China 9, Liberty 37

Hellman's seriously absurdist streak happily finds a comically absurd parallel within the stereotyped framework of the European Western: he revels in the sheer gratuitousness of traditional character-types and plot mechanisms to produce an uproarious genre critique. Fabio Testi, a gunslinger in a Tom Mix hat, alternately stalks, befriends, and is stalked by Warren Oates, holding out against the advancing railroad with his trusty rifle and his less-than-trusty Anglo-Irish wife (Agutter).