Truly Dreadful Film

Good concept, poorly executed.

Absolutely Brilliant!

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

"Quintana: Dead or Alive" writer & director Vincenzo Musolino's Spaghetti western "May God Forgive You . . ., I Won't" epitomizes the blood vengeance that the swift-shooting protagonist extracts from the gang of cold-blooded killers that massacred his defenseless family at the McDonald Ranch while he was away in town on an errand. George Ardisson is sufficiently rugged in both appearance and reputation as Cjamango (in the character's second film), and nothing thwarts this flinty hero in his quest for revenge. Before he learns about the massacre of his family, Cjamango goes to the devilish dastard who held the mortgage on the McDonald spread, Stuart (Luigi Pavese of "For A Few Dollars Less"), and paid the villainous jackal off. This doesn't prevent Stuart from hiring the Smart brothers and his gun-toting army to finish off Cjmango. Although Cjmango is invincible, he finds himself more often than not an underdog who must submit to an obstacle course of pain and suffering when he confronts the elder Smart, Dick Smart (Anthony Ghidra of "Hole in the Forehead") and his trigger-happy bunch of six-gun toting sadists. Our hero shows the murderers a black & white photograph of his family before he executes them. The first gunfight occurs in a saloon during a poker game. The second takes place in a private residence where our hero doesn't even give the villain a chance to defend himself and ultimately murders him. The third shootout transpires in another saloon with gunslinger Jack Smart (Peter Martell of "Long Days of Hate") wiping out three gunmen who challenge him. Not long afterward, Cjamango comes calling and blasts Jack off his feet. Musolino stages the gunfight with Jack standing at the top of a staircase and Cjamango below him on floor level. Naturally, genre stalwart Pancho Sanchez provides comic relief as Garcia Ramirez 'Barrica.' Basically, he claims the bodies of the dead men that Cjamango kills and turns them in for the reward money on their heads. Predictably, Cjamango undergoes torture at the hands of the elder Stuart. At one point, Stuart's henchmen gang up on our hero, repeatedly punch him out, and then force him to walk with ropes bound to each wrist. He escapes from his captors but putting his bound hands into a fire to burn his restraints away. Eventually, our hero escapes, and he finds himself a weapon to even up the odds against the Smart gunmen: a multi-barreled Gatling Gun.As my synopsis indicates, "May God Forgive You . . ., I Won't" boasts all the key ingredients of a typical Italian western: revenge, a high body count, a blonde tough guy hero who is beaten and tortured by dastardly unrepentant villains, and a Gatling gun. Photographed in splendid widescreen by "Vengeance Is My Forgiveness" lenser Mario Mancini, this entertaining horse opera horse opera benefits not only from the strikingly cenic but austere Spanish terrain, but also Giovanni Fratalocchi's colorful art direction and Giovanni Fratalocchi's atmospheric set decoration. Mancini creates some interesting visuals with his use of Dutch-tilt angles, especially during the second attack on the McDonald ranch. Composer Felice Di Stefano's orchestral soundtrack is good, but sometimes—particularly during the first duel—what we hear are clips from John Barry's music from the James Bond thriller "Thunderball." Mancini's harsh lighting accentuates his flavorful oater. Clocking in at 86 minutes, Musolino stages several brisk and bloody shootouts that should please Spaghetti western plans.

It becomes pretty clear a few times in this spaghetti western that it was trying to ape the original "Django" movie, not just for the fact the hero in this movie has a name similar to "Django". That didn't concern me that much, especially since for the most part the movie seems to be trying to do its own thing. The movie does have some interest here and there - a good musical score, a story that goes in a few unexpected areas, and a decent action climax. But the movie has some significant problems. One of the main problems is that the motivations of some key characters remains vague or simply not explained at all. Another problem is that the movie unfolds at a somewhat slower pace than you usually get for a revenge western. Fans of spaghetti westerns will probably get enough enjoyment out of it, though it isn't one that should be actively sought out.

Old MacDonald had a farm... and a son called Cjamango (Django in some dubbed versions). When MacDonald is killed, Cjamango (George Ardisson) hunts down the murderers in a typical revenge story. Jack Smart (Peter Martell) drinks too much, doesn't live up to his name and is killed quickly. His older brother Dick (Anthony Ghidra) gets a lot of men together now and chases Cjamango. Barrica (Pedro Sanchez) knows that there is a price on the heads of most pursuers, so in exchange for the bounty money, he helps Cjamango. After the courteous exchange of various brutalities between Cjamango and the smarter Smart brother, Cjamango remembers a friend of his father owns a machine gun from the civil war. Guess what? The first 30 minutes are not very encouraging to watch the rest, especially since the camera work is a bit static, but as soon as Cjamango meets the main villains, the action becomes a bit more lively (or rather, deadly), and in the end you get a typical, violent genre movie, not more than average but not less either. Some locations are familiar from "For A Few Dollars More", by the way.