Django's Spur (1972) - Once Upon a Time in a Western

The railroad has agreed to pay the Carter family $200,000 for land rights and Deborah Carter (Dada Gallotti) decides to take the $50,000 advance to the bank, alone.

That leads to trouble because a worker on the ranch leaks word of the money to a gang led by Montana (Rik Battaglia). They track down Deborah and not only steal the money, but rape and kill her.

Then her brother Jeff (Richard Harrison), an ex-Confederate prisoner of war, returns home. He soon finds himself with a gun in his hand again, tracking down the five men responsible for his sister’s death.

In addition to Montana and the former ranch worker Jerome (Omero Gargano), they include a gambler named Carl (Emilio Vale), an oriental with a vicious streak name Ling Fu (George Wang) and shy cowboy named Colton.

In the process, Carter finds himself falling for a voluptuous saloon girl named Jane (Anita Eckberg). Complicating matters, Carl is handling her sale – or else the sale of her services — to Montana.

Review:

A curiosity because of its stars — Richard Harrison, who was balding, and Anita Eckberg, who was still quite curvy, but also much heavier than her La Dolce Vita (1960) days.

Other than that, there’s nothing new here … well, except for the fact that the film begins at the end, which means the film ends quite abruptly, which some viewers might welcome considering that everything in between is eminently forgettable.

At one point early on, Jeff Carter muses that hunting down those responsible for his sister’s death will be like finding a needle in a haystack, presumably not the one he just crawled out of, drunk.

But with slingshot armed (!!!) former ranch worker Tom by his side, it proves not very difficult at all. And just so the dead men know why they’re dead — a bit late, if you ask me — Jeff leaves a piece of the poncho found covering his sister’s body by each of his victims.

Richard Harrison as Jeff Carter in Django’s Spur (1971)

Anita Eckberg as Jane in Django’s Spur (1971)

Directed by:
Tanio Boccio
as Amerigo Anton

Cast:
Richard Harrison … Jeff Carter
Anita Eckberg … Jane
Rik Battaglia … Montana
George Wang … Ling Fu
Furio Meniconi … Tom
as Men Fury
Dada Gallotti … Deborah Carter
Omero Gargano … Jerome
Emilio Vale … Carl
Attilio Dottesio … Jones

Runtime: 95 min.

aka:
La lunga cavalcata della vendetta
Django’s Spur
The Long Revenge’s Ride
The Long Cavalcade of Vengeance

Music: Carlo Espositio

Rik Battaglia as Montana in Django’s Spur (1971)

Omero Gargano as Jerome in Django’s Spur (1971)

Memorable lines:

Montana: “Are you arresting me?”
Sheriff: “That’d be too easy, Montana. And, besides, I’d have to fumigate that whole jail if I kept you in here. ”
Montana: “Then what is your plan?”
Sheriff: “To bury you. I’m going to put you six feet under.”

Barber, about Jeff Carter: “This guy’s in love with a mule. He’s crazy.”
Bystander: “You ain’t seen my wife.”

Montana: “The definition of a gentleman is one who breaks things, but pays later.”

Jane: “You don’t seem very enthusiastic. And yet these men have come from all over the place to see me. Funny, huh?”
Carter: “Good for them. I just don’t happen to like standin’ in line.”

Carter to Jane: “You’re quite a girl, if you’d only shut your mouth.”

George Wang as Ling Fu in Django’s Spur (1972)

Emilio Vale as Carl in Django’s Spur (1971)

Trivia:

Multiple sites list Deadly Trackers as the most prominent U.S. title for this film. That’s a bit confusing. A year later, a U.S.-made film was released with the same title with Richard Harris (not Richard Harrison) in the lead role He’s a peace-loving sheriff who turns vicious, hunting down the bank robbers responsible for the death of his wife and son. Of course, the alternate title I’ve used isn’t a whole lot better because, once again, there’s no one named Django anywhere in the film. A literal translation of the title is: The Long ride of Revenge.

The scene in which Carter’s sister — in a stroke of shear brilliance — decides to go riding alone with a bag full of gold only to be — surprise, surprise! — accosted by bandits was reused in “Seven Devils on Horseback.” At least in that film, she voiced some apprehension about making the journey alone.

This was one of eight Spaghetti Westerns Harrison starred in between 1970-71. His other 1971 efforts were both comedies — “Jesse and Lester” and “Fabulous Trinity.”

Anita Eckberg was 41 when this film was made. It marked her third and last appearance in a Western. The others included 1957’s “Valerie” and the 1963 comedy “Four for Texas,” which also starred Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Charles Bronson and Ursula Andress. She had an uncredited role in 1953’s “The Mississippi Gambler,” at which point she reportedly started a long romance with Tyrone Power, the star in that film.