Vengeance

This spaghetti Western stars Richard Harrison, a more than competent cowboy actor who refused the lead in A Fistful of Dollars, and, in fact, suggested that Sergio Leone check out the young guy who played Rowdy Yates in Rawhide. We have, however, Anthony Dawson's film to judge what might have been. Harrison is Joko, a half-breed with a lethal grudge against the bandits who betrayed his sidekick (brother? - lover?). The English title says it all. Crude sensibilities are the price of brute force. There's a sterling score by Carlo Savina, a juicy climax in a sulphur mine, and a remarkable opening shot - a God's-eye view of a man scrabbling in the dirt with a noose round each limb and four banditos on horseback straining to be off. You don't see that in many John Ford flicks.