Johnny Yuma (1966)

hyped garbage

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

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Johnny Yuma sure is smug. I think that's what might put people off this film a bit (cos it sure ain't Rosalba Neri). Johnny's just inherited a ranch from his uncle, who's just died from sudden bullet to the back of the head, courtesy of Neri and her brother. They know Yuma's on his way, so they arrange for an ageing gunslinger to come and do the business on Yuma too. Yuma's lightning fast with a pistol, however, and blasts his way through enough bad guys to populate a small African country. His got a Mexican sidekick too, and I was fairly surprised at the sudden change in tone halfway through the film, as both Yuma and his sidekick play the film for laughs, so when the bad guys start doing stuff like executing Mexican folk for no reason and at one point beating a child to death (!), I was thinking that perhaps they were making up this film as they went along. They also give Yuma a good beating at one point too, but it only temporarily takes that stupid smug grin off his face. Rosalba Neri, as usual, is lush and great. She manipulates every man in the film, including Yuma (who thinks he's got her sussed out, but he's wrong). She's the best thing about the film and greatly helps where actor Mark Damon (Yuma) just yucks it up at every given opportunity. This is an overly violent western that's well worth a watch, especially the epic gun fight at the end and the way over the top killing of one of the bad guys – a bit of a jaw dropper, that bit.

This is one of several of American actor Mark Damon's European ventures; he worked in various genres (such as historical epics and horror films) but also did a number of Spaghetti Westerns – including Sergio Corbucci's light-hearted RINGO AND HIS GOLDEN PISTOL(1966; originally bearing the similar title JOHNNY ORO) and the politicized KILL AND PRAY (1967), where he actually played the villain; even so, I don't feel he exudes the ruggedness which is part and parcel of this stylized subgenre! Despite interesting credentials (incidentally, the widescreen German print on the budget DVD I rented omits the opening titles completely…so that the sequence where they ought to be merely shows Johnny Yuma wandering aimlessly on his horse!) – director Guerrieri, co-scriptwriter Fernando Di Leo – this is a minor genre effort, hindered more than anything else by a not very compelling plot line (drifter Damon battles sultry aunt Rosalba Neri and her gunman lover Lawrence Dobkin for an inheritance); unsurprisingly, the latter ends up befriending the hero and is ultimately himself deceived by the femme fatale.The film is undecided whether it wants to be serious or approach the genre with tongue-in-cheek (hinted at by the presence of a greedy Mexican bum who aids Damon throughout) – though sentimentality over the murder of a child who has harbored the wounded hero (as often happens in this type of film, the latter receives a thorough beating only to re-emerge a stronger person for the finale) suggests something deeper may have been intended. The Mexican pueblo in which the tale unfolds supplies the requisite Western atmosphere, but also proves the ideal setting for the climactic gunfight. The score by Nora Orlando isn't bad and, yet, the lyrics to the title song seem to have been hastily scribbled down – having little to do with the action proper of the film!

In the opening scene, the eye patch wearing desperado named Hawkeye has a smooth forehead, but when he follows Johnny into the pueblo, he's shown with a scar over his patched eye. That's just one of the many continuity lapses in this edgy 'spaghetti' Western, but rather than detract from the picture, it adds a special flavor to the proceedings.Another occurs when Sanchez turns in his three dead bodies, they have to be examined for their identities - "You just can't imagine how many false cadavers we have in our town". Immediately after, Carradine (Lawrence Dobkin) shows up to collect his bounty with no more than a wanted poster in hand.As for the film's principal Johnny Yuma (Mark Damon), he's shown with his holster alternately on his right and left hip throughout the movie after exchanging gun belts with Carradine following the barroom brawl. Johnny's bound for San Margo at his uncle's request, but will have to avenge his death at the hands of deceitful wife Samantha (Rosalba Neri) and her conniving brother Pedro (Louis Vanner). It takes some time getting there, but it's a fun ride with one of the best music scores on record. As for that saloon fight, I got a kick out of the kung fu sound effects every time a punch connected.Care for some more story exaggerations? Following the duel with Pedro the first time, Johnny wipes a small amount of blood from his lip which he manages to smear Pedro's entire face with. Similarly, when Pedro smacks around little Pepe later in the film he doesn't cut him, but by the time Johnny arrives, Pepe's face is covered with blood."Johnny Yuma" is probably one of the best of the genre that doesn't have Clint Eastwood in it. As Johnny, Mark Damon is a reasonably suitable stand in but without the seething exterior. Carradine seemed to be a replacement for the obligatory Lee Van Cleef character, without being a total bad guy. At first the identity exchange between Carradine and Johnny didn't seem to make sense, but it all tied together by the time the film ended. You knew each henchman would wind up getting his due; marking time for each was part of the anticipation.In case you're wondering, the title hero has nothing to do with the Nick Adams character from the classic TV Western "The Rebel". In this film, Johnny got his name from a gunfight he had in Yuma once.Perhaps the most unique element of the story had to do with the way it tied things up with the evil Samantha who pulled the strings behind the scenes throughout. After shooting Carradine she beats a hasty retreat before Johnny can get his revenge. Still alive, it looks like Carradine tries to shoot her and misses, but it doesn't take long for Johnny and Sanchez to track her into the dessert where she perished without water - Carradine aimed for her canteen.

This wonderful little film has all of the elements that made the Spaghetti Western so exciting and fun: GREAT music (by one of the few..if not the only..female composer to work in the genre, Nora Orlandi), EXCITING action sequences (and very vicious ones for the day!), and BEAUTIFUL scenery and sets (all in Almeria, Spain, of course). It also has a very good story with a nice tragic romance edge to it. The actors do marvelous jobs--with truly standout performances from Lawrence Dobkin and Rosalba Neri (in the most vital role for a female in a Spaghetti Western..outside of Cardinale in Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West"). Without posting any spoilers, let me just say that this movie contains one of the best endings of any film I have EVER seen!