Tails You Lose (1969)

Saloon girl Shanda Lee (Spela Rozin) is thrown in jail after Roland Burton, owner of the Platta City bank, is found dead in her bed.

She insists she’s innocent, but the good women of Platta want to string her up. So the sheriff has her smuggled out of town by a pair of deputies.

Days later, William Huston (John Ericson) comes across Shandra Lee, nude in the desert, half covered by a blanket. She’s been savagely attacked, then left for dead. He takes her to his hideout and nurses her back to health.

The next step: To find the men who attacked her. And to find out who really killed Burton so he can clear his new lover’s name.

That will mean a journey to Platta City for the man also known as Black Talisman, a bandit wanted in four states.

But Huston rides off telling Shanda Lee not to worry for his safety; he’s bound to hang, sooner or later.

Review:

John Ericson and Franco Lantieri, who have the male leads here, would not go down in history as the greatest actors to grace the Spaghetti Western screen. In this film, the female characters are far more interesting.

Spela Rozin plays Shanda Lee, the lovely redhead who loses her trust in men after being attacked, but can’t resist Ericson’s character.

Yet more interesting is the role of Daniela Surina as Sybille Burton. She might conspire with the good women of Platta City, but she’s got plenty of secrets, not to mention a fetish, of her own.

In the end, we’re left with one of the more sensual and sexual Spaghetti Westerns, featuring a whipping of a saloon girl that arouses the desires in Sybille, an erotic swim featuring Shanda Lee and William, and a bedroom scene in which Sybille and William confess their love for one another while taking turns handling his pistol.

Directed by:
Piero Pierotti

Cast:
John Ericson … William Huston
Spela Rozin … Shanda Lee
as Sheyla Rosin
Daniela Surina .. Sybille Burton
Franco Lantieri … Sheriff
Pasquale Basile … Buck
Iscorco Ravaioli … Deputy Holt
Franco Daddi …. Red
Loris Gizzi … Rosebud
Maria Teresa Piaggio … Miss Phillips
Ugo Pagliai … Roland Burton
Pinuccio Ardia … Misere
Dada Gallotti … Lily
Edwige Fenech … Manuela

aka
Heads or Tails
Black Talisman
Testa o croce

Score: Carlo Savina
Song: “Arizona is Waiting” by Raoul

Runtime: 99 min.

Memorable lines:

Burton, of his wife: “She’s convinced of our relationship, like most everyone in town is. Because they know money and a beautiful girl are inevitably put together, and share a single bed.”
Shanda Lee: “You’re a filthy brute.”
Burton: “Even the bitterest of words are sweet on your lips.”

Shanda Lee: “You should have left me die.”
William Huston: “Yeah, the coyotes and buzzards thought so, too, but that would have been an ugly end. And you’re much too beautiful.”

Sheriff: “Don’t worry. I’ll hold them off. The whole damn pious pack.”

Trivia:

The film features one of the earliest roles and the only Spaghetti Western for Edwige Fenech, who went on to become a popular actress in European sex comedies and Italian horror films such as “Strip Nude for Your Killer” and “Blade of the Ripper.” Here she plays a saloon girl named Manuela, who would like nothing better than a chance to castrate Deputy Sheriff Holt.

This marked one of only two Spaghetti Western appearances for John Ericson, who starred in a couple of 1950 Westerns (“The Return of Jack Slade,” “Oregon Passage”), but made his living primary with TV roles. According to IMDb, he was the nude centerfold in the January 1974 edition of Playgirl.