The Django Story (1971)

Using his cane, an aging Django (Hunt Powers) hobbles into a bar one day and orders a drink.

A stranger offers to pay, then offers to buy Django a meal if he’ll share some stories from his past.

Turns out that stranger is none other than a young Wild Bill Hickok (Gerardo Rossi), who’s grown up admiring the famous bounty killer.

So between sips of booze and bites of food, Django tells how he brought down the thieving twin brothers Paco and Manuel Sanchez and a crazed killer named Dean O’Neil, who was prone to fits of laughter as he watched men die.

Then, stories and meals finished, Django sets out to collect his final bounty on a man named Buck Bradley (Gordon Mitchell).

Review:

The cheapest Spaghetti ever made? Perhaps.

There’s certainly no reason to watch this “film” because there’s no real plot.

Instead, director Demofilo Fidani has filmed an opening and an ending, then sliced, diced and rearranged footage from his other films for a new creation.

The result: We get a movie in which some scenes don’t look right back to back.
Others make no sense. Like a scene in which Django is talking to a pretty blonde. She’s warning him of danger, with a pleasant smile.

There is a phenomenally high body count. And you can’t help but admire the contortions the extras go through as they die at Django’s hands for Demofilo’s camera.

Directed by:
Demofilo Fidani
as Lucky Dickinson

Cast:
Jack Betts … Django
as Hunt Powers
Gordon Mitchell … Buck Bradley
Dino Strano … Dean O’Neil
Gerardo Rossi … Bill Hickok
as Jerry Ross
Benito Pacifico … Paco & Manuel Sanchez
Enzo Pulcrano … Saloon customer
as Paul Crane
Luciano Conti … Sanchez henchman
as Lucky Mac Murray

Runtime: 81 min.

aka
Giù le mani… Carogna
Down with Your Hands … You Scum
Reach You Bastard
Western Story

Music: Lallo Gori
Song: “I Know My Love” sung by Mark Wolf

Memorable lines:

Wild Bill: “You must have had some great gun battles. But there’s one thing you ain’t told me. Whatever made you decide you wanted to become a bounty killer anyway?”
Django: “It’s a long story. This grub’s good. Sure you want to hear it? It was a question of honor. And revenge?”

Dean O’Neil’s dying words: “Damn you, Django!”

Trivia:

* Fidani released three more Westerns after this one — “His Name Was Pot … but They Called Him Allegria” (1971), “Adios Companeros” (1971) and “His Name Was Sam Walbash, But They Call Him Amen” (1971), all later the same year.

* Fidani’s daughter Simonetta Vitelli, who starred in many of his films as Simone Blondell, can be seen in a small scene, getting slapped at a dinner table when Dean O’Neil’s men barge in. The host of the dinner party: Fidani himself.

* In spite of all the stock footage used here, Hunt Powers (Jack Betts) played Django in only one previous Fidani film — “One Damned Day at Dawn … Django Meets Sartana!” (1970).

* In a Wild East Productions interview, Powers remembers Fidani as “a fabulous, fabulous man, a giant man” and said working with him was a “wonderful experience.” He also recalls him as a huge fan of John Wayne and the John Ford Westerns.

* Powers said he didn’t learn until years later that Fidani has taken scenes shot for other films to create additional movies starring him, like this one. “God rest his soul,” he says, laughing it off.