El Puro (1969)

Robert Woods plays El Puro, a fast gun with a $10,000 price on his head who’s tired of living the life of a fast gun.

So he retreats to the bottle and tries to retreat from the world. The longer no one knows who he is, the longer before he’ll have to kill again in order to survive.

That might not be so easy thanks to a bandit named Gypsy Boots (Marc Fiorini) and his band of gunmen — Cassidy, Specs, Dolf and Tim.

The psychotic Gypsy has decided he wants El Puro dead, not only for the bounty, but so he can be the undisputed bad guy in these here parts.

Finding El Puro turns out to be something of a challenge. So Gypsy Boots and Cassidy make a little visit to Rosie (Rosalbi Neri), a saloon girl who dreams of a future with El Puro. She refuses to tell them where he’s hiding, so Cassidy beats her to death.

That’s enough to shake El Puro from his drunken stupor. Now he has a reason to want to kill again.

Robert Woods as El Puro, a renown gunman tired of killing to survive in El Puro (1969)

Marc Fiorini as Gypsy Boots, the man hoping to track down El Puro and steal his reputation in El Puro (1969)

Review:

A slow-moving film by Spaghetti standards, memorable mostly for the unhinged performances from Robert Woods in the lead role and Marc Fiorini as the oddly named Gypsy Boots.

El Puro makes for an odd hero. He’s drunk and depressed with life, and would rather endure humiliation and beatings than grab for his gun and reveal his true identity. Fiorini does a decent job with his role, though it’s difficult to understand why anyone would follow the lead of this madman.

Easily the most memorable scene in the film is the vicious beating of Rosie by Cassidy, a member of Gypsy Boot’s gang. Especially since it ends with Cassidy and Gypsy Boots exchanging a passionate kiss.

The film also features a decent score, though it’s pretty darn clear Alessandro Alessandroni was trying to mimic the work Ennio Morricone had done with the music for the Dollars trilogy.

Rosalba Neri as Rosie, the saloon girl who dreams of a future with El Puro in El Puro (1969)

Mariangela Giordano as Babe, the saloon girl who makes the best god-damned coffee in the West in El Puro (1969)

Directed by:
Edoardo Mulargia

Cast:
Robert Woods … El Puro
Marc Fiorini … Gypsy Boots
as Ashborn Hamilton Jr.
Aldo Berti … Cassidy
Gustavo Re … Specs
Mario Brega … Tim
Rosalbi Neri … Rosie
Fabrizio Gianni … Fernando
Mariangela Giordano …Babe
Maurizio Bonuglia … Dolf
Angelo Dessy … Charlie
Giusva Fioravanti … Antonio
Lisa Seagram … Saloon owner
Atilio Dottesio … Sheriff

aka:
La taglia e tua … l’uomo l’ammazzo io
The Reward’s Yours … the Man’s Mine

Score: Alessandro Alessandroni

Runtime: 94 min. (106)

Aldo Berti as Cassidy, a man who wears a badge and kills for Gypsy Boots in El Puro (1969)

Gustavo Re as Specs, a member of the Gypsy Boots gang, decides he’s seen enough in El Puro (1969)

Memorable lines:

El Puro: “I can’t afford to pay you. All I’ve got is a smile.”
Rosie: “Alright, just a smile will do.”

Tim: “Anything exciting happen at all since we been here last?”
Babe: “Sure. Lots of things. The flowers bloomed, and the flowers died. Saddletramps dropped in, and saddletramps dropped out.”

Gypsy Boots: “I want what’s mine. His reputation. Or my death.”

El Puro: “I don’t exactly love life. But I’m afraid to die. So I just gotta keep killing to stay alive. And in these parts, even a preacher would kick his mother in the face for a $10,000 reward.”

El Puro: “A man can’t carry his tombstone around on his back forever. It’s just too heavy.”

Babe: “A man can never be too careful in these parts. They get you when you think you’ve got it made. And that’s a fact, friend.”

Mario Brega as Tim, a member of the Gypsy Boots gang and brother of Dolf in El Puro (1969)

Maurizio Bonuglia as Dolf, Tim’s brother and a member of the Gypsy Boots gang in El Puro (1969)

Trivia:

Mariangela Giordano plays a saloon girl named Babe who sympathizes with El Puro in this film. She was a veteran of several Sword and Sandal films and remained active into the early 21st century. In 1996, she starred as the blood-sucking Countess in the horror film Killer Barbys, about a punk rock band whose vehicle breaks down, forcing them to take refuge in her castle.

The only Spaghetti Western for Marc Fiorini, who said in a 2009 interview that the gay kiss wasn’t in the script, but was an impromptu act on his part. Woods said the original release of the film didn’t include the kiss, but it was put back in and helped the film attain cult status.

In the same interview, Fiorini said he had decided there must be more to life than show business and was on the verge of leaving his apartment and hitch-hiking to India when the phone rang. It was a producer, asking him to meet director Edoardo Mulargia about a part in “El Puro.”

Fabrizio Gianni as Fernando, El Puro’s crooked partner in El Puro (1969)

Giusva FIoravanti as Antonio, the young boy who befriends El Puro in El Puro (1969)

Aldo Berti as Cassidy and Gustavo Re as Specs, two of Gypsy Boots’ men in El Puro (1969)

Rosalba Neri as Rosie, paying a high price for keeping a secret in El Puro (1969)

Aldo Berti as Cassidy and Marc Fiorini as Gypsy Boots about to lock lips in El Puro (1969)

Robert Woods as El Puro, realizing he’s going to have to kill again in El Puro (1969)