Cormack of the Mounties (1975)

Fabio Testi is Corporal Bill Cormack of the Mounties, who returns from a successful mission to disturbing news.

An outlaw named Caribou (Guido Mannari) — a man he put away for life — has escaped prison and vowed to kill him.

Once, he and Caribou were close. Then Caribou got involved with a pretty young singer named Elizabeth (Lynne Frederick), vowing to quit gambling and support her through honest means.

But the gambling continued. The debts piled up. And Caribou eventually turned to cheating, leading to the night he gunned down two men who caught him in the act.

That put Caribou on the outlaw trail. And Cormack on his trail.

The relationship between the men soured because of Elizabeth as well. The more Caribou mistreated her, the closer she got to Cormack.

They eventually married and had a son.

Flash forward to the present and Elizabeth has died.

But Caribou knows the best way to get to Cormack is through his son, so he kidnaps the young boy and takes him off into the snowy wilderness.

Cormack pursues with a small squad of Mounties. But his job will be complicated by another piece of Caribou’s past.

He once cheated his fellow outlaws out of the loot from a holdup. Those outlaws — led by Wolf Seattle — want Caribou too.

Review:

A fairly well done north-of-the-border Western that would seem more unique if it didn’t so closely resemble the White Fang films of the same period.

Caribou winds up being something of a sympathetic bad man. Once he’s kidnapped Jimmy, Caribou founds himself caring about what happens to the boy, largely because he resembles the woman Caribou once loved so much.

There’s a twist at the end that seems totally unnecessarily. Ditto for the reappearance of Jimmy’s fearless dog King, who joins in on the film’s climax.

Lars Bloch plays Cormack’s Mountie sidekick Andy O’Brien. Lionel Stander shows up as the doctor who loves his booze, shoots thieves in the bottom with his shotgun and nurses Jimmy when he comes down with diphtheria.

Directed by:
Aristide Massaccesi
as Joe D’Amato

Cast:
Fabio Testi … Corporal Bill Cormack
Guido Mannari … Caribou
Lynne Frederick … Elizabeth
Lionel Stander … Doctor Higgins
Claudio Undari … Wolf Seattle
as Robert Hundar
Lars Bloch … Andy O’Brien
Renato Cestie … Jimmy
Daniele Dublino … Lieutenant
Wendy Deborah D’Olive … Shee-Noa
Geoffrey Copleston … Royal Mounted Police commander
Bruno Corazzari … Logan

Runtime: 98 min.

Also with: Aldo Cecconi, Elio Angelucci, Luigi Antonio Guerra, Paolo Magalotti, Renzo Pevarello, Emilio Messina

aka:
Giubbe rosse
Red Coat
Killers of the Savage North

Music: Carlo Rustichelli
Song: “Day After Day” by Lynne Frederick

Memorable lines:

Logan to Cormack: “You and me will be seeing each other in the bottom of hell.”

Caribou: “Elizabeth, I’m certain you want to sing.”
Elizabeth: “No. Please, darling. No.”
Caribou: “I said sing. Don’t be stupid.”

Caribou to Cormack: “Mind your own business. I don’t need any of your sermons, either. Think you can walk around and play God because you’re dressed like a clown.”

Shee-Noa, describing Caribou: “He was like the devil escaped from hell.”

Cormack to a man following he and the Red Coats: “I might not kill you if you talk, but don’t make me mad.”

Trivia:

Nicknamed “The Evil Ed Wood,” Joe D’Amato started his directorial career with the horrendous “Trinity in El Dorado” (1972), which he co-directed. He eventually graduated from Spaghetti Westerns to soft-core Emmanuel films and, eventually, to hardcore pornography. At least three of those, according to IMDb, are set in the Wild West — “Outlaws,” “Calamity Jane” and Calamity Jane 2,” all released in 1998.

Known as The English Rose, Lynne Frederick had also starred alongside Fabio Testi in “Four of the Apocalypse” (1975). In 1977, she married actor Peter Sellers, who was twice her age, and they remained married until his death in 1980. Frederick died at age 40, reportedly from the effects of alcoholism.