Dead Men Don’t Make Shadows (1970)

Jack Betts is a notorious bounty hunter named Lazar. Equipped with a pistol that will accommodate an extra long barrel for long-range work, he specializes in bringing them in dead. A bullet in the forehead, and he’s got another bounty.

Franco Borelli is Blonde, a fast gun in his own right who follows Lazar from town to town, trailing him by the wanted posters that have been torn down because Lazar caught up with the outlaws.

The journey eventually takes them to a border settlement run by Barrett and his henchmen, commanded by the whip-wielding Medina.

Barrett and Medina decide which of the Mexican peasants get to work in Barrett’s mine from day to day, essentially deciding which families starve and which don’t, though a pretty fortune teller named Maya (Simonetta Vitelli) will occasionally intervene on a family’s behalf.

Turns out Barrett is really a former outlaw named Billy Ring, and there’s a $15,000 reward on his head. Barrett offers Lazar $30,000 to forget that bounty and ride off. Lazar demands $50,000 instead, and Barrett decides the price is too steep.

But if the bounty on Billy Ring’s head brought Lazar to this town, why is the Blonde trailing along behind him? And who is the old man hiding in a desolate make-shift home, prodding Lazar to finally prove his innocence.

Review:

It’s a Demoilo Fidani Western, so you start watching with low expectations. They certainly aren’t boosted by a snails-pace opening that basically has Lazar collect a couple of bounties and Blonde ride his horse past signposts for the first several minutes of the film.

But it gets better, with a couple of plot twists that eventually convince you the 97 minutes wasn’t a total waste. Just don’t think too much, because this is a script that can’t stand a lot of scrutiny, especially anything that happens in the last 10 minutes or so.

Gordon Mitchell is listed as a guest star in the opening credits, and his guest appearance is very brief, though we do get a closeup of that ugly mug. As for Simonetta Vitelli (Simone Blondell) … what big blue eyes she has. Who knows why Fidandi decided to smudge that pretty face with so much dirt. For crying out loud, she’s a fortune teller, not one of the workers in the mine.

Directed by:
Demofilo Fidani
as Miles Deem

Cast:
Jack Betts … Lazar Peacock
as Hunt Powers
Franco Borelli … Blonde
as Chet Davis
Benito Pacifico … Medina
as Dennis Colt
Simonetta Vitelli … Maya
as Simone Blondell
Ettore Manni … Barrett (aka Billy Ring)
Pietro Fumelli .. Ted Stanley
Gordon Mitchell … Roger Murdock
Attilio Dottesio … Sanchez
as Dean Reese
Eugenio Galadini … Merchant

Runtime: 97 min.

aka:
Inginocchiati straniero .. I cadaveri non fanno ombra!
The Stranger that Kneels Beside the Shadow of a Corpse
On Your Knees Stranger … Corpses Cast No Shadows

Music: Lallo Gori

Memorable lines:

Coffin maker, after Lazar has tossed him some coins, but long before he’s had a chance to count them: “Hey, look, forty dollars. Forty dollars. Don’t let him (the corpse) run away. I’ll be right back.” And he runs off to the saloon.

Old shop keeper, after Blonde has displayed his shooting prowess with the help of a cigar: “Holy mackeral, and that was a 5-cent cigar.”
Blonde: “But you smoke too much anyhow.”

Barrett: “I should have known. It was too much to ask you tinhorn gunslingers to use your brains. That would really be asking the impossible. But how long is it going to take you to realize what your brains are for?”

Lazar: “Stanley, come and help. Your son doesn’t understand that in this world, you have to act first and quick. Otherwise, you end up being a loser.”
Blonde: “You’re a skunk.”

Trivia:

In an interview with Wild East Productions, Jack Betts explained how Franco Borelli got his American stage name. Seems director Demofilo Fidani got along famously with Betts’ manager, whose first name was Chet. Fidani decided Chet would be a wonderful first name for his Italian actor. Borelli appeared in 17 films, including four Spaghetti Westerns. In the first, 1968’s “Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die,” he used the name Stanley Gordon and played a character called Bunny Fox.

In the same interview, Betts described Demofilo Fidani as a wonderful director to work for, a father-like figure who opened every day on the set with a large meal for the cast. It wasn’t until years later that Betts said he learned Fidani has taken unused footage from those films to create even more Hunt Powers Westerns.

Simonetta Vitelli was Fidani’s blue-eyed daughter.