Lone and Angry Man (1965)

Good concept, poorly executed.

As Good As It Gets

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Sheriff Joe Logan (Anthony Steffen) goes on an undercover mission to find the murderer of his wife. Under the guise of 'Texas Joe', he becomes a member of the bandits who held up her stagecoach. Lupe (Armando Calvo) is the leader and accepts Logan after a special contest. Murdock (Eduardo Fajardo) doesn't trust the new guy and keeps an eye on him. Wilson (George Rigaud, misspelled as 'Rigaut' in the movie credits) is the only one who knows the real identity of Texas Joe, but Lupe is planning an attack on his ranch...Simple, straight-forward revenge movie, nothing extraordinary, but it delivers perfectly what a genre fan expects. Director Mario Caiano, passed away in 2015, and composer Francesco De Masi were always reliable contributors. Shot in 1965, re-using some locations from "A Fistful of Dollars", this is a rather early Italian western following the big success of that movie. It doesn't feel tired yet, but has some relentless energy and good pace.

Una bara per lo sceriffo (AKA: A Coffin for the Sheriff/Lone and Angry Man/Tomb for the Sheriff) is directed by Mario Caiano and written by David Moreno and Guido Malatesta. It stars Anthony Steffen, Eduardo Fajardo, Fulvia Franco, George Rigaud and Armando Calvo. Music is by Francesco De Masi and cinematography by Julio Ortas.In the grand scheme of things as regards Pasta Westerns, Mario Caiano's Oater is strictly routine. The plot is the basic lone gunman out for revenge theme, where in the weathered scuzzy frontage of Anthony Steffen, it involves the infiltration into a gang of scum-bags to get said revenge. It's atypical of the genre around this time, it's a picture more concerned with raising the pulse rather than making any sort of thematic statements. There's no great style to praise, the dubbing is poor, the fight choreography weak, while all the foxy women on show are given short shrift big time. However, the action is never far away, thus ensuring the pic is never ever dull. Steffen makes for a cool dude under pressure, the actor would make a telling contribution to the genre with director Caiano, and he's given a number of scenes to hone his gruff rough and tough persona. The villains, fronted by an excitable Lupe Rojo (Calvo) and a maniacal Murdoch (Fajardo) are great fun. There's a great score from De Masi to help things along, and a super title song warbled by Peter Tevis lands in the ears and stays there. Hell! There's even a comedy old geezer doing his best Moore Marriott impression to keep us perky.It's clichéd, it doesn't utilise the locales or the Widescreen format and it is scared to deviate away from the Spag Western film making 101 play book. Yet sometimes for genre fans this sort of fare is enough for a good time to be had, and so it proves. 6.5/10

Vengeance-minded stranger Anthony Steffen worms his way into a gang of thieves led by a crooked ex-lawyer and a Mexican bandit in order to find the perpetrator of a previous murder attributed to the gang.A vivid atmosphere and some great Spanish locations make up somewhat for some rather pedestrian script-writing. Steffan and villain Eduardo Fajardo are always fun to watch too.Though not really bad, this is still recommended only for die-hard spaghetti western fans.Director Mario Caiano has done better work, especially in the horror genre.

Spaghetti Westerns would go on to become one of Italy's main exports, but A Coffin for the Sheriff was released while the genre was still in it's infancy, and before Sergio Leone had chance to complete his legendary Dollars trilogy, and it's a rather good little film that is worth seeking out for Spaghetti Western fans. The film is directed by Mario Caiano, who would go on to direct a number of entries in this genre; this film being one of his first. I've not seen a lot from this director, but his Giallo 'Eye in the Labyrinth' was decent and he directed the excellent 'Night of the Doomed' in the same year as this film. The title makes no sense, but anyway we focus on a mystery man who calls himself 'Shenandoah'. He turns up in town one day and bumps into a gang of local thugs in a bar. He gets challenged to a poker game and ends up loosing - though this doesn't concern him too much since all the dollar bills he's carrying are fakes. The game is interrupted when some other bandits attempt to rob the town's bank, and it soon becomes apparent that there's more to the stranger when he lends a hand to an injured robber...The sound is always an important part of a Spaghetti Western, and this one features both the good and bad elements. On the plus side, we have an excellent Western score that while not rivalling the work by the great Ennio Morricone, is still good enough and fits the film well. On the negative side, however, we get 'treated' to some of the worst dubbing I've heard in a Western - it's not good at all! Cult star Anthony Steffen takes the lead role and does a good job of playing the gritty Western hero. Steffen would go on to take the lead in a number of Westerns (including a handful of Django flicks) and it's not surprising since he looks the part and plays it well. The rest of the cast is more than adequate, though as is often the case; the main focus here is put squarely on the lead player. I can't say that this is one of the very best Spaghetti Westerns that I've seen, although in fairness the standard has been set rather high by a number of films in this genre. The film is quite hard to come by, but I would certainly recommend that Spaghetti Western fans give it a look as it is a film worth seeing.