Bullets and the Flesh (1964)

Nathaniel Masters (Rod Cameron) is one of the most powerful men in Blackstone, but he has a problem.

He’s accepted money from the railroad for timber, but the timber on his own land is of poor quality and he’s struggling to fulfill his end of the bargain

So he and his sons Sam and Nelson hatch a plan to take over Indian Woods, a sacred area for the Cherokee tribe.

The plan goes like this: The Masters will set their own timberland ablaze and blame the Indians. After all, Chata (Bruno Piergentill), the son of an Indian chief, has already threatened to get even with Nathaniel for killing his dog.

Once the Indians are found guilty of arson, the Masters will demand Indian Woods as reparation for the land they’ve lost.

What Masters doesn’t know is that his lovely daughter Mabel (Patricia Viterbo) has fallen in love with Chata and that they’ve been secretly meeting behind his back.

That’s unwelcome news for a number of reasons. Among them, Masters was hoping to marry off Mabel to wealthy businessman Mortimer Lasky.

And Nathaniel’s own wife cheated on him with an Indian while he was off fighting the Civil War. Their relationship never recovered and she wound up committing suicide by drowning.

Review:

Rob Cameron plays the bigoted villain of the piece, quite a change of pace from the roles he typically played in Hollywood Westerns.

Another plus is the presence of Patricia Viterbo, who makes for a fetching female lead and finds her allegiance torn between her family and her lover, especially once he’s put on trial for arson.

She wants to testify in his defense. She was with him when the fire started and knows he wasn’t responsible. But Lasky threatens to bankrupt her family if she tells what she knows.

Unfortunately, the romantic scenes between our young lovers also come across as pretty juvenile. And a couple of the plot twists will leave you shaking your head.

Chata, for instance, has just led a Cherokee raid on Masters’ timber crew, killing several of its members. But he’s on trial for arson? Not murder?

The film also features an early Western role for Piero Lulli as a preacher sympathetic to the plight of the Cherokee.

Directed by:
Marino Girolami

Cast:
Rod Cameron … Nathaniel Masters
Patricia Viterbo … Mabel Masters
Ennio Girolami … Sam Masters
as Thomas Moore
Bruno Piergentill … Chata
as Dan Harrison
Manuel Zarzo … Nelson Masters
Carla Calo … Aunt Peggy
as Carrol Brown
Alfredo Mayo … Mortimer Lasky
Julio Pena … Sheriff Burkam
Piero Lulli … Jonathan
Tota Alba … Minnea
Edi Biagetti … Chief Old Buffalo
George Lycan … Sheriff Pat Keler

Runtime: 91 min.

aka:
Il piombo e la carne
Bullet in the Flesh

Music: Carlo Savina

Song: “A Western Man”
by Peter Tevis

Memorable lines:

Sam Masters to Chata: “Now you know better than to stick that filthy mouth of yours in this nice clean water. You tryin’ to poison the horses, Indian?”

Nat Masters to his son, Sam: “You want to go and shoot somebody; you open your eyes and make sure there are no witnesses.”

Sheriff Keler to Chata: “Better learn to jump when a white man speaks, Indian. And you’d better learn it quick.”

Trivia:

This marked the only Western for French-born Patricia Viterbo, who appeared in about a dozen films before dying on the set of the spy film “Judoka, Secret Agent” at age 24 in November 1966. She was driving a car near the Eiffel Tower when she accidentally backed into the Seine River while filming a scene. Her co-star, 38-year-old Henri Garcin, was rescued.

This was one of two European Westerns starring Rod Cameron, along with “Bullets Don’t Argue,” released the same year. He made his final Western appearance in the 1970s sexploitation Western “Jessi’s Girls,” as the old-timer who teaches a rape victim how to handle a six-shooter.

As Dan Harrison, hunky Bruno Piergentili also appeared in “The Belle Starr Story,” “Gun Shy Piluk,” “The Cold Killer” and “Seven Pistols for a Gringo” between 1966 and 1968. One of his final film roles was in the 1975 comedy, “The Erotic Adventures of Robinson Carusoe.”