Even Django Has His Price (1971)

The Cortez brothers, led by Ramon, have stolen a small fortune in gold from Silver City.

But they aren’t happy with just that loot. They want to know the location of a gold vein discovered on the ranch of an American family.

When the owners refuse to tell, they’re murdered. Their pretty daughter in taken captive; the Cortez brothers are pretty certain they can make her talk.

Jeff Cameron plays Django, the bounty hunter who sets out after the Cortez brothers for the $2,000-per price on their heads. He might get a little help from a brute named Pickwick, who wants to recover his granddad’s saddle. It’s also been stolen by the Cortez brother.

Help is unlikely to come from a mysterious man named Fulton, who also shows up at the cantina the Cortez brothers are known to frequent.

He’s apparently an agent of the bank in Silver City, determined to recover the gold before Django can fill the four coffins he’s had built for those brothers.

Oh, and Django also has a personal reason to track down the Cortez brothers. Susan Crane, the pretty redhead they kidnapped, is his fiancee.

Review:

This might not be bottom of the barrel Spaghetti, but it’s not far from it. The first sign we’re in trouble comes when the brute named Pickwick takes on all comers in a poorly staged and overlong fight in the cantina.

It gets worse. In another scene, Pickwick is walking along carrying his saddle when he spies the entire Cortez gang robbing a stagecoach. So he throws his saddle at them, then tries to take them on single-handedly, with nothing but his fists and his saddle. He winds up crying the blues because they ride off with the saddle, which once belonged to his granddaddy.

Then there are Ramon and his brothers, one of the more incompetent bands of baddies you’ll ever find. Ramon winds up dying a fitting death, spouting some of the silliest death scene lines you’re likely to hear.

Bright spots: The pre-ordering of the coffins. But hasn’t that been done before. And the final scene, in which all the characters true names and motivations become apparent. If you care by that point.

Various sites list the movie as being 92 or 89 minutes in length. The Timeless DVD version runs 83 minutes. The extra minutes might have helped, but I doubt it.

Directed by:
Luigi Batzella

Cast:
Jeff Cameron … Django
John Desmont … Pickwick
Dominique Badou … Susan Crane
Gengher Gatti … Fulton
Edilio Kim … Ramon Cortez
Esmeralda Barros … Pilar
William Mayor … Paco Cortez
Mario de Rosa … Cortez brother
Frano Daddi … Cortez brother
Angela Portaluri … Donna Dolores
Gianfranco Clerici …Pedro Ramirez
Laila Shed … Saloon girl

Also with: El Meteco, Renato Zamperla, Wladimir Daddi, Franco Marletta, Fabio Garriba, Gianclaudio Jabes, Gennaro Masino

aka:
Anche per Django le carogne hanno un prezzo
A Pistol for Django
Django’s Cut Price Corpses

Score: Vasili Kojucharov

Runtime: 89-92 min. (83 min. Timeless DVD version)

Memorable lines:

Django: “Can you make coffins?”
Carpenter: “If the client’s not too particular about it.”
Django: “Then make me up four coffins. And pronto.”

Susan: “Shame on you. Is it possible you don’t realize what miserable sinners you are?”
Pablo Cortez: “Don’t preach to me, you Yankee bitch!”

Trivia:

The first of three Spaghetti Westerns, director Luigi Batzella made with Cameron as his lead. This film was followed by “Paid in Blood” (1971) and “God is My Colt .45” (1972).

Batzella’s other directing credits include “The Devil’s Wedding Night” (1973) in which Lady Dracula lures beautiful girls to a castle so she can murder them and bathe in their blood. The film stars Mark Damon and Rosalba Neri.

Dominique Badou, the pretty redhead who plays Django’s fiancee, appeared in just seven films, according to IMDb. She had smaller roles as one of the brides in “Blindman” (1971) and in “It Can Be Done Amigo” (1972).