skjam

Angel and the Badman (1947) dir. James Edward Grant

Quirt Evans (John Wayne) may be a top hand with a gun, but he's got his limits, and this time he was severely outnumbered, so rode away. Badly wounded, he collapses in front of Quaker woman Penelope Worth (Gail Russell) and her father Thomas (John Halloran). They get him to the telegraph office where Quirt makes a land claim, then collapses again.

The kindly Quaker family nurses Quirt back to health, despite warnings from Dr. Mangram (Tom Powers) that this could lead to trouble for them. (His opinion doesn't stop the doctor from doing his job properly.) As Quirt recovers, he and Penelope take a shine to each other. Quirt is bemused by Quaker beliefs and customs, but comes to see the value in them.

Too bad the rest of the world is still wicked! This is especially true in the case of Quirt's old "work colleague" and enemy Laredo Stevens (Bruce Cabot). Can Quirt stay alive without killing?

This was the debut of John Wayne's production company, and the director also wrote the script. It was also a rare movie where Mr. Wayne's character is a criminal rather than a lawman or other law-abiding sort. We do learn that Quirt's been a lawman for a short time before...bad things happened. He's had a difficult life. But for a crook, he's a relatively decent sort, and can still be reached with kindness and reason. He grows from someone who literally cannot sleep without a gun in his hand to someone who can leave his gun in the dust at the end of the story.

The romance is much better developed here than in many John Wayne movies I've seen. I could see what both characters saw in each other, and the difficulties Quirt has in living up to Penny's expectations.

But there's also exciting action, including a cattle stampede and a bar brawl. This is a Western, after all.

Other bits I liked: The friendship between faithful Thomas Worth and atheist Dr. Mangram, which is respectful to both of them. The pointed reminder that sections of the Bible are rather violent themselves. Quirt learning that solving problems without violence feels good and leads to good, while when he briefly returns to his old life of crime and indulgence, it is stale and unfulfilling. Reasonable but suspicious lawman Marshal Wistful McClintock (Harry Carey).

There's a bit of a cheat at the end so that the Laredo situation is solved without Quirt having to soil his hands, but it's followed by a very satisfying last scene.

Content note: lethal gun violence, no gore. Some other violence. Quirt is heavily implied to have had extramarital sex. Quirt is briefly shirtless. Alcohol abuse. Younger children should have adult guidance.

This is a very good John Wayne movie, and highly recommended to Western fans and people who liked Witness with Harrison Ford (which has a lot of similarities.)

Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) dir. Don Siegel

The time: July 1865. The place: Mexico. Hogan (Clint Eastwood). at loose ends since the end of the American Civil War, is headed south towards Chihuahua when he stumbles across several bandits attempting to rape a woman. While Hogan is by no means a good person, he has his standards, and he promptly kills the bandits. He's surprised to learn the woman is a nun, Sister Sara (Shirley MacLaine). It turns out she's come from Chihuahua, fleeing the French army.

It seems that Sister Sara angered the French occupation forces by raising money for the revolutionaries battling the puppet emperor Maximillian. As it happens, Hogan was recruited by Colonel Beltran (Manolo Fábregas) of the Juaristas to assist in an attack on the Chihuahua garrison in exchange for half the loot, and Sister Sara's information on the setup there is good enough that he doesn't have to go himself to scout. Plus he can hardly let a defenseless nun travel through this dangerous territory alone.

Hogan and Sara encounter many dangers, including Yaqui warriors that wound Hogan with an arrow, and a dying French officer that recognizes Sara (though the language he uses to describe her is far from spiritual.) They also blow up a troop train.

Eventually they connect with the Colonel, and a plan is hatched, which will need a lot of dynamite. Hogan shows his integrity by not just absconding with the purchase funds.

Unfortunately, the attack plan goes awry when the French troops in the garrison turn out not to be drunk for Bastille Day. The freedom fighters are outnumbered, outgunned, and have an alert foe. How can they turn this around?

While the movie has some funny moments in it, the trailer made it look more comedic than it actually is, especially in the last third, when it becomes a full-fledged war movie. This movie is very much in the "spaghetti Western" mold, using props from the Dollars Trilogy, Clint Eastwood as a hard-bitten gunslinger in a serape, and Ennio Morricone music. (The title music is...odd, but distinctive from his other work.)

I am given to understand that the first script was more of a Hollywood romantic comedy intended for a more saintly-looking woman playing Sara, so that the surprise that she's not a nun would be less obvious. But after several changes of lead actors and directors, the rewrites had turned it considerably bawdier.

The location shooting in Mexico gives the movie lovely scenery, and many of the minor roles were played by local Mexican actors which helps with the authentic feel. (Much needed since MacLaine doesn't feel like a Mexican national at all.) While I am told MacLaine and Eastwood didn't get along behind the scenes, they do have good chemistry on screen.

The historical accuracy? Not so much, including the fact that during this time period, the French didn't celebrate Bastille Day as a national holiday.

Content note: Quite a bit of combat violence, some gory. There's an uncomfortable sequence where the arrow has to be removed from Hogan's shoulder, while it's covered in blood. Death of an animal (which unfortunately was real as the Mexican government insisted.) Attempted rape. Implied extramarital sex, prostitution is discussed. Very touchy Catholics may object to Sister Sara's portrayal.

Not one of Eastwood's great movies, but very serviceable. Recommended once you've blown through his other spaghetti westerns.

Paradise Canyon (1935) dir. Carl Pierson

There's been a flood of counterfeit bills in the southwest territory recently. Federal agent John Wyatt (John Wayne) has been sent to investigate. The local law enforcement do have one lead. A while back, two suspects were caught flogging very similar funny money. One turned state's evidence and got a light sentence, while the other protested his innocence and drew ten years hard time. The second man served his sentence and was released some months ago, just about the time the new counterfeits started appearing. The last anyone heard of him, he'd returned to his old profession of running a medicine show.

Wyatt assumes the name of John Rogers and starts following the trail of the medicine show. It's fairly easy to trace, given that it leaves behind it a series of unpaid bills and drunken vandalism. Eventually John catches up just in time to help the show get across the Arizona border before the latest angry sheriff catches up.

Doc Carter (Earle Hodgins) is an affable fellow who believes in his own patent remedy and takes nips of it frequently. Given this product is 90% alcohol, that may not be the wisest course of action. He's assisted by his lovely daughter Linda (Marion Burns), who dances a bit, and not particularly honest musicians Mike (Gordon Clifford) and Ike (Perry Murdock). John's easily able to talk them into letting him join the act with some fancy shooting. They head for a town on the border of Arizona and Mexico.

On the Mexican side of town, there's a saloon run by a fellow named Curly Joe Gale (Yakima Canutt). He is not pleased to hear that Doc Carter is headed that way. You see, he's the actual counterfeiter, who set up the evidence to frame his medicine show partner who had no idea that there was any funny money involved. Doc could positively identify him as the culprit in the new counterfeiting scheme.

Curly Joe orders members of his gang to "convince" the medicine show not to come to town, or failing that, cause enough disruption to keep Doc Carter from discovering the truth.

Meanwhile, the captain of the local federales (Gino Corrado) has set his best deputy Miguel (Joe Domninguez) to investigate Curly Joe's gang as they are clearly up to mischief, even if the captain doesn't know what it is.

This is one of the Poverty Row Westerns John Wayne made at Lone Star before he got his big break in 1939 with Stagecoach. It's probably set 15-20 years before it was filmed, as the medicine wagon is the only motorized vehicle seen and everyone else sticks to horses. The sets look cheap, and locations are heavily reused. The writing and acting are okay, but nothing to write home about. Doc Carter is at least an amusing character, and the medicine show scene is more like what it would have been like in real life, instead of the slick production seen in more expensive movies.

It's notable, however, for being one of the few films in which John Wayne's character makes a mistake. The Mexican captain offers the help of his troops to capture Curly Joe (once Wyatt shows him the extradition papers) but Wyatt refuses and rushes off to do the job solo. As a result, when Wyatt and Curly Joe get into a fight, the clueless federales arrest Wyatt instead! As a further result, Curly Joe is able to get the drop on Miguel, fortunately being in too much of a hurry to finish the job.

Oh, and about a minute and a half is dedicated to the subplot where John and Linda fall in love because of course they do.

On the decent side, Mexicans are treated okay for a Western film of this vintage.

Content note: Doc Carter abuses alcohol, usually played for laughs. Gun and fisticuff violence, with the former having a surprisingly lack of lethality.

Overall: This isn't a good movie, but it's not particularly bad either. It's short at 53 minutes, so could easily be the lead-in for a double feature with a somewhat better movie, or as something relatively non-objectionable to watch with the kids. There's also a colorized version, but I am given to understand that's not an improvement.

The Searchers (1956) dir. John Ford

Texas, 1868: Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) finally returns to his childhood home, three years after the end of the American Civil War. He evades questions about where he's been, though he was emphatically not in California. Ethan gets reacquainted with his brother Aaron's family: wife Martha, eldest daughter Lucy, near-teen son Ben, and Debbie (Lana Wood), who was born shortly after Ethan left eight years ago. Uncle Ethan takes a shine to Debbie, gifting her a medal. He isn't as pleased by Aaron's adopted son Martin Hawley (Jeffrey Hunter) whose 1/8th Cherokee ancestry is clearly visible, even though he himself had saved the boy from a Comanche attack that orphaned him years ago.

The next morning, a posse led by Texas Ranger (and Reverend) Samuel Johnston Clayton (Ward Bond) arrives at the ranch. It seems that rustlers hit the nearby Jorgensen ranch and they need all the searchers they can get. Also in the party are the eccentric Mose Harper (Hank Worden), aging Lars Jorgensen (John Qualen) and his son Brad (Harry Carey Jr.) who is Lucy's sweetheart. Ethan volunteers himself for Aaron's place, despite some skepticism from Captain Clayton. Martin joins, thinking it a way to prove himself to "Uncle Ethan."

Just as Martin is voicing his suspicions about the rustlers' trail some hours later, the posse comes across cattle killed without their meat being taken. They realize that this was a distraction, the Comanche intend to strike as a war party at one of the unprotected sites. It's too late. By the time they get back, Aaron, Ben and Martha are dead, and Lucy and Debbie have been abducted.

The men set out in search of the warband, and soon enough find what's left of Lucy. Brad soon follows her into the grave.

Although it seems a lost cause to find Debbie before she dies or suffers a worse fate, Ethan vows to keep searching until he finds her, and Martin supports him. It will be years before the pair reach the end of this trail.

This is considered one of the great Western movies. starting with the wonderful scenery of Monument Valley filling in for the flatland of West Texas.

Ethan Edwards is an unusual role for John Wayne. He's a man with a murky past, and an unregenerate Confederate, still wearing pieces of his Johnny Reb uniform three years later. He very much did not surrender his sword, and presumably still fully supports the cause of slavery. Ethan refuses to discuss what he did after the war, but it's implied to be at least shady if not illegal. The medal he gives Debbie is conspicuously neither Union or Confederate. (Out of universe, it's Serbian.) Ethan is openly racist towards people of Native American descent (other people are less open about it.) He has no compunction about ambushing opponents and shooting them in the back, desecrates a corpse out of cussedness, and kills more buffalo than he needs for food just to deny them to the natives.

By the end of the movie, it's clear that Martin is the actual hero, wanting to still rescue Debbie (now played by Natalie Wood) while Ethan thinks it will be more merciful to kill her immediately.

Eventually, the searchers learn that Debbie was last seen with "Chief Scar" (Henry Brandon), a Comanche who constantly keeps on the move with his band and often lies about where he's going next to evade trackers. He has his reasons for hating the white men, and seems to be Ethan's opposite number.

There's a subplot about Martin's sweetheart Laurie Jorgensen (Vera Miles) being courted by the rather crass Charlie McCorry (Ken Curtis) while he's gone. It's understandable that she is tempted, given that Martin writes only one letter in five years, and mentions his short-lived accidental marriage to Comanche maiden Look (Beulah Archuletta) during the course of the missive. The comedy here can be a bit grating.

Speaking of comedy, Look's part in the story is treated as hilarious by everyone who hears about it, since Martin doesn't speak Comanche, Ethan didn't bother warning him about the customs, and she is treated poorly by Martin as a result. And then her part ends tragically.

At least she's played by a Native American, unlike the other major parts which had white actors in tan makeup. And the Comanche extras were played by Navajo making the background chatter hilarious if you understand that language. Hollywood's gotten a little better at appropriate casting over the years. A little better.

The ending is particularly striking. Most of the surviving characters find at least some happiness, but Ethan realizes that he can never truly join them, and the door closes with him still outside.

Content notes: Violence, often ending in death. Several corpses are implied to be particularly gruesome, but we never see them. Death of children, rape is implied. Some rescued white captives are traumatized (or retraumatized by the "rescue") into seeming insanity. Racism. Martin kicks Look when she tries to sleep near him. Animals are killed.

There are parts of this movie that haven't aged well, or are a bit grating, but overall it's one of the greats and well worth watching (especially since the acknowledgement of racism was very rare in Westerns of the time period, especially by protagonists.) Parents of younger viewers may want to screen the movie first to see if their kids are up to it.

Hang 'Em High (1968) dir. Ted Post

Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood) used to be a lawman in Saint Louis, Missouri, but got tired of that job. So in 1889 he moved to the Oklahoma and Indian Territory. He used money he'd saved up to purchase cattle from a Mr. Johansen. Unfortunately, that man was actually a rustler who'd murdered Johansen earlier that day and was more than willing to make a quick buck off a careless stranger. This goes badly for Cooper when an impromptu posse of nine catches up with him, led by "Captain" Wilson (Ed Begley).

They believe Jed to be the killer since he's in possession of the cattle, and decide to become a lynch mob, with only a man named Jenkins (Bob Steele) expressing doubts. Members of the posse take Jed's saddle and wallet as trophies, and they hang him from a nearby tree. Luckily, none of them have ever hanged a man before and they botch the job. Cooper is still alive a few minutes later when U.S. Deputy Marshal Dave Bliss (Ben Johnson) happens by transporting prisoners. He cuts down and revives Jed Cooper and takes him into custody.

After Jed Cooper reaches Fort Grant and spends some time in the prison there, he meets Judge Fenton (Pat Hingle), currently the only federal judge in the territory, and thus the law. As it happens, the real rustler was caught, tried and sentenced to death, and the judge invites Jed to watch the hanging from his office. The rustler managed to spend most of Jed's money before being caught. Judge Fenton makes Cooper an offer. Based on his history, he'd make a good U.S. Deputy Marshal himself. The pay is good, the job is dangerous, and one of his assignments will be to bring in the members of the lynch mob. Alive.

That last bit might be a tall order.

This film was the first made by Clint Eastwood's own production company, Malpaso, and thus the first where Mr. Eastwood had a large say in how the film was made, picking the director and getting script changes to suit him.

Jed Cooper is an interesting contrast to both The Man With No Name, and Dirty Harry Callahan, the other famous roles Eastwood played around this time. Unlike No Name, Marshal Cooper is a person with a past, a present and future goals that aren't just for himself and the immediate moment. He's also introduced with a bit of gentleness, Cooper's first on-screen act being saving a calf from being stuck in a creek. His policing style bears a resemblance to Harry's, but his problem with the system isn't that it's too tilted towards the rights of criminals, but that it's arbitrarily too harsh on people who perhaps could be rehabilitated.

Judge Fenton is a "hanging judge" who feels that he has to mete out harsh justice to control the large territory he's been put in charge of. He has no personal joy in the act of execution, unlike many of the townsfolk of Fort Grant, who treat a mass hanging as a festival event, with singing and cold beer. Fenton is looking forward to the day when Oklahoma becomes a state with a proper legal system that has checks and balances. At the end, he asks Cooper to stay on as a marshal as Jed has worked through his personal vengeance issues and rediscovered his conscience.

The love interest is Mrs. Rachel Warren (Inger Stevens). Two unnamed drifters murdered her husband and raped her, so she takes a good look at the men brought to the Fort Grant prison in hopes that one of them might be caught. The compression of time to fit her subplot in the movie makes it look like she got over her intimacy issues way too fast once she fell in love with Jed.

Dominic Frontiere was hired to compose the music score in a Morricone style. It's not quite as good as the Dollars trilogy music, but still enjoyable.

The personalities of the nine lynchers are varied, as are their reactions to what they've done and its consequences. Reno (Joseph Sirola) is a scumbag, but the rest are more or less decent men who allow their anger and sense of self-righteousness to override their good sense and commit a horrific mistake. Jenkins turns himself in, but others flee the area or double down on killing Cooper. One dies offscreen as Marshal Cooper is forced to deal with a more pressing capture--he doesn't have the luxury of only working one case!

An interesting bit. All the guards at the Fort Grant prison are black men. This is never mentioned in dialogue, I wonder if it's a historically accurate detail from the real-life Fort Smith?

New Mexico stands in for Oklahoma, creating some odd landscape moments.

There's enough moral complexity here to provide good thinking material, without going quite to the cynicism of the Sergio Leone movies.

Content note: Western-style violence, some a bit bloody. Multiple hangings. Extramarital sex. Suicide. Abuse of alcohol (one of the men to be executed blames his killings on this.)

Overall: A very good Western. It's perhaps not one of the greats, but well worth watching.

The Shooting (1966) dir. Monte Hellman

Former bounty hunter turned miner Willett Gashade (Warren Oates) returns to his diggings somewhere in Utah to discover that his partner Leland has been shot dead, his brother Coigne is missing, and the less than bright Coley (Will Hutchins) doesn't understand why this happened or who did what, though Coigne may have killed a little person in town. A mysterious woman (Milly Perkins) comes into the camp and hires Willet to guide her to a distant town. She's clearly lying about some things and hiding others, like her name.

Over the course of their journey, it becomes apparent that they're actually tracking a man riding in roughly the same direction. It's also obvious they are being followed. About halfway through the story, the follower is revealed to be Billy Spear (Jack Nicholson), a gunslinger also hired by the woman for unspoken reasons.

The four continue into the desert as the water runs short and the horses die. But what will they find at the end of the chase?

This movie was made relatively early in Nicholson's career, but after he'd made enough money that he could co-produce (Roger Corman was the executive producer.) It did well on the film festival circuit, but never got a theatrical release, so eventually wound up sold to television.

Good: Mr. Hellman decided to start the movie several pages into the original script, cutting out unnecessary exposition. (Mr. Corman insisted on having just a little exposition put back in so the trippy ending didn't come out of nowhere.) He also went with a minimum of makeup, which gives the actors a more gritty, "natural" look. (According to interviews, Ms. Perkins was not well pleased with some of the less flattering shots.) Both Oates and Nicholson inhabit their roles well. Nice scenery

Less good: This is not a movie for people who like things explained. The woman's name, her actual reason for the chase, anyone's backstory beyond "used to be a bounty hunter"? You'll not be finding any of thaout. Some of the dialogue is kind of off, as though the writer (Carole Eastman) had wanted to write it in poetry.

Content note: Gun violence (bloodless), several horses die.

Overall: This one feels experimental and stripped down. As a result, it's more interesting than good. Those looking for a fun Western should skip this; it's really more for the film festival crowd.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) dir. George Roy Hill

Parts of this story are true. There actually were outlaws named Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) who belonged to the Wild Bunch. They did indeed rob banks and trains. They did indeed move to Bolivia when things got hot for them in the United States, along with Sundance's girlfriend Etta Place (Katherine Ross). And they disappeared from history, likely dying in a shootout with the local military. But this is after all a Hollywood movie, so allowances are made.

The movie starts with a very early movie depiction of the Wild Bunch robbing a train, with the movie proper beginning near the end of the outlaws' American career. The Old West is dying, even in Wyoming. Banks have installed new tougher security systems, people are leaving to enlist in the Spanish-American War, and the town marshal's attempt to recruit a posse to go after Butch and Sundance is interrupted by a bicycle commercial.

Trains are still good pickings, but when the Wild Bunch robs the same company once too often, Mr. E.H. Harriman of the Union Pacific hires a crack team of top lawmen at great expense to hunt Butch and Sundance down. This relentless pursuit, and the failure of an attempt to get a pardon by serving in the war, convince our protagonists that it's time to move to greener pastures.

Despite some initial hiccups (Butch is not nearly as fluent in Spanish as he thought he was), the daring duo do quite well as banditos down south. Until, that is, the law starts closing in again.

There's a lot to like in this movie, starting with the use of sepiatone for various sections, the refusal to translate Spanish so that many in the audience are just as lost as the characters, and the score by Burt Bacharach. (Okay, so maybe I have a grudge against "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" due to its ubiquity on easy listening radio back in the day, but it's a good song, and I like the distant thunder leitmotif for the "superposse.") Butch and Sundance are fun roguish fellows with clever banter, and Newman and Redford do a good job of selling their friendship. Etta Place is also well-written in a way that was rare for female characters in Westerns of the day.

Some of the scenes run over long, and the movie could probably lose about ten minutes and still be just as good. Also, there's the whole romanticizing of hardened criminals thing--Butch and Sundance don't steal from the rich to give to the poor, but from available piles of money to give to themselves, and if Butch winds up being very generous to random folks, that's just his good nature.

Content note: Etta is introduced in a scene that looks non-consensual until it's revealed to be a role-playing game she and Sundance play. Butch frequents prostitutes. There's some fin de sicle-style fanservice. Oh, and a fair amount of people getting shot, especially in the second half. And a smattering of rough language. The movie got an "M" rating back in the day, but would probably be okay for high-schoolers on up.

Overall: This is one of a kind, and most assuredly a classic movie. See it with a friend.

The Over-the-Hill Gang (1969) dir. Jean Yarbrough

Captain Oren Hayes (Pat O'Brien), (very) late of the Texas Rangers, is visiting his daughter Hannah Rose (Kristin Harmon) and son-in-law Jefferson Rose (Ricky Nelson) in Boulder, Nevada. Jeff, a newspaper publisher, is running for mayor on a reform platform. Current mayor Nard Lundy (Edward Andrews) owns not just the town's biggest saloon, but Sheriff Clyde Barnes (Jack Elam) and judge Amos Polk (Andy Devine). It's clear that the town's crooked administration is willing to play dirty to stay in office.

As so often in this sort of story, the townsfolk are either cowed by the sheriff and his armed deputies, or apathetic to the corruption. So Captain Hayes decides to call on his best men from the Rangers days, Nash Crawford (Walter Brennan), Jason Fitch (Edgar Buchanan) and Gentleman George Agnew (Chill Wills). Which is a lovely idea, but there's a bit of a problem. All of them have aged quite badly, and they're no longer the strapping, eagle-eyed, lightning-fast men the Captain remembers. In fact, you could say they're over the hill.

Faced with the reality of their diminished powers, the retired Rangers are initially unable to dislodge the corrupt mayor. With a little encouragement from the other saloon owner in town, Cassie (Gypsy Rose Lee), they realize they'll have to rely on the cunning and trickery they've learned from a lifetime of law enforcement.

This comedic Western was an ABC Movie of the Week, and very well received, getting ABC's top rating for the week, the first time a "made for TV" movie had done so. The cast is loaded with Western movie veterans, which no doubt gave a nostalgic thrill to audiences of the time. (I was a bit too young at the time to grasp who the actors were.)

The cast is having fun, and there are some comedic scenes that are right on target. At 70 minutes once all the commercials were cut out, the movie doesn't overstay its welcome.

On the other hand, the places where commercial breaks would have gone are painfully obvious, and it's clear that most of the money went into the casting rather than the cinematography. Some of the jokes are painful to watch because the script goes for the easiest laugh.

Content note: A couple of bloodless deaths, cheap jokes about poor eyesight. Should be okay for middle-schoolers on up.

Overall: A nice tribute to some fine actors perhaps past their prime. Well worth a view for fans of older Westerns. The final scene is a bit sad as the characters part, knowing that their age means they might never meet again, but they all came back for the sequel!

For a Few Dollars More (1965) dir. Sergio Leone

It is a time when life is cheap, but death can be lucrative, and bounty killers have come to the land. One such killer is referred to as "Monco" (Clint Eastwood) because of his preference for doing things left-handed. Another is Colonel Douglas Mortimer (Lee van Cleef), a former Confederate officer who's fallen on hard times. When notorious bandit El Indio (Gian Maria Volante) is broken out of prison, his bounty is raised to $10,000 dollars, dead or alive. Both hunters are eyeing this prize; can they work together long enough to collect it?

This is the middle part of the Man with No Name trilogy, and another classic spaghetti Western. Hard men do hard things in a harsh land where there are no good choices.

The movie has Sergio Leone sharing the writing credit, showing that he can come up with a good story (with help) even without a Japanese film to borrow from.

Monco (or Manco in the Spanish) remains the sarcastic Man with No Name or clearly identified past, though it would appear the hand that got injured in A Fistful of Dollars is still giving him some trouble. His character remains somewhat static.

Colonel Mortimer, on the other hand, has a very definite past, and hidden depths. He reads the Bible on long trips, has picked up safecracking skills and his bounty hunting has an end goal beyond mere money making. Which isn't to say that he is not a cold-blooded killer and manipulator.

Mortimer has realized that El Indio, being a bit loco, will head for the most impregnable bank in the territory, in El Paso. He's guessed right, as has Monco, but neither of those knows the real reason the bandit has picked that bank. El Indio has learned a secret that makes this bank much easier to rob than anyone might have guessed.

El Indio, despite his bland nickname, is a dangerous man. He pretends to have something of a code of honor, but cheats to make sure he does not actually have to fight on equal terms, and is unnecessarily cruel. He's subject to abrupt mood swings, self-medicates, and has flashbacks involving a musical watch that get more revealing as the movie returns to them. His large gang may be convenient for staging robberies, but not so much for splitting the loot, but El Indio has a plan for that.

Ennio Morricone does the music again, and I think I like it best here in the middle movie where it takes breaks more often and thus has a bit more impact.

Content note: In addition to a lot of gun violence, there's an extended torture scene, partial female nudity, rape and suicide. A minor character has his deformity picked on.

If you're watching the rest of the trilogy, this is also very worth seeing.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) dir. Sergio Leone

Our title characters are introduced in reverse order. The Ugly, Tuco (Eli Wallach), is an outlaw with a price on his head, guilty of a long list of crimes that have more than earned him a hanging. He's a survivor who's always thinking of his own hide and interests. The Bad, Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef), is a hired killer who's discovered a bigger payday than his client had hinted. And the Good, Blondie (Clint Eastwood), is the Man with No Name, whose goodness is shall we say relative?

Tuco and Blondie are running a scam where Blondie turns Tuco in for the bounty money, then saves his partner from the noose at the last moment. Blondie is smart enough to quit while they're ahead, but keeps all the money from their latest sting and strands Tuco in the middle of nowhere. Tuco is understandably enraged and seeks revenge. However, just as he's about to finish Blondie off, they learn clues about the location of the chest of gold Angel Eyes has been searching for. Since they now each need each other to get the big score, they must now cooperate.

However, they soon stumble upon Angel Eyes' trap for the original thief, and the killer learns half the secret. Now a series of side-switches and double-crosses will lead all three men to a final showdown.

Oh, and I should mention that this is all happening in 1862, during the Arizona campaign of the American Civil war, so the Confederate and Union Armies are fighting all around this.

This was the third film Sergio Leone made with Clint Eastwood, and the most epic. The American importers were the ones who decided to market all three films as though Clint's character was not just a very similar type, but actually the same person. In which case, this is a prequel to the other films which take place after the Civil War.

Ennio Morricone wrote the soundtrack music, which is excellent, especially when it switches up to a soft, beautiful piece the Confederate prisoners of war are forced to play to cover up the sounds of Tuco being tortured by Angel Eyes and his goons.

Lots of great visual sequences, long non-speaking scenes and nifty dark humor, particularly from Tuco. Speaking of which, we learn the most about Tuco of the three main characters. We meet his old friends and his estranged brother, and his version of why he became a criminal. Even though he's a bad person, we can sympathize with Tuco a bit, as opposed to the cold Angel Eyes.

In addition to the aforementioned torture, there are a couple of ugly wounds on display, and some male nudity. (There are almost no women in the movie and they're all fully clothed bit parts.)

The restored version runs almost three hours, and is not for the impatient.

One of the great Westerns, worth seeking out if you haven't previously seen it.