldn't say it's a TERRIBLE movie - it has some positive attributes. The scenery is nice, the production values and action sequences are acceptable, and Fernando Sancho makes a pretty good villain. However, the movie stumbles in two key areas. The first mistake is that the movie is very slow-going - they should have really increased the pace. The second mistake is that the movie lasts almost two hours, which is far past the breaking point. Had they edited down the script before filming began, these problems may not have happened, and we might have had a pretty good movie. But as it is, I can only recommend this particular spaghetti western to die-hard fans of Euro westerns.

Gordon (Fernando Sancho) and his bandits attack a prison to free all the inmates, because they need more men to rob a bank. One of the ex-prisoners declines the job offer, though. Arizona Colt (Giuliano Gemma) chases a murderer (Nello Pazzafini) for a reward of 500 dollars - and a night with the daughter of the saloon keeper! "Arizona Colt" proves once again that the spaghetti western heroes were not bound by morality. The protagonist is only into money and women, but somehow he remains sympathetic. Classic moment of cynicism: Gordon tells how his father many years ago said: "Son, when I'm dead, my golden watch will belong to you", and 5 seconds later, the watch did belong to Gordon! Fernando Sancho is perfect as always to play the leader of the bandits. Gemma is a different type of actor than the stone-faced Clint Eastwood imitators of the genre, thus his movies are usually more enjoyable and original. The music is quite close to the rather epic style of the Ringo films, but written by Francesco de Masi this time.

Torrez Gordon needs new blood for his gang of outlaws, so he breaks into a prison to brand the inmates with the 'S' of the Scorpion gang. You gotta love the way these Italian stunt men spin around when they are shot. Some of them even got their horses doing it! Only one man refuses to join Gordon's gang: a clean cut dandy who calls himself Arizona Colt, after the state and the pistol.This is not your usual Spaghetti Western. The man with no name never cared about his appearance. Arizona however, hides in his underwear, hanging upside down from a tree to take another outlaw's outfit, all to keep his precious suit clean! The score is also more American in nature than usual: very brassy and with the occasional comic banjo thrown in for good measure.Colt is off to Blackstone Hill where we are introduced to a lot of supporting characters that have little to add to the picture. Dolores, who work in a bar full of men, is killed by a drunk in the barn before the audience gets a change to care about her. When her father asks Arizona to go after the killer, he not only demands money in return but the other daughter, Jane too (so he isn't a total fruitcake after all). Jane does not object either, since this is the only guy in town who knows what a bathtub looks like. He's so clean his teeth shine in the dark.It gets even sillier when the Scorpion gang stumbles upon a gang of singing cowboys. The scene starts of quite amusing, with Gordon's right hand man Big Whiskey smelling out each person's valuables. But when the gang leader pulls out his golden pocket watch (don't they always?) and starts shooting all of these Gene Autry's in the back, Whiskey is not amused. He eventually teams up with Arizona, who has failed his mission in order to learn the usual lesion in humility. While he is recuperating in an abandoned church, Jane comes begging for his help again. It seems Gordon is now holding the entire town hostage. Luckily Whiskey is an explosives expert and the two of them decide to take on all the Scorpions. Ever the showoff, Arizona kills each one of them in a different way, making use of household objects like rocking chairs and of course his acrobatics. In the sequel, "Arizona si scatenò... e li fece fuori tutti" (1970), the much dirtier Anthony Steffen took over the lead from Giuliano Gemma.5 out of 10