Adios Cjamango (1970) - Once Upon a Time in a Western

Carlos Quiney is Allan Jackson (aka Chamango) and Claudia Gravy is his new wife Peggy, but these newlyweds have a problem.

Their ranch is situated on land the railroad wants, but they aren’t inclined to sell.

So in the middle of their wedding celebration, railroad goons set their house ablaze, forcing them to begin a nomadic existence.

The wind up in the middle of a dispute between a banker and a Mexican villager.

They wind up holding the cash after a stage robbery and are nearly hanged.

And, finally, they wind up intangled with a gunrunner who’s managed to anger the Apaches.

At each turn, Allan and Peggy are able to wiggle their way out of trouble, sometimes with the help of a former gunman (Miguel de la Riva as Rudy) they’ve met along the way.

But will they eventually run into a situation they can’t escape? Especially once they no longer have Rudy’s help?

Carlos Quiney (Montgomery Hood) as Allan Jackson (Cjamango) tries to explain the loot he’s been found with in Adios Cjamango (1970)

Claudia Gravy as Peggy, Cjamango’s gunslinging wife in Adios Cjamango (1970)

Review:

An odd Spaghetti entry in which our heroes bounce from one adventure to another, managing to grab a bundle of money from time to time, but never holding onto it for long.

As Peggy, Claudi Gravy proves herself one of the feistiest wives a man has ever had. Here’s a woman who doesn’t need a protector; she’s quite comfortable standing side to side with her handsome husband, guns blazing.

But the Rudy character is a mystery. A one-time foe, he’s determined to tag along with the newlyweds because he thinks they’ll bring him luck, though they’ve had just as much bad luck as good of their own.

Then there are some flat-out strange scenes. An Indian village with one teepee can be chalked up to a limited budget. But a wedding dance in which the guests return to dancing while the newlyweds’ home burns down?

Or newlyweds on the run from the law fretting over where they’re going to find horses when there are two attached to the cart in which they’re riding?

Bottom line: An erratic film featuring an attractive couple and partly salvaged by a nice twist at the end.

Miguel de la Riva (Michael Rivers) as Rudy, the tag-along gunman in Adios Cjamango (1970)

Dyanik Zurakowska as Helen, worried about her father’s safety in Adios Cjamango (1970)

Directed by:
Jose Maria Zabalza
as Harry Freeman

Cast:
Carlos Quiney … Allan Jackson (Cjamango)
as Montgomery Hood
Claudia Gravy … Peggy Morgan
as Julie Newman
Miguel de la Riva … Rudy
as Michael Rivers
Dyanik Zurakowska … Helen
Luis Induni … Ralston, the banker
Jose Truchado … Mack. the gunrunner
as Frank Nicholson
Enrique Navarro … Juan
Guillermo Mendez … Sheriff

Also with: Manuel Rojas, Cesar Garcia, Javier de Rivera, Juan Cortes, Pilar Vela, Ricardo Costa, Antonio Orengo, Fernando Sanchez Polack, Jose Marco, Ramon Lillo

Runtime 87 min.

aka:
Rebels of Arizona
The Rebels of Arizona

Music: Gianni Marchetti

Guillermo Mendez as the sheriff and Luis Induni as banker Ralston in Adios Cjamango (1970)

Enrique Navarro as Juan, the Mexican landowner in need of help in Adios Cjamango (1970)

Trivia:

Pretty Dyanik Zurakowska doesn’t show up until the film’s final “adventure.” She the lonely and naive daughter of Mack, a man running guns to the Apaches. And she knows nothing about her papa’s gun-running ways.

For some reasons, William Berger’s name appears on posters for the film. Unless his scenes were cut in the prints now available, he is not in the film, and certainly not in a key part.

Jose Maria Zabalza also released “Bullets Over Dallas” in 1970, with basically the same cast. An entry on the Westerns All’Italiana blog suggests the films were made simultaneously and perhaps with a third film, “Twenty Thousand Dollars for a Corpse,” which was released in 1971.