Son of a Gunfighter (1966)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Producer: Lester Welch. A United States/Spanish co-production between Lester Welch Productions (Hollywood) and Zurbano Films (Madrid).Copyright 31 December 1964 by Lester Welch/Zurbano Films. Released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 31 March 1966. U.K. release: 16 August 1965. 8,217 feet. 91 minutes. Spanish title: El Hijo del Pistolero.SYNOPSIS: On the Mexican-American border of 1877, a gang of outlaws headed by James Ketchum attempts to hold up a stagecoach carrying a shipment of gold. But they are driven off by the local sheriff and his deputy with an assist from one of the stagecoach passengers, a young sharpshooter called Johnny. Later, when the outlaws raid a cattle ranch belonging to Don Fortuna, Johnny is wounded in the shoulder while helping to fight off the attack. While recuperating, Johnny falls in love with Don Fortuna's daughter, Pilar, but he leaves her to track down Ketchum, whom he believes responsible for his mother's death years before.COMMENT: So far as M-G-M was concerned, CinemaScope had well and truly outstayed its box-office welcome by the time its 120th and final CinemaScope release was sent around the drive-in and action circuit in 1966. True, unlike the previous year's "Greed in the Sun", CinemaScope is actually mentioned all of twice in the Press Sheet and the process does figure in the advertising blocks, but the size of the type and the prominence of its lay-out has come down a long, long way from 1953's "Knights of the Round Table"."Son of a Gunfighter" itself is a presentable Spanish western which benefits from Manuel Berenguer's superb location cinematography. Mr Tamblyn is purposeful enough in the lead, Miss Granada makes an appealing heroine, and it's always good to see Fernando Rey — even if his role here, as the heroine's dad, rather limits his opportunities.

Acceptable Chorizo Western with a prolific American director and two Hollywood B-actors as Russ Tamblyn and James Philbrook . A good example of Latino western genre from Spain . The year is 1877 , Johnny Ketchum is a young gunslinger , then he aware his mother was murdered by his father . Johnny is son of a famous gunfighter , and seeks the man who killed his mother . As Johnny heads South to encounter his mother's assassin . Ace Ketchum ( James Philbrook) is an outlaw , wanted ¨Dead or alive¨ , north and south the border . Johnny goes out to avenge his mother and trespasses Rio Grande frontier and after battling bounty killers finds his father . His search brings him into contact with Deputy Mace Fenton (Kieron Moore) , who wishes to collect the reward on Ace Ketchum's head . Johnny is wounded and is healed in a manor by the daughter (Maria Granada as Pilar) of a wealthy landowner named Don Pedro Fortuna (Fernando Rey) . Later on , Johnny falls in love with Pilar . But then they are besieged by a Mexican bandit named Juan Morales (Aldo Sambrell) until a spectacular final battle that takes place in a defile .Offbeat Chorizo Western co-produced between Spain and US and doesn't follows the Sergio Leone wake , but it is proceeded in American models . It's an exciting western with breathtaking gunfight between the protagonist Russ Tamblyn against the heartless Aldo Sambrell and his nasty hoodlums , in addition a stirring ending fight into a narrow pass . This movie is a lot of fun to watch. It's an acceptable story with a touch of peculiarity, some great characters, and an amazing music score . The picture is a tale of justice and revenge , as a young man looks for vendetta but his objective results to be his father . The basic plot is typical spaghetti western fare , but what makes this movie stand out is its style . Tamblyn is passable though miscast , he ravages the screen, shoots , hit and run and kills . Russ's performance in the movie is a bit wooden for the role of such an interesting character , but the fantastic performance by the always great Aldo Sambrell as the slimy, menacing outlaw make up for , here in his ordinary role as bandit and in a cruelly baddie character , he is terrific, and bears a hysterical and mocking aspect , subsequently he would play similar characters . There appears as secondaries the habitual in Spanish/Italian Western such as Fernando Rey , Antonio Casas, Fernando Hilbeck and Barta Barri .The film packs violence , shootouts , high body-count and it's fast moving and quite entertaining . There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing some shoot'em up or stunts every few minutes. There is a very odd implementation of shots in the camera work during some particular scenes as the film approaches its climax , as in the final gunfights full of horse ridding , pursuits and shots . The movie gets the usual Western issues , such as avengers antiheroes , violent facing off , exaggerated baddies and spectacular duels , among them . The sense of pacing is such interesting that his film can be counted on to move quickly and smoothly . Good production design creating an excellent scenario with luminous outdoors , dirty and rocky landscapes under a glimmer sun and fine sets by expert set designer Julio Molina who designed several Westerns as Spanish as international ones . The musician Robert Mellin composes a nice soundtrack and well conducted , this turns out to be one of the most memorable parts of the movie; as it's full of enjoyable sounds and haunting musical background . The opening and ending sounds are two of my favorites, and are of those unforgettable tunes that will play in your mind over and over long after the movie is realized. The soundtrack contributes tremendously to the atmosphere of the film, including an emotive leitmotif, the music score is perhaps the best part of this film . Striking cinematography by Manuel Berenguer , though is necessary a correct remastering . Outdoor sequences with barren and rocky exteriors filmed in Spanish places located on outskirts Madrid , Hoyo De Manzanares and La Pedriza , replacing Almeria . Colmenar Viejo and Hoyo de Manzanares where was built a Western village called 'Golden City' resulted to be the locations in which were shot lots of Western produced and directed by Spanish and Italian and occasionally American people , because Almeria was too far and the landscapes bear remarkable resemblance . This motion picture is well produced by Gregorio Sacristan who as producer and production manager produced the most super-productions realized in Spain during the 60s and 70s as ¨Battle of Bulge¨ , ¨Krakatoa , East of Java¨ , ¨Custer of the West¨ , ¨Bad man's river¨ , ¨A town called Bastard¨ ,and ¨Horror Express¨ . Being professionally directed by Paul Landres . Landres is generally considered to be a prolific director of television episodes as ¨Lone ranger¨ , ¨Cisko Kid¨, ¨Maverick¨ , ¨Life and Legend of Wyattt Earp¨ . He realized his first feature in 1949 , a western , ¨Grand Canyon¨ genre in which he would not only excel but one where he would spent much of the rest of his career. Although Paul Landres couldn't be deemed an "A"-list director, his movies had a professionalism and a verve that many of those made by his fellow B directors lacked . He also filmed detective thrillers , Western as ¨Lone Texas¨, ¨Frontier gun¨ , action motion pictures and even a horror film or two as ¨The vampire¨, ¨The return of Dracula¨. Rating : 5,5 . Acceptable and passable

Now this was a movie that looked promising, but it didn't deliver. It is very handsome in its look though, the sets, scenery, costumes and photography still look absolutely beautiful, the score is suitably rousing and fitting, I loved the film's idea and out of the supporting Fernando Rey is by far the most consistent. However, the film is too short and I think rushed too. The idea of the story is great, but it is lacking in emotion and at the end of the day it is the case of too much going on. The dialogue can be silly too, the direction is ambitious but it tries too hard and Russ Tamblyn(who I really like) and Kieron Moore are bland in the lead roles. Overall, disappointing but worth a peek I guess. 4/10 Bethany Cox

The movie has a rather good typical genre revenge-story but the story gets almost completely ruined by the movie its poor directing and annoyingly bad dialog.It's not that the movie has a bad story but it's still a poorly written. And the things they say! Oh man, the spend 3 lines on things they could say with just 5 words. Some of the dialog is ridicules and at times completely redundant for the movie. Really some of the worst dialog writing I have seen in a long time. How did those actors ever agreed to say all those lines? Unfortunately the movie also feels the need to put in a female character and love-story. I mean no offense but women in westerns have just never quite worked out. Even in the best westerns, the women still felt out of place and did not worked out. I understand that it's PC and good for marketing reasons but some genres are just not created to have female characters in it. But on top of that the love-story in this movie feels rather forced and out of place and is just not quite believable, since Pilar seems like a complete bore and shallow character, that no tough gunfighter would ever fall for.It also seems silly that the biggest spoiler and surprise of the movie is also in the movie it's title. What's up with that!?The musical score for the movie was unexpectedly great. I liked it surprising much! One of the very few highlights of the movie.The directing was very poor and it ruined some of the potentially good moments of the movie. It also made some of the action seemed bad and ridicules. It's the sort of clumsy action you would normally expect to see in a '30's movie or a "The A-Team" type of series. Characters come and go in the movie and evil and good guys keep switching constantly. The main character isn't even introduced until 10 minutes into the movie. The main villains are disappointing and underused. Never fully showed in the movie why they are being considered such legendary and bad villainous characters in the West.Also non of the actors are really any great ones but then again, they also aren't really helped by the dialog in the movie.Still some of the action makes the movie worthwhile to watch, at least for the genre fans. Some action sequences are surprisingly big (seemed to me they'd watched "The Magnificent Seven" before making this movie?) and even though some of the action seems to constantly repeat itself, it's still great to watch!4/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/