John Ireland is a drifter named Jones, who finds a man hanging from a tree as he rides toward the town of Laredo.
He stops to bury the man and help the distraught young woman he finds near the body.
What he doesn’t know is that the man was hanged by the young woman’s brother, at the orders of her father.
The dead man was a gringo who hoped to become a school teacher, a man unworthy of the love of his daughter in the eyes of the most powerful Mexican ranchero for miles around.
Just by burying the man on their land, Jones manages to make enemies of Don Diego and his sadistic son, Chris.
Once a preacher until he turned to violence in a fit of passion, Jones isn’t fond of gunplay.
But he’s more than capable of handling himself if need be.
And he finds an ally in Maggie, owner of the local saloon, who remembers a time when Don Diego wasn’t nearly so hateful.
John Ireland as Jones, a drifter trying to put the violence in his past behind him in Challenge of the McKennas (1970)
Robert Woods as Chris, Don Diego’s son, trying to get even with Jones at the gambling table in Challenge of the McKennas (1970)
Review:
Better than average Spaghetti thanks to a much better script than normal in a modestly budgeted Spaghetti. And thanks to the mess that is the Diego family.
Roberto Camardiel is a controlling father, who manages to turn his lovely daughter Barbara against him. Robert Woods plays the slightly psychotic son Chris, a womanizer with a hair-trigger dark side.
Barbara hates both of them, and will love the next man that comes along, just to escape.
Probably John Ireland’s best Spaghetti. One of Annabella Incontrera’s best roles, even if her attraction to the much older Jones is a bit difficult to understand. And Francesco De Masi contributes a very nice score.
Roberto Camardiel as Don Diego, questioning the likelihood of a woman being loyal in Challenge of the McKennas (1970)
Annabella Incontrera (Pam Stevenson) as Maggie, providing solace to Barbara in Challenge of the McKennas (1970)
Directed by:
Leon Klimovsky
Cast:
John Ireland … Jones
Annabella Incontrera … Maggie
as Pam Stevenson
Roberto Camardiel … Don Diego
Robert Woods … Chris Diego
Daniela Giordano … Barbara
Vidal Molina … Ed Gray
Attilo Dottesio … Bob, Laredo sheriff
Sergio Mendizabal … Doctor
Also with: Jose Antonio Lopez, Ferdinando Poggi, Angelo Dessy, Giovanni Cianfriglia as Ken Wood, Sergio Colasanti, Angelo Botti
aka:
Badlands Drifters
Amen
A Dollar and a Grave
La Sfida dei MacKenna
Un dólar y una tumba
Composer: Francesco De Masi
Runtime: 91 min.
Daniela Giordano as Barbara, facing down a father she despises in Challenge of the McKennas (1970)
Attilio Dottesio as Bob, the Laredo sheriff wondering what he can do about the drifter named Jones in Challenge of the McKennas (1970)
Memorable lines:
Jones: “I buried him.”
Don Diego: “In my country, I will decide who is buried. And this is my country.”
Jones: “All of it?”
Don Diego: “All you can see. The rest, I don’t care about.”
Don Diego: “I expect my men to be completely loyal.”
Jones: “That’s funny.”
Don Diego: “What’s funny?”
Jones: “God expects the same.”
Don Diego: “Well, I was created in his image. No?”
Maggie: “Falling in love is like being hit by a bullet. You don’t know it’s happened until your dead.”
Jones, after Maggie describes the romance between Barbara and her late fiancee: “Love and education? In Laredo? It just had to die.”
Jones: “I’m a human being made in the image of God. I can kill anything. Even love if I have to.”
Maggie: “I’m going to hide you in my room.”
Jones: “That’s pretty good hiding.”
Barbara: “You cheap killer!”
Chris Diego: “Me? You killed him. Anyone who goes with you has to die.”
Barbara: “If I thought that we true, I’d give myself to you.”
Don Diego to Maggie: “There’s one thing that always amazed me about you. You are the madam of a badwy house. Yet you speak like the Mother Superior of a convent. But why not? All your men confess to you.”
Annabella Incontrera (Pam Stevenson) as Maggie, discussing love with Ed Gray (Vidal Molina) in Challenge of the McKennas (1970)
Roberto Camardiel as Don Diego, discussing the past with former lover Maggie (Annabella Incontrera as Pam Stevenson) in Challenge of the McKennas (1970)
Trivia:
* The original Italian title, Un dólar y una tumba, translate to “A Dollar and a Grave” and is much more appropriate to the script. On the Spaghetti Western Database, reviewer Simon Gelton reports that the title was changed after the success of “McKenna’s Gold.” In the English version, however, no one is named McKenna.
* In her autobiography, Daniela Giordano says one of her fondest memories about the making of this movie didn’t really involve the movie at all. Bored by the post-dinner conversation of co-stars, all of whom were at least 10 years older than her 23 years, she excused herself and made her way to the hotel lobby. She would up watching the broadcast of the Apollo moon landing with Giovanni Cianfriglia, a stuntman who had a smaller role in the film.
* Years after his Spaghetti Western days, Ireland was to play the patriarch in “Bonanza: The Next Generation,” but the series wasn’t picked up. Only a pilot was made.
John Ireland as Jones, haunted by the violence in his past in Challenge of the McKennas (1970)
Robert Woods as Chris, Don Diego’s son, wondering the best way to settle the score with Jones in Challenge of the McKennas (1970)
Vidal Molina as Ed Gray with Daniela Giordano as Barbara
John Ireland as Jones and Annabella Incontrera (Pam Stevenson) as Maggie, facing trouble in her saloon in Challenge of the McKennas (1970)
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