Why are 1960s Italian westerns perpetually cool?
Because of violent, sweaty, stylish, clever films like this one. It’s primo movie pulp with a high body count and nonsensical moments that only a real grinch would hold against it.
The plot is classic revenge bullshit. Black-clad, stubble-faced Terence Hill wants to kill off all of the creeps who robbed a gold shipment five years ago, in which they also gunned down his wife and left him for dead. He lays low and gets a job as a hangman. Meanwhile, the robbers continue to pilfer gold and leave behind piles of corpses on the dusty trails. They get away with it by framing various cowpokes and peasant farmers for the crime. When these innocent men go to the gallows, they all meet Terence, who knows the truth. Before the execution, he fits ’em all into a special concealed harness that saves their bacon. They LOOK like they’ve been hanged, their faces covered in a black sack, but they’re really alive, just dangling there by their torsos waiting for Terence to cut ’em down later that day and take them to his hideout.
Terence doesn’t do this because he’s a nice guy (if your name is Django in a spaghetti western, you’re not a nice guy). He does it because he’s recruiting all of these unfortunates into his secret gang. The’re the presumed dead (is there a band called The Presumed Dead? There should be) ready to fuck shit up while the bad guys are still confused as to why a man they saw hang a few days ago is now setting fire to their house.
The big snag in Terence’s plan comes up when not all of his crew, each of whom was drafted against his will, are on the same page as him. That’s when things go haywire and I won’t spoil the twists except to say that the desert vultures have plenty to snack on when this is all over.
You need to check out this one.