A Few Bullets More (1967)

Peter Lee Lawrence is Billy the Kid, a youngster who kills a man with a knife — not a gun — in defense of his mother, then flees Silver City because the man was a member of a powerful family that rules the town.

Despite friend Pat Garrett’s (Fausto Tozzi) efforts to steer Billy off the path of destruction, the killings start to pile up.

And they escalate after a pretty girl named Helen Tunstill (Dyanik Kurakowska) convinces her pacifist father to take Billy on as a ranch hand.

His gun might help save her father, she reckons. Especially since her dad refuses to wear one and a gang led by a land grabber named Murphy is after her father’s ranch.

It doesn’t , of course, and their future rests in Billy’s hands.

Will he ever be able to put away his guns for good?

Or will news of his mother’s death spark another round of killings?

Review:

Considering the oft-told tale didn’t exactly scream for another telling, especially Spaghetti style, this comes off surprisingly well.

Director Julio Buches keeps the action coming, but mixes in enough character development to get viewers invested in their fates.

And Peter Lee Lawrence just might turn in his best Spaghetti performance as a young man inclined to settle any dispute with a gun, then insist he never killed a person without a reason.

Oh, and then there’s Dyanik Zurakowska as Tunstill’s lovely daughter Helen. She doesn’t show up until well into the film, but sure lights up the screen whenever she appears.

Directed by:
Julio Buchs

Cast:
Peter Lee Lawrence … Billy the Kid
Fausto Tozzi … Pat Garrett
Dyanik Zurakowska … Helen Tunstill
Gloria Milland … Billy’s Mother
Carlos Casaravilla … Jackson Murphy
Antonio Pica … Mark Travis
Luis Prendes .. John Tunstill
Enrique Avila .. Hank
Francisco Sanz … Peddler
Luis Rivera … Mark Liston
Orlando Baralla … Gov. of New Mexico
Tomas Blanco … Peter, Helen’s uncle
Luis Induni … Maurice

Also with: Barta Barry, Alfonso Rojas, Milo Quesada, Miguel Palenzuela, Antonio Molino Rojo, Manuel Alexandre, Miguel de la Riva, Margot Cottens, Carmen Porcel, Alfredo Santacruz, Gonzalo Esquiroz, Jose Canalejas, Alfonso de la Vega, Santiago Rivero, Adriano Dominguez, Erasmo Pascual, María Isbert

Runtime: 87 min.

aka
I’ll Kill Him and Return Alone
The Man Who Killed Billy the Kid
El hombre que mato a Billy el Nino

Score:
Gianni Ferrio

Memorable lines:

Townsman, as Pat Garrett rides into Fort Summer: “He’s a man who stinks like a corpse.”

Billy to Garrett: “I decided not to trust the Lord, just the law of my guns. They don’t fail.”
Garrett: “Oh, Billy, you’ll have a bad ending like that. There’s not much else I can say.”

Garrett to Billy, after he’s learned of his mother’s death: “Deep inside, you’re a coward Billy. If you had had the courage to put aside your guns, your ma would be alive today. But you shot anybody who seemed to get in your way. Each time that somebody came telling her about another man you killed, it would make her die a little further. Til the stories became too much for her.”

Billy: “I didn’t want to kill anybody, Helen. I just fired at something that hurt me like a branding iron.”

Trivia:

Initially titled “The Man Who Killed Billy the Kid,” Anglo distributors tried to spark more interest with a title reminiscent of the early Clint Eastwood Spaghettis. Coincidentally, Lawrence’s first Western was a small role in “For a Few Dollars More.”

Lawrence died at age 30 of a brain tumor. Rumors that he committed suicide were incorrect, wife Cristina Galbo wrote on the Westerns All’Italiana blog in Sept. 2012, explaining that he died in a clinic in Rome with his family at his side after being admitted for severe stomach pains.

Galbo was just 17 when she and Lawrence starred in “Ride for a Massacre” (1967), his first starring role. Their roles are essentially Romeo and Juliet gone Spaghetti. They married in 1969.