Degueyo (1965)

Giacomo Rossi Stuart is Norman Sandel, who’s seen his father gunned down by two men just after another showed up to warn him of approaching danger.

With two friends in tow — Jose Torres as Logan and Daniele Vargas as Frank — Norman sets out to find out why his father was murdered.

The key is Col. Cook, a former Confederate officer, who now lives in Ranger City.

En route, the small party picks up a fourth member in Foran (Riccardo Garrone), a whiskey drummer.

But they arrive in Ranger City to find the town half deserted, with women and children as the only occupants.

Seems a Mexican bandit named Ramon (Dan Vadis) has taken all the men captive, including Col. Cook.

His goal: To make Cook divulge the location of $10,000 in Confederate money, hidden somewhere in town.

And if he doesn’t learn the location soon, he’s promised deguello, an attack with no quarter.

Norman finds an ally in a pretty girl named Rosy, Ramon’s former girlfriend who could no longer stand his brutality.

She helps him rescue Col. Cook. But it turns out Cook is now a delusional old man. In fact, he still thinks the Civil War is going on.

Review:

An early indication this might be a notch above average: Norman buries the victims of the gun battle that opens the film. The marker over the combined graves for the killers reads: “2 Bastards.”

And the film eventually lives up to its title with a rousing final 20 minutes marked by a couple of twists you might not see coming and filled with the violence that set the early Spaghettis apart from stateside Westerns.

The fact that the plot’s a bit more complex than your average revenge for a murdered family member flick helps too. There’s a whole town full of women pleading with our heroes to rescue their men. And later urging the crazed Col. Cook to give up his fortune to save the town.

There are some problems along the way. In the English print, the villain is dubbed in a very unmasculine manner. The love lines between whiskey drummer Foran and saloon owner Jenny Slater are awkward at best. Our hero jumps around as though he more interested in showing off his acrobatic skills than finding his father’s killer.

But stick with it and that robust finish will make it worth your ride.

Directed by:
Giuseppe Vari
as Joseph Warren

Cast:
Giacomo Rossi Stuart … Norman Sandel
as Jack Stuart
Dan Vadis … Ramon
Dana Ghia … Jenny Slater
as Ghia Arlen
Rosy Zichel … Rosy
Jose Torres … Logan
Daniele Vargas … Frank Donnell
as Dan Vargas
Riccardo Garrone … Foran
as Dick Regan
Aurora Battista … Danger City woman
as Aura Batis
Erika Blanc … Danger City woman
as Arika Blank
Mila Stanic … Ann, Danger City woman
Giuseppe Addobbati … Col. Cook
as John McDouglas
Loris Loddi … Boy
Mirella Pompili … Nadine, Danger City woman

Also with: Eve Neill, Teresa Terrone as Susan Terry, Silvana Jachino as Dasy Joakim, Riccardo Pizzuti, Lucio Rosato, Rocco Lerro, Giulio Maculani, Gino Marturano, Alba Maiolini, Pupita Lea Scudeeroni, Enrico Chiappafeddo, Giuseppe Mattei

Runtime: 100 min.

aka:
Deguello

Music: Alessandro Derevitsky

Runtime: 100 min.

Memorable lines:

Foran: “How about the two of us getting together?”
Jenny: “I’d like that. You’re my kind of man.”
They kiss.
Foran: “We don’t need much practice, do we?”

Jenny, as Foran shoots at Ramon’s men from the window of her room: “Must you let everyone know you’re up here?”

Logan: “Agh!”
Norman Sandel: “You’ve been shot?”
Logan: “No, but you shot the last bottle (of booze)!”

Norman Sandel: “How’s the colonel?”
Foran: “For the moment, he’s plum crazy.”

Trivia:

* This marked the first Spaghetti Western by director Giuseppe Vari, who wound up making seven under the alias Joseph Warren. He was also responsible for “Shoot the Living, Pray for the Dead” (1970) and “The Last Traitor” (1971).

* Young male actor Loris Loddi and pretty blonde Erika Blanc aren’t even given names in this film, but both show up on screen frequently. They’d become familiar faces for Spaghetti fans.

* Rosy Zichel, the pretty dark-haired ex-girlfriend of Ramon here, appeared in just six films, according to IMDb. She also had a role in the same director’s “Hole in the Forehead” (1968), her final screen credit, according to the site.

Mila Stanic as Ann, pleading with Norman and his colleagues to free her husband Tom in Degueyo (1965)

Loris Loddi as the boy orphaned by Ramon’s bandits in Degueyo (1965)

Erika Blanc (Arika Blank) arguing that Col. Cook reveal the location of his hidden fortune in Degueyo (1965)

Riccardo Garrone (Dick Regan) as Foran and Dana Ghia (Ghia Arlen) as Jenny Slater, figuring it might be time to leave Ranger City in Degueyo (1965)