I Do Not Forgive … I Kill! (1968)

James Philbrook is Don Ramon, a wealthy rancher welcoming the return of his now-grown son Stuart (Simón Andreu).

Years earlier, at much expense, he’d sent Stuart off to be educated as a physician.

One of the principle reasons: Stuart resented his father’s young new wife Fedra (Norma Bengell), who moved into their home shortly after his own mother died.

Now grown, Stuart no longer has feelings of ill will toward Fedra. And she certainly has none toward him, welcoming the strapping young man into her home.

They grow closer on a trip to town during which they stop halfway there to take a swim to cool off.

They grow closer yet after Stuart is beaten up by four Mexican-hating bullies in town and Fedra helps nurse him back to health.

Ignorant of the growing fondness between his young wife and his step-son, Don Ramon is more focused on stopping rustlers, keeping his workers in line because he discovers at least one of them is involved and settling the score with the four men who beat his son.

Review:

The film is perhaps better known as Fedra West. And the plot, partly based on the Greek myth Phaedra, is a refreshing change from the standard Spaghetti revenge yarn.

Norma Bengell plays a woman who married an older man she didn’t love to escape the poverty of life as a peasant. Experiencing love for the first time, she becomes obsessed with Stuart.

Stuart tries not to betray his father, but eventually succumbs to temptation when the couple take refuge from a storm in a cave. It’s a strangely-filmed scene, featuring fire, flashes of lightning and closeups of ancient carvings on the cave walls.

Stuart’s also at odds with his father’s tyrannical ways. Don Ramon has three of the bullies who beat up his son dragged back to the ranch and tied up. Then he summons his son from bed and hands him a six-gun, so he can settle his own score. His son’s reaction: Set them free.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to judge the film because the available English print runs about 79 minutes and the original runtime was 90 minutes, meaning 13 percent of the movie is missing. It’s painfully obvious to any viewer that entire scenes have been cut.

For those wondering, when the film was released, Andreu was 27, Bengell was 33 and Philbrook, never a particularly charismatic presence in his Westerns, was 43.

Directed by:
Joaquin Luis Romero Marchent

Cast:
Norma Bengell … Fedra / Wanda
Simon Andreu … Stuart
James Philbrook … Don Ramon
Emilio G. Caba … Jose
Maria Silva … Isabelle Alvarez
as Mary Silva
Alfonso Rojas … Jullio Alvarez
Luis Induni … Fedra’s brother
Maria Clementina Cumani … Maria
as Maria C. Cumani
Joaquin Solis … Don Ramon henchman
Antonio Padilla … Don Ramon henchman

Also with: Ralph Fernandez, Alvaro de Luna, Alfonso de la Vega, Angel Ortiz, Javier Maiza, Alicia Altabella, Rafale Vaquero, Carlos Romero Marchent

Runtime: 90 min.

Music: Piero Piccioni

aka:
Fedra West
lo non perdono … uccido
Pheadra West
Wanda West

Memorable lines:

Don Ramon, gifting his son a horse: “If you live in Mexico, you should know horses.”
Stuart, referring to his time away at school: “Were you afraid I’d become a gringo?”
Don Ramon: “Yes.”
Stuart: “Only my name is gringo. And I never really understood why you gave me that name.”

Don Ramon, explaining his brusqueness with the hired help: “When you have power, it’s hard to have friends. You see, son, in life, you either issue orders or you obey them.”

Stuart, questioning his father’s thirst for violence: “You spent a lot of money turning me into a civilized man. Don’t make me forget what I learned.”

Fedra, explaining her background to Stuart: “My father used to say a girl like me could only wind up in hell. As if this were not already hell. I wanted to live. I wanted to have everything that other women had. That’s why I married your father. For no other reason. Just to live a little more comfortably.”

Fedra to Stuart, when Don Ramon sets out after three men: “He can talk care of it all alone. Killing is more a part of his world than it is yours.”

Fedra: “I get the feeling the last few days you want to get rid of me. You’d better not try.”
Stuart: “I don’t like people to threaten me.”

Don Ramon to his son: “I don’t want to listen to the lies you tell me. They’re a lot of stinking words. I’m about to roast you in hell.”

Trivia:

Looking far less freshly scrubbed, Simón Andreu appeared in two other Spaghetti Westerns in supporting roles — “Bad Man’s River” (1971) and “Those Dirty Dogs” (1973). He was still active as an actor in the 2020s.

Western fans are more likely to remember Brazilian-born Norma Bengell from her other Spaghetti, “The Hellbenders” (1967), directed by Sergio Corbucci. In that film, she’s a saloon girl recruited to pretend to be a Civl War widow for a Southern family trying to smuggle gold through Union lines by hiding it in a coffin supposedly occupied by a Confederate officer. Bengell died in 2013 at age 78.

In his pre-Spaghetti days, Philbrook had roles in three short-lived TV series — “The Islanders” on ABC and “The Investigators” and the “New Loretta Young Show” on CBS. In the latter, he played star Loretta Young’s love interest. He appeared in two U.S.-made Western films and five Spaghettis, beginning with “Finger on the Trigger” (1965) and ending with “If You Shoot … You Live!” (1975). The latter has a plot quite similar to this film.