Ultra-cautious storekeeper Cameron Mitchell uses his reputation as an unarmed near-pacifist to cover up his activities as an infamous, leather-clad, masked gunman, taking on a nasty bunch of outlaws who've taken over the local saloon and targeted the family of his favorite girl.This earlier-than-most spaghetti western is fairly colorful (both figuratively and literally), with some interesting villains. Carl Möhner is a standout as the gang's morally ambiguous, guitar-strumming newest member. A few more familiar European faces and the perverse (for 1964), sexually threatening atmosphere also help keep things mildly interesting.Though nowhere near the bottom of the barrel, a few complaints are that the masked superhero aspect of the film is woefully underused and that his identity is as plain as the nose on your face. Mitchell fared much better the following year in Sergio Corbucci's Minnesota Clay.Still, it's pleasant enough viewing for hardcore spaghetti fans.

I've seen a lot of westerns, but I've seen few like this one. At first I thought it was a comedy or a parody. It starts off with what has to be the most mind-numbingly awful "theme" song in motion picture history by an off-key singer who stumbles over his words, actually loses his place once--why they didn't just re-record it is beyond me--and not a single line of this opus rhymes. Then a short, chubby, beer-bellied "gunslinger" standing on top of a large boulder calls out some guy walking his horse (!), gets shot for his trouble, slides down the boulder, and in the next shot his body is lying at least 25 feet from it--and it's on flat land! Then, although I didn't think it was possible, the film goes downhill from there. Everybody laughs hysterically all through the movie: the bad guys, the saloon girls, and especially the leader of the bad guys, who has apparently ingested a year's supply of laughing gas because he can't stop roaring with laughter, even as he's shooting everybody within eyesight--civilians, cowboys he meets on the trail, women he's just raped, his own men . . . you name 'em, this guy shoots 'em. And, of course, he does so without reloading his pistol; at one point he fires at least 12 rounds in a row from a six-shot revolver. What's even more hysterical is that he's wearing a hat that is at least two sizes too small for him. It was only after about 15 minutes of watching this atrocity that it finally sunk in that this was NOT a parody or a comedy. The people who made this stinkeroo actually thought they were making a "serious" western. Amazing.Another curious thing about this movie is the dubbing. We all know that the English dubbing of Italian movies of the time, whether westerns or Hercules-type epics, was atrocious beyond belief, and this one carries on that noble tradition. But even star Cameron Mitchell's voice is dubbed, and not by Mitchell, which is very odd. What's even odder is that Mitchell is obviously speaking English but the English lines the dubber speaks don't match Mitchell's lip movements, which makes no sense at all. But neither does anything else in this relentlessly stupid, senseless idiocy (wait until you get a load of the "masked avenger" who shows up about a quarter of the way through this thing). The "action" scenes are laughable, the cinematography is terrible--it looks like it was shot on an 8mm home movie camera--the "script" is something even Ed Wood would have been too embarrassed to put his name on, the "acting" wouldn't pass muster in a one-day-wonder porn flick. In other words, this movie is not only worthless, it's BEYOND worthless. Shoving your head into a drill press wouldn't be as painful as having to sit through this thing. Don't waste your time.

This is a fairly decent example of one of the early Italian westerns. It was made before the Leone influence began to dominate, but it still has an unmistakably Euro-western feel to it.The music score is actually pretty good. It has enough cool sounding guitar and organ notes to set it apart from the boring music found in most American westerns. The cheesy dubbing is also here in full force. The movie made me chuckle a few times, which is always a plus, whether the humor is intentional or not.This is a standard good guys vs. bad guys story with a lone ranger-like lead character named Jim Hart, played adequately by Cameron Mitchell. Hart's friend, the man called Guitar, is actually more like the typical spaghetti western protagonist. Neither good nor bad, Guitar is simply out for his own good time. Kitty Carver is stunning as Dolores, the feisty barmaid who becomes Guitar's girlfriend. She has that incredible exotic beauty that so many female spaghetti western characters possess. Livio Lorenzon is entertaining as Jess, the cheesy, over the top villain who keeps laughing through the whole movie, even while he is dying in the finale! It is possible that this film may have been trying to be an American western, but, thankfully, it did not succeed. It's much more entertaining just the way it is. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but if you're a die-hard spaghetti western fan who doesn't take things too seriously, this one's worth a watch.

It's the old story of a gunfighter who wants to retire from eternal killing but fortune won't let him to do so. He lives in a small western town which is threatened by an invading gang of bandits. Lead villain Jeff is characterized by his omnipresent maniac laughter which is a bit molesting after a while. Another thing noticeable are the many scenes where women get molested by the bandits. Good luck that the mysterious Jim is always in place. We know who he is but all characters in the film don't - with the exception of the guitar playing "Guitar". There is some tension and some action but not very much for an Italian western. All characters are either good or bad. Score and cinematography are mediocre at best.4 /10